Pakistan decide to blood Mansoor against LankansSunday, June 29, 2008
By Khalid Hussain
KARACHI: Pakistan will field uncapped allrounder Mansoor Amjad in their crunch Asia Cup game against Sri Lanka here at the National Stadium, looking to give their title campaign a boost today (Sunday).
Mansoor, 21, is a prolific first-class batsman but it would be his wrist spin bowling that could prove to be useful for Pakistan who were thrashed by India in Thursday’s Pool B game.
The Sialkot-born youngster would come in place of Karachi all-rounder Fawad Alam as one of the two changes Pakistan are going to make in their playing eleven.
Young left-arm pacer Wahab Riaz will step in for injured fast bowler Umar Gul.
Pakistan are desperate to beat Sri Lanka and stay on course for the July 6 final to be played under lights at the National Stadium.
The hosts were let down against the rampaging Indians by their bowling attack that is without key pacers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif.
On a batting wicket and against a Sri Lankan side that has the services of prolific batters like Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, the Pakistan bowlers will once again be under immense pressure.
Wahab, 23, will join Sohail Tanvir and Rao Iftikhar Anjum in the pace battery with Mansoor taking a place in the spin trio that includes Malik and the experienced Shahid Afridi. Wahab made his debut earlier this year and since then played four One-day Internationals and has taken nine wickets.
Mansoor, who has had a county stint with Leicestershire, is a successful spinner at the domestic level with 154 wickets from 60 matches at 33.27 apiece. He has also scored 2,290 runs at 29.74 with the help of four hundreds.
Read More
See also:
No comments:
Post a Comment