NAPIER: As Pakistan with boost to their morale following a victory against Zimbabwe are all set to take on United Arab Emirates in match 25 of World Cup 2015.
Pakistan will be in action against middle east side who haven’t been off the mark on the points table.
The Green-Shirts are facing batting crises while their bowling is excellent so far in the tournament. On the other hand UAE side has a close game with the Irish team while also gave the tough time to Zimbabwe no all set to take on Pakistan.
Misbah-ul-Haq is facing so much fire at the moment, with Pakistan having won only one of the three matches it has played, and the two losses being heavy ones. Back home, fans are venting their ire, and even good individual performances have not insulated Misbah from attack.
But Misbah is too calm and composed to be rattled by this sort of thing, too sensible and mature to let the off-field drama overshadow the actual task at hand. But what is a genuine cause for worry is the utter lack of runs from the top order.
Ahmed Shahzad, Nasir Jamshed, Haris Sohail and Umar Akmal have collectively failed to fire, and when this happens, there is little any captain can do. The form and fitness of Jamshed have come in for serious scrutiny, and there is no denying the fact that he looks rusty at the crease and slow on the field.
Calls have been made for Sarfraz Ahmed to take Jamshed’s place, and the match on Wednesday (March 4) against United Arab Emirates would provide the best possible opportunity to give Sarfraz his first hit of the tournament.
The management, however, could well take the view that the UAE game is the best chance to get Jamshed back into some sort of form.
While Pakistan will begin by looking for a simple win, it also knows that there was every chance of a logjam for the final two qualifying spots from Pool B. India and South Africa are sitting pretty, but Pakistan will certainly be in competition with Ireland and West Indies, if it gets enough points on the board.
This will bring net run-rate into play, and on this count Pakistan is far behind at -1.373, lower even than UAE. This means that it really needs a couple of big wins, and it must be thinking that UAE provide the most realistic possibility of achieving this.
Squads
Pakistan: Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shehzad, Haris Sohail, Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Umar Akmal (wk), Shahid Afridi, Sohaib Maqsood, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Khan, Rahat Ali, Mohammad Irfan, Ehsan Adil, Sarfraz Ahmed, Yasir Shah, Younis Khan.
UAE: Amjad Ali, Andri Berenger, Krishna Chandran, Khurram Khan, Swapnil Patil (wk), Shaiman Anwar, Rohan Mustafa, Fahad Alhashmi, Nasir Aziz, Amjad Javed, Mohammad Naveed, Mohammad Tauqir (capt), Manjula Guruge, Kamran Shazad, Saqlain Haider.
Time: 6:00 Am Pakistan standard time.
Live Streaming, PTV sports, Ten Sports, Star Sports
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