Skip to main content

Pakistan names Shoaib Mallik as T20 captain

The former Pakistan skipper, Shoaib Mallik will don the role of a captain again as he has been chosen to lead the Pakistan team in the Twenty 20 contest against Australia, which is scheduled to take place on February 5 at Melbourne. This decision comes at the wake of a match ban imposed upon Shahid Afridi, the regular T 20 captain, who was reprimanded for a ball-tampering incident that took place at the last of the ODIs at Perth.

Mallik becomes the third captain in this Australian tour after Afridi and Yousuf, the captain for the test team, who doesn’t figure in the Twenty 20 squad. Another ace Pakistan cricketer with rich experience, Younus Khan, had earlier announced his retirement from the T 20 format after the 2009 World Twenty 20 victory. Kamran Akmal had also been overlooked, after he didn’t find a place in the final ODI at Perth.

Mallik had earlier captained Pakistan in all of the three formats of the game, as he had captained the side for three tests and for 36 ODIs, after he had been appointed captain following the disastrous performance by Pakistan in the 2007 World Cup. Younus Khan then had taken over the captaincy from Mallik in 2009. Shoaib Mallik in the role of a skipper had tasted more success in the Twenty 20 games, as he had also led the side to the Twenty 20 world cup final in the year 2007. Mallik’s bowling and batting averages have been reasonably higher during his stint as the captain of Pakistan.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ash, Batters Despised Your ‘Mate’ Call

Check, mate was a bugle call from that Grand Master. The batters turned pawns, and he the captor. My Tribe. And when someone from your tribe shatters the illusion of off-spinners being not intelligent and sharp, you owe him, or certainly I owe him an ode to an off-spinner, our tribe. My tribe has done the cricket world proud, time and again. Ash, Ash Wednesday, it was. Remarkably, a reflection perhaps of how off spinners have defied the notion of them being orchestrators of damp squibs. Or of repentance of my tribe as not to have set the score straight with their brains deceiving the brawn with flight. Your clarion call may have come out of the blue, denied you the solemn farewell, and may have invited thunderous denunciations. So, what? You will find succor to know that your tribe celebrates you – one of the hallowed sons of the tribe. Your display of cognitive superiority, mind-game thrillers, and the stamp of off-spinning authority on the field puts you there among the pantheons. Th...
3 comments
Read more

Camaraderie to Come Dearie

The thwacking of the ball echoed across the parking lot. As one soaked in the aura of Lords grounds, some energetic boys plying their trade of cricket were setting up a drama of intense action. There was this little-Dhoni at the batting crease packing all the punches into his shot making. That he had to knock off 8 runs in the last over meant the boy had to carry an old head upon his young shoulders. Cricket and pressure-cooker situations walk hand in hand these days. The thunderbolt from a lanky kid took our little-Dhoni by surprise. The extra bounce did him in. The ball took the faint edge of the blade and the keeper did his thankless job. Little-Dhoni didn't budge, stood his ground and dismissed the idea of the faintest nick. He had made up his mind to win at all cost. That was serious sport indeed. George Orwell's primer on sports came up as the apposite match for this situation. Serious sport and fair play can never meet, said Orwell, and went as far as to say th...
1 comment
Read more

A Little Bird Told Me

The sound of clickety-clack in no way overpowered the urge to take a peep into the gorgeous M.A. Chidambaram stadium. As the train whistled past the stadium, the glimpse of the sanctum-sanctorum with the lush green outfield and the 22 yard strip was just the sight the tired eyes were yearning for. My spirits soared at the mere sight, but did not peak as it should have for the moment of truth was far away. The wait at the stadium for this moment of truth is a nerve-racking ordeal. Minutes, perhaps seconds, would mean a whole day at the stadium waiting for the action to begin. The excitement begins only when two men walk into the field, signaling the start of play. The limelight they hog, for minutes, virtually falls on the men in white as they make the entry. Their tribe counts more sticks thrown at them than the carrots that come as a pittance. Judgmental errors, lack of control, misuse of authority, intoned bias have been the curse for some men of this tribe who have paid a ...
2 comments
Read more