Inzamam missing Razzaq and Afridi

KARACHI, Mar 16: Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has said the team in the World Cup was severely missing all-rounder Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq, who were experienced to release pressure on the top order batsmen in One-day matches.

Inzamam said the absence of Razzaq and Afridi had put pressure on him, Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan in the middle order.

"We are missing  both of them in this tournament," Inzamam said in Kingston, Jamaica where Pakistan lost to West Indies by 54 runs in the World Cup opener.

Razzaq was ruled out of the World Cup a week before the team's departure after he injured his knee during a practice session in Lahore while Afridi is serving a four-match ban which will end with Pakistan's match against Ireland on Saturday.

Inzamam said he was contemplating shuffling the batting order for the game against Ireland and wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal might be promoted to open the innings while he himself might bat at number four position.

Inzamam conceded that his team had played badly against the hosts and the batting was a big let down.

"But I can assure you we will now pick ourselves up for the remaining two games of this first round and look to qualify for the Super Eight league stage."

The captain, who is already feeling the pressure of the huge expectations of a nation passionate about their cricket, also said fast bowler Mohammad Sami might come in for the out of form Rana Naved.

Pakistan will be locked against lowly placed Ireland and Zimbabwe in their last two games of the first round and unless there is a dramatic upset result or bad weather rules out play it looks set to qualify for the Super eight stage.

Inzamam said he had cautioned his players not to take the next two games lightly at all as any team in the competition could cause an upset at any time.

"I just want to appeal to my countrymen and women to keep supporting us and have faith in us. This team is very much capable of doing well in this World Cup. We just need to put in a collective effort."

Pakistan faltered badly in chasing a West Indies total of 243 runs in the first match and critics believe that the failure of Inzamam and coach Bob Woolmer to find a settled opening pair is adding to the problems in the batting as Imran Nazir again failed to get a big score.

http://worldcup.indiatimes.com/Inzamam_missing_Razzaq_Afridi /articleshow/1771762.cms

thats not the point thats like saying we cant win without them, this team is good enough they just have to believe and drop rana naved an kamran akmal

Afridi will return for the Zimbabwe match and play really well there,inshallah! but i must say out of all ppl who arent on the team, i must say i miss Razzaq the most .... he gives us so much from both his bowling and batting and then wen afridi doznt play we always know that we have razzaq down the order as an explosive batsmen, but now thats not the case! .... but now pakistan has to do well no matter wat and hopefully we will win against Ireland and Zim!

yeah pakistan are missing razzaq, but they have to do without him

Originally posted by: kal-el

thats not the point thats like saying we cant win without them, this team is good enough they just have to believe and drop rana naved an kamran akmal

Yes, we can win widout them for sure... but then again if u think about Razzaq and Afridi and them not being on the team, u think about how their presence can really strenghten the team for sure... i mean even if Pakistan won that match against the WI,  even then Razzaq and Afridi's presence makes a big difference 4 the team, no matter wat!.........we can for sure win widout them , as players have their days, but their absence was felt on tuesday as razzaq and afridi r expected to do a lot in such situations!

 

and dropping rana, is for sure one positive thing!!!!! who on earth is still keeping him on the team?  i say drop him and bring either sami or azhar!... and y wasnt azhar mehmood on the team in the last match, we were lyk playing wid more bowlers than usual!.....

and i dont know y ur thinking on dropping kamran?.... i think u need to know that kamran getting out on 0 was so unfortunate!... he can really do good batting, but wat r we to judge if he got out on 0!... that was just unfortunate... and even if we do drop kamran, whose going to replace him in such a tournament like the WC!........😕

Kamran did really well in keeping wickets, and i can for sure say ur only judging him cuz he got out on 0, but he has improved a lot in terms of wicket keeping, and replacing a wicket kepper at this stage wid anyone wud be a big mistake as pakistan doznt have any reserved keepr or any other player on the team who is a trained keeper!

We know Shahid Afridi will play later and as for Razzaq truly he is a gr8 player but he can't play and Pakistan can still do it!!! 😃

I Think Our Team Need Afridi but Razzak Is'nt In Good Form......
So He Need More Practice. Bcoz He DOes'nt Perform too Good vs SA.......
Razzak have To improve him as a Hard Hitter coz Team Need Some HardHitting Batsmen....

Shahid will b back in last grp match..

pakistan can qualify...

Pakistan team is very balance team..they just need to concentrate proprely in batting

Interesting article and please post this in the articles gallery! 😉

Thnx for the arcticle..

I miss Razzaq too.. We dont have any good batsmen in the team.. 😭 I miss Wasim Akram n Imran Khan.. 😭