dhobi_bhai

I’m pleased to say that since my knee surgery, everything has been going well and it's so far so good and I will be bowling again after another week.

I have been training hard in the gym on upper body and lower body exercises as well as cycling and swimming. I’m feeling strong as I’ve been doing gym work five to six days a week, not every day as the body needs a day or two to recover from all the workouts. I don’t want to overdo it.

Everything is cool and if my current progress continues as it is at the moment I hope to reach full fitness by the end of this month, so that would mean I would be in peak condition by the time the England tour comes round, which has always been my main target.

The next big step for me is to start bowling again in one week. I won’t be charging in off my usual run-up straight away as I need to build up gradually. I don’t know how long it will take but I know it won’t be long. I just have to be patient.

Dr. David Young, who carried out the surgery on me, has kept in touch since he operated on me in Melbourne last month. He is pretty pleased with the way things are going with my recovery so that’s another plus point. Nobody knows my body better than him after he scanned me all over so it’s good to hear him being confident about my fitness.

In between the training, I’ve been spending time in Lahore, relaxing, watching he guys playing in Sri Lanka on the TV and also spending time with my family as I don’t always get the chance to see them as much as I would like because of our touring commitments.

In that first Test, I thought Shoaib Malik played really well for his hundred to save the match. He’s a tremendous talent. The guys making comebacks like Faisal Iqbal and Imran Farhat also did well while the boys tried hard with the ball on a difficult pitch.

It’s been a long season for our team. There have been so many games and I think that, understandably, a bit of tiredness is creeping in and affecting our cricket. I feel for the team having to go through so much cricket and especially over there in the heat of Sri Lanka.

I have a feeling they will manage something special in the last Test match and come up with one last big effort to end the season with. They will come out hard at Sri Lanka and be positive.

I’ve been phoning the boys and texting them and staying in touch. Although there’s the small matter of two more one-day games in Abu Dhabi this month, the team will have a long two and a half month break after that, before we go to England, and that will give us much-needed time to recharge the batteries.

Big Star Cricket

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Very admirable news from the camp. Masha-Allah, tremendous to see the recovery process has been steady and stable up until at this point, and Insha-Allah, pretty soon, Shoaib will be back on his mark soon, all ready to flow in the English tour this summer.

On another note, Shoaib + Asif + Sami on English wickets = (Arguably) the best and most lethal bowling combinations in the world cricket, bar none!

Captain1

I hope he recovers fully so we can have a decent attack in Shoaib Akhtar + Mohammed Asif, backed by Rana and Razzaq. Rao and Gul have not been as great as I thought they would. We still need to find good replacements for Razzaq and Rana

Captain1

oye Dhobi, sharam karo yaar.... no more Sami

legbreakgoogly

We need him desperately. We have seen our back-up pacemen are embarresing in there worthlessness. Rao, Gul et al are not test class, the former inparticular. I will hold back on Gul for the time being.

Akhtar
Asif
Danish
Rana
(allrounder)

is a pretty decent attack, the ar can be selected pending the wkt. Afridi or Razzaq to bolster the seam/spin dept.

Some1

Correction : Another week and I will be chucking.

Captain1

not until he plays India again and hits Tendulkar on helmet

Zero_one

hai .... lagta hai abhi tak sar-dard kay kuch asaar baqi hain

legbreakgoogly

Twits.

Mr. Genius

yeh ki na "cup-taa-noun" wali baat

acrobi123

good news indeed, well I hope he takes his sweet time, and doesnt rush in we have alot of time for England tour.

Al-Farooq

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/sport/stor...gland_si.shtml

"I'm available for England tour" - Shoiab

teaser

Cricketistani

that a good news that he is fit. i saw his interview on tv, he was looking very fat i mean extremely over weight. one could doubt whther he is going to make a comeback in pak-eng cricket seires or some wight lifting championship .
i am confused that how will he bowl with that kind of weight & recently due to operation, his pace must be affected. interesting ......

Rock_Express

Yes very good news and fully fit Shoaib is asset to Pakistan cricket. He is one of the very few Pakistani players who are genuinely world class and will get into any the World X1.

By the time Pakistan tour starts in England - the injured English bowlers will also be fit - Simon Jones & Steve Harmisson who are presently recovering from injuries. These bowlers along with Andrew Flintoff were one of the reasons why the England won the historic series against Australia and gave their batsmen a lot of problems especially with the reverse swing.

So therefore fully fit English bowlers on English wickets - these being Harmisson + Jones + Flintoff + Hoggard - I think seems better then the Pakistan attack.

One thing you have to remember is that a Shoaib is proven match winner in any condition, Asif is very promising and yet to play full series outside the sub-continent and no doubt the conditions will suit him and Sami always promising but not very consistent. I don't think the English batsmen will be too much worried about Sami. Therefore the English pack attack will have edge over Pakistan in the up-coming series.

Umer579

MashAllah very good news. I hope his recovery goes well InshAllah.

Shoaib, Asif, and Rana would be a lethal attack in Eng inshAllah. Along with Kaneria, bowling dept. looks pretty strong. We definitely need to worry more about batting. I think Butt should be given one more go with Farhat and let's see what goes on then.
Dhobi bhai, aap ka fav. Sami is about to be back for sure. I hope this time he has a hair cut and better "precision" along his comeback as well.
Umer

fkhan2

That only happens against India or while bowling to Tendi.
Correction: Only happens when the ball hits the helmet.

So Shoaib cant be chucking unless Tendi is dropped from the Indian squad and he plays for some county this summer

ehsan

Fkhan, I think the thread is being derailed, maybe you can split the posts and create a new thread to discuss the upcoming tour or merge it with one if already in existence.

fkhan2

koi nai baat nahin hay Ehsan bhai. It always happen in a shoaib akhtar thread

dhobi_bhai

Very true relating to Akhtar as written above.

Regarding Sami, this is one of the rare scenarios that I am fully backing him up with full support in its entirety. Granted he has fallen to the bottom of the barrel due to severe lack of his performances, I still like to believe that if we give him another run for his money and test him in English conditions, our bowling attack will be 'fully' complete.

Below are a few short clippings of what Sami can accomplish against the English batters. Put pace aside, the line and length that he generated in those spells were extremely marvelous (and unplayable, to say the least), and one would like to think he still holds the capability to repeat the same process once again, in suitable conditions:

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Mohammad Sami vs. England

http://download.yousendit.com/366D75D40D8BC6DA

Sami vs. England - 92 mph

http://download.yousendit.com/C2C50339515D2C79

Sami vs. England - 91 mph wicket

http://download.yousendit.com/14158F417993ED5C

Sami vs. England - 91.9 mph

http://download.yousendit.com/8AC5FAB63D886626

Sami vs. England - Great over to Chris Read

http://download.yousendit.com/33D437511AE3CE70