Captains have to be proactive and need to have more than 1 game plan

Today, we will witness one of the greatest T20 matches - Pakistan Vs England and South Africa Vs News Zealand.

Though the matches are being played at Barbadoes, which is going to aid seam, nevertheless, Pakistan has to tinker with its playing eleven.

During its previous match against Australia, atleast 4 on-field happenings baffled me - one, persisting with the bowling of Hafeez, though he was bleeding a plenty, two, not bowling Abdul Razzak at all, three, asking Fawad Alam to bat in at No. 8 and lastly, the most serious, missing out Asif in the playing eleven. It looked like, as though, there was only one game plan and it was excecuted, irrepective of the status of the game. If the above is not sorted out by Shahid Afridi, then whatever, the conditions or the pitch may hold, Pakistan will not be able to win this important match. My Playing XI would be: Kamran Akmal, Salman Butt, Fawad Alam, Abdul Razzak, Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi, Misbah, Ajmal, Md Asif, Md. Sami and Ameer

Abdul Razzak is a great all-rounder and I have not seen him being used as a critical player for their playing XI. I would want to drop Hafeez and rope in Md. Asif in the playing XI. This would mean Pakistan will be fielding with 5 batsman, 2 all-rounders and 4 bowlers. Now, the combination looks okay and it will be upto Shahid Afridi's captaincy from there on. As I had mentioned in my previous article, team would win the matches based on the captain's way of thinking ahead of the match. I hope Shahid Afridi has learnt from others.

England on the other hand, will go to this match in an unchanged XI. The odds are definitely with England, as their balance of the team composition looks much better. Also, Collingwood, has a calming influence on his team. He will however, be worried that he has not scored off in 1st 2 matches.

As regards NewsZealand and South Africa matches are concerned, NZ has all their playing eleven in good nick. They have 2 match winning spinners apart from the deadly fast bowling combination. NZ must be happy that all its players are injury-free. Ryder, Guptill Taylor, Mccullum and Butler would be egging to score runs. Also, I would love to see Mills in the playing XI and have Brendon McCullum don the gloves instead of Hopkins. South Africa, have not been able to play to their reputation and I feel that too much of planning with less execution has put them in the state where they are. To me, Loots Bossman should not be playing today and instead have Smith to open the innings with Kallis. Gibbs can be brought in at No.3, being a replacement to Bossman. Smith needs to have more than 1 game plan, even if he is taken off guard, like how he insisted on Kleinveldt (Debutant against India), though he was bleeing too many runs from Indian batsman. Probably he could have given Van Der Merve one more over. Still, on paper, South Africa has a chance to pull its game from this match because of better bowling and batting attack when compared to that of NZ.