Tours of India and South Africa are going to be Pakistan’s real test, says the chief selector – Cricket News Update

Tours of India and South Africa are going to be Pakistan’s real test, says the chief selector – Cricket News Update   23/12/2012

Tours of India and South Africa are going to be Pakistan’s real test, says the chief selector – Cricket News Update Iqbal Qasim, the chief selector of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), believes that the upcoming tours of India and South Africa are going to really test the national team, and also hinted at the inclusion of a few new faces for the series against the Proteas. The Green Shirts have done reasonably well at the world-stage since the disastrous tour of England in 2010. Apart from thrashing England 3-0 in United Arab Emirates earlier this year, Misbah-ul-Haq and company won Test series against New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh and drew level with South Africa and West Indies in the last two and a half years. Pakistan did well in the limited-over formats as well, having qualified for the semi-finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 and the ICC World T20 2012. While speaking to Pakpassion, the former left-arm spinner expressed that the tours of India and South Africa will test the strength of the Green Shirts as both are among the world’s toughest opponents in home conditions. “Both the India and the South African tours are very important. It's on tours such as these where you can gauge how far you have come as a team and what areas you need to work at and improve upon,” said the chief selector. Pakistan will visit India later this month for a limited-over series, which includes three One Day Internationals and a couple of T20s, with the first match scheduled to be played on December 25, at Bangalore. The Indian series will be followed by the tour of South Africa, which is going to examine the techniques of the Pakistan batsmen in Qasim’s opinion, with the home team having the services of some of the world’s finest bowlers on bouncy pitches. The chief selector further added that some emerging players may get included in the squad for the battle against the Proteas, in order to gain some international exposure. He added, “Conditions that our cricketers will encounter in South Africa will be totally different, for example the bouncy pitches and how to handle them is something that our cricketers and the coaching staff will look at. I think I'd like to see a couple of new faces on the tour of South Africa so they can learn from senior colleagues.”