Nasir Jamshed expected to take the centerstage……again
Setting the sights on whitewash against India, Pakistan will come head-to-head against the arch-rivals in the third and final one-day international at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, Delhi on Sunday.
The men in green, who had won the series-opener in Chennai by six wickets in a narrow finish, thumped the hosts by 85 runs in the lop-sided contest in Kolkata to take an assailable 2-0 lead in the high-voltage rubber. Rusty India, on the other hand will seek to restore some pride.
Explosive opener Nasir Jamshed has been appeared as the biggest gain for Pakistan in the series so far. The 24-year-old left-hander cracked back-to-back centuries and teamed up with Mohammad Hafeez to give Pakistan a promising opening pair, which had been a dilemma for them since long.
However, the below-par form of one-down Azhar Ali and inconsistency in the performance of middle and lower middle-order will yet be the headache for skipper Misbah-ul-Haq.
Wicketkeeper batsman Kamran Akmal has failed with bat so far but his outstanding glovework is enough to justify his place in team.
Pace trio Mohammad Irfan, Junaid Khan and Umar Gul have done their exceptionally in the series so far. Particularly Junaid was most deadly among them. The way in which he swing the ball on both sides in the dump conditions and ripped through the Indian top-order has been widely hailed.
Seven-foot-tall Irfan has also emerged as a nightmare for the arch-rivals as he made the life hard for them with his deadly bouncers.
According to team news Pakistan could give the chance the players who have not got the opportunity to the players who have not get the chance to domesticate their skills in the series so far.
On the other hand, India’s nightmarish home season continued, and after losing Test series to England, the humiliating ODI series loss at the hands of Pakistan has sparked anger among the Indian fans. However the hosts will strive to prevent the visitors from achieving a 3-0 clean sweep.
The failure of top-order has had been a dilemma for India in the recent times. Big guns Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina have all came a cropper in the series.
Skipper MS Dhoni is in good form but his contributions have gone in vain so far.
With trophy already out of their approach, India could experiment by giving a chance to some of their bench players before another high-profile ODI series against England.
The most likely change is Sehwag’s replacement with Ajinkya Rahane, who has had been in outstanding form in the domestic season.
Pace trio Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda and Bhuvneshwar Kumar and spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja also had been proved inconsistent.
22-year-old Bengal seamer Shami Ahmed could replace one of the three seamers in the series-concluder.
Pakistan:
Misbah-ul-Haq (Captain.), Mohammad Hafeez, Nasir Jamshed, Umar Gul, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Junaid Khan, Kamran Akmal, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Irfan, Anwar Ali, Haris Sohail, Imran Farhat, Umar Akmal, Wahab Riaz, Zulfiqar Babar.
India:
MS Dhoni (Captain.), Virender Sehwag, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Amit Mishra, Gautam Gambhir, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Ishant Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Shami Ahmed.