A senior Pakistan team official told Arab News here that there is a possibility that off-spinner Saeed Ajmal might join left-armer Abdur Rehman in Pakistan’s playing eleven for their penultimate Pool A game against the Zimbabweans. If that happens, Pakistan will be unleashing a potent spin trio spearheaded by their captain Shahid Afridi, World Cup’s leading wicket-taker with 15 victims.
With Mohammad Hafeez, who bowls useful off-spin, also likely to be retained in the line-up, Pakistan will have plenty of spinning options for the African side that was demolished by 139 runs by co-hosts Sri Lanka at Pallekele on Thursday night. Though the home team opted for a pace-dominated attack against the Zimbabweans, it were the two spinners — Muttiah Muralitharan (3-34) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (4-4) — who did the most damage in the match.
Even before the Sri Lanka-Zimbabwe encounter, the Pakistan team management was thinking about playing three spinners and the outcome of the match would have certainly given them another reason to go for that option.
“We are considering the option of playing both Abdur Rehman and Saeed Ajmal against Zimbabwe and if the plan works, we can field a similar attack against the Australians,” said Intikhab Alam, the team manager, referring to Pakistan’s last group game against Australia to be played at the R. Premadasa Stadium on March 19. At the same venue, Sri Lanka chose to field three spinners against the Aussies last week but their match was abandoned due to heavy rain.
Rehman has featured in three of the four tournament matches so far and only missed the game against Canada because of a leg injury. He was replaced by Ajmal for that game. The idea is to leave out erratic stumper Kamran Akmal and include an extra bowler in the line-up for the match against Zimbabwe.
Intikhab, the former Test captain, said that if Pakistan decides to take this option, it can also think about playing an extra fast bowler. “The line-up will obviously be decided the night before the match but we are considering all options,” said the team manager. But it’s quite apparent that Pakistan are yet to decide about their plans for the next match.
While some of the team officials are convinced that Kamran needs a break, Shahid Afridi seems to be in a more supportive mood. “We have to back our players, especially Kamran Akmal because he is going through a rough time,” he said.
The Pakistan captain doesn’t agree with the idea that Pakistan are playing with a bowler less. “I don’t think we are playing with a bowler short,” he told reporters. “We mostly struggle in batting and when we play less than people say we are playing with a batsman short, I think the combination with which we are playing is the balanced one. If you see bowlers Razzaq and Shoaib Akhtar are bowling well with the new ball, then we have Umar Gul, we have variety.”
