Fan-atics :"Captain Malik or Captain Mistake?"

A Distraught Pakistani and dear friend of the flyslip, Zaid, sent this one in.

Captain Malik or Captain Mistake?

I feel that twenty twenty cricket is the easiest form of the game to captain in. Shoaib Malik, Pakistan's young skipper, failed badly vs Sri Lanka in both matches. The first match he got away with, but if it was test or 50 over cricket the result would most probably be very different.

Malik's Mistakes vs Sri Lanka

1. (first match) captain Malik wins the toss and choses to bowl first on a pitch that is getting harder to bat on

2. (first match) Captain Malik brings Umar Gul on in the 15th over so he can only bowl 3 overs max (note gul took four wickets in those 3 overs)

3. (first match) Captain Malik comes into the match and plays one hell of a slow innings forcing other batsman to take risks and get out


4. (1st match) Captain Malik sends in Sohail Tanvir ahead of recognized batsman Fawad Alam and makes Pakistan's task more difficult

5. (2nd match) Captain Malik brings on Umar Gul too early and well...just watch this to see the result

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/-jh0QUJQuJ4&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/-jh0QUJQuJ4&rel=0</a>

6. (2nd match) Captain Malik brings on Akhtar in the 15th over...now this is where Gul would have been brilliant as shown in the next over Gul bowled who took a wicket and should have had another

Now after that Akhtar over the match was over. Now you say "why bring on Gul? he got hammered by a rookie!"

Well a few days before captain Malik said Gul is the best bowler with the old ball, so why bring him on in the 5th over and then why not bowl him when the opposition is under pressure rather than giving it to the out of form Shoaib Akhtar.

All this one a short T20 match. Malik's time as skipper is running out. I would take anyone as captain now- Afridi, Misbah, Younis, or even Yousuf