Indian Premier League :: IPL Cricket Forum

[Richards]

By Dr. Mohit Goyal - Dr. Goyal based in Udaipur writes regularly in our News section and is an ardent Cricket fan.

Team in Review – Hong Kong

Coached by the former England international and the an experienced top order batsman for Essex and Leicester Aftab Habib, Hong Kong are full of players of Indian and Pakistani origin and are a unit high on raw talent.

They are led by opener Tabarak Dar who was born in Pakistan and has as loads of experience at club level and playing in ICC tournaments for associate and affiliate countries.

Their Aim

Grouped along with India and Pakistan, they have an extremely tough task ahead. But they will look to give in a spirited performance. Their batsmen should look to survive their quota of overs. The bowlers must look to take wickets because controlling the run flow otherwise looks a task beyond them.

Look Out For

Tabarak Dar – The skipper is and experienced opening batsman. He is amongst the technically sound batsmen in Hong Kong. He hit a splendid century against Sheikhupura when the team toured Pakistan in May this year.

Irfan Ahmed – Look out for the younger of the Ahmed brothers. He is a flamboyant batsman who generally comes in at three and bowls some decent right arm medium. He has often opens the bowling.

Najeeb Amar – He is an experienced pro. He bowls tight slow left arm and comes in as a confident batsman in the middle order.

Other Players

Ashish Gadhia and Courtney Kruger have come through the under 15 and under 19 system and are very talented batsmen. Kruger played a couple of delightful innings in the Asian U-19 elite tournament in Malaysia last year.

James Atkinson is a wicket keeper-batsman and owing to better batting skills, is likely to get a go ahead of Barkat.

Zain Abbas is a young bowler who has the nag of taking wickets and can hit the ball big. He may get a chance in one of the matches.

The real strength of this team lies in its flexibility because of the number of players who can bat as well as bowl.

Probable Starting Eleven

Tabarak Dar (C)

Skhawat Ali

Irfan Ahmed

Courtney Kruger

Najeeb Amar

Hussain Butt

James Atkinson (WK)

Munir Dar

Nadeem Ahmed

Afzaal Haider

Toby Brown

Verdict

Players could have gained some experience had they got more than two games against such big teams. They will be in for some hammering and one can only wish them “Happy Holidaying!”.