Virat Kohli has not even completed 4 full years in international cricket, yet he already boasts of achievements that some of the one day games greats did not even achieve.

Kohli already has as many ODI centuries as Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge, and Aravinda De Silva managed in their entire careers. He has already scored more ODI centuries than Gautam Gambhir, Matthew Hayden, Inzamam Ul Haq, Kevin Pietersen, Javed Miandad, and Dean Jones to name a few.

What is remarkable about all this is that he is still at the initial stage of his ODI career having established himself as a sure starter in the Indian starting XI just two years ago.

The start of his career has been so tremendous that he is currently among the only five batsman in the world who have a 50+ average in ODIs.

There is no doubt that sustaining this kind of form over 10 to 15 years is something that has only been achieved by the giants of the game, but who can deny the fact that Virat Kohli is well on his way to becoming one of the giants of the game.

In an event hosted by Mukesh Ambani to celebrate Sachin Tendulkar's 100th international 100, Salman Khan asked Sachin who he thinks could break this record.

Sachin's response was Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are the two people who could. He probably mentioned Rohit only to please his fellow Mumbaiker...

I want to. I really want to. I want to believe that Mohammad Amir was an innocent 18 year old boy who was set up by his friend and captain, and his fixer.

Just a day to go ....

Title Credit: Shakeel Hasan

Conceptualized by Khizer Usmani

Asia Cup starts tomorrow!

11 days to go ...

12 days to go ...

The answer is not as simple as it is for a test combination. A test match is a game for specialists and most teams, if not all, go in with the age old formula of 6 batsmen, a wicketkeeper, and 4 bowlers.

In ODIs you need atleast 5 bowlers, and you also need a 6th bowler if one of your key bowlers goes for plenty. Going in with only 5 bowlers is a huge risk in an ODI.

And your ODI wicketkeeper has to know how to bat really well.

Pakistan has always been blessed with quality allrounders that have always ensured that Pakistan fields a strong ODI unit. From the days of Imran Khan to Wasim Akram, Abdul Razzaq, Azhar Mahmood, Shahid Afridi, and Shoaib Malik, Pakistan has never had a problem with the balance of their ODI team.

Till recently.

Besides the absence of a quality allrounder like Abdul Razzaq, Pakistan is also suffering from the fact that there aren't any wicket keepers around with the batting ability that the likes of Moin Khan, Rashif Latif, and Kamran Akmal used to have.

What XI would you play?

Despite Mohammad Hafeez' relatively bad form with the bat, he has to be one of the first few names you pencil in on your team sheet. No doubt about that.

Who partners him is the more important question. Do you go in with Azhar Ali who knocked a well made century while opening in the last ODI against England? Or do you go in with the more aggressive Nasir Jamshed? Or do you give Sarfraz Ahmed a chance to do what he has done for PIA in the domestic scene?

I would go for Nasir Jamshed. Simply because he can belt the leather like the best in the business, and if he gets going he can take a lot of the pressure of Hafeez who can then look to bat through the innings.

Now here is the tricky bit. Considering that Pakistan needs to go in with two allrounders and a wicket keeper from 6-8 in order to ensure six bowling options, which three batsmen do you go with for positions 3 to 5?

Pakistan is kind of spoilt for choices in their 15-man squad for the Asia Cup with the experience duo of Misbah and Younis Khan, along with the young and talented brigade of Umar Akmal, Asad Shafiq, and Azhar Ali.

One can't really leave Misbah out considering he is the captain, though if it were up to me I would not have him anywhere near the ODI team.

Can you really leave Younis Khan and all that experience out? Can you drop the extremely talented Umar Akmal who has been Pakistan's best batsman in recent times? Can you ignore the rapidly developing Asad Shafiq who has played some promising knocks in recent times?

The only one you can bench really is Azhar Ali. Given the way he plays, if he doesn't open, he doesn't fit in anywhere else in the ODI XI.

So which three from Misbah, Younis, Akmal, and Shafiq do you play?

You can't play all four unless you make Umar keep wickets, which we all know is not the right thing to do. If you play all four and make Sarfraz keep then that leaves space for only four bowlers with Hafeez being the fifth. And as I said, playing with only five bowlers in an ODI is a big risk.

I am tempted to play Asad Shafiq, but I also do not want to leave Younis Khan out. He is a valuable member of the team and his experience is needed in the middle. Shafiq is being groomed for the number 3 position, and it will be his for the taking once Younis Khan moves on, but for the now the young talent would have to make way for the experienced war horse.

Umar Akmal needs to bat at four and no lower. Plus with him cushioned between Younis and Misbah, it might just be the ideal position for him to bat on. He needs to be given more chances to build an innings. He's being wasted at 5 or 6.

There is no question about Shahid Afridi's position in the team. Besides Hafeez, he is probably the only other player who walks in automatically in my books.

It is high time that Misbah and the Pakistan team management places its trust in the burgeoning talent of Hammad Azam. He has shown glimpses of his promise in the little chances that he has had thus far. Its time to give him an elongated run and allow him to make the position left vacant by Abdul Razzaq, his very own.

He is only 20 and faces a long career ahead of him. There is no point carrying him around in the squad if you are not going to play him. And there is also no point if you are going to play him at number 8 and not trust him with the ball.

Give him a proper run.

The selectors have entrusted Sarfraz Ahmed the job for the Asia Cup, but have also given him an ultimatum to score runs. I wonder how much pressure that would put on this former U19 captain.

Saeed Ajmal and Umar Gul are sure starters, with the third spot a toss up between Wahab, Cheema, and Rehman.

Playing Rehman won't be a bad ploy considering there will be spinning tracks in Bangladesh, but then just one genuine pacer in Umar Gul might be a risk. If it does happen then we will surely see Hafeez opening the bowling with Gul, and Hammad Azam employing his medium pace in the middle overs.

So here is my Pakistan XI for the Asia Cup. I believe a more balanced team than the one Misbah played during the series against England.

1. Mohammad Hafeez 2. Nasir Jamshed 3. Younis Khan 4. Umar Akmal 5. Misbah Ul Haq 6. Hammad Azam 7. Shahid Afridi 8. Sarfraz Ahmed 9. Umar Gul 10. Saeed Ajmal 11. Abdul Rehman

What is yours?

I will never advocate the inclusion of Kamran Akmal in any Pakistan team. Imran Nazir might be good enough to still play T20s for Pakistan, but I feel he's too unreliable for ODIs. But Ahmed Shehzad is Pakistan's future, and I don't understand how he can continued to be ignored.

His performance in the BPL speaks for itself.

Well alright, maybe the BPL performance is not enough evidence, but someone please tell me what he did wrong to get dropped from the team in the first place.

I heard of some disciplinary issues. So are you telling me that there is no one in the Pakistan team management that can discipline this 20 year old kid? Seriously?

The National One Day Championship in Pakistan hasn't happened yet this season, but one can always compare Nasir and Shehzad's performances in the domestic T20 and first class games.

During the current 2011-12 domestic season, Ahmed Shehzad has outperformed Nasir Jamshed in every competition, besides the Pentangular Cup. If you include the BPL among these, then one can see that Shehzad has done better than Nasir in four domestic tournaments out of five.

Then what made the selectors go for Nasir and not Shehzad?

It is not that Nasir has done badly. He has had a decent season domestically and he is a proven performer at the domestic level. His BPL stint also showed that he is in good form.

It is just that Shehzad has done better.

Why he remains on the sidelines, is anyone's guess.

The Benson & Hedges World Series, as it used to be called back then, was going on and there was this little man with a goatie who would walk out to the crease in a cap and face up to Curtley Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, and Ian Bishop.

For me, Ricky Ponting was the best ODI batsman ever. I am a die hard Inzamam fan, and I have the utmost respect for Sachin Tendulkar, but there are fewer sights in cricket that are better than a free flowing Ricky Ponting.

Ponting has played some unbelievable ODI knocks and his 30 centuries stand second only to Sachin's 48. His 13,700+ runs are also only second to Sachin's tally, and it will probably remain that way for a long time to come.

Here's remembering some of Ponting's best.

Who can forget what Ponting did to the Indians in the World Cup Final in 2003. He single handedly killed India's World Cup dreams in a brutal knock of 140. He remained unbeaten, hit 8 sixes, and destroyed every single Indian bowler. I distinctly remember the onslaught on Zaheer Khan. This is my best Ponting innings in ODIs.

Three years after winning the World Cup, Ponting returned to the Wanderers for an ODI against South Africa. That ODI is popularly known today as the 434 ODI, and it has gone down in history as the highest successful run chase in an ODI. I don't know though if people remember Ponting's exploits in that match. He scored 164 and hit 1 more six than he did against India in 2003 at the same ground. South Africa's successful chase and Gibbs' 175 in the same game took the gloss of Ponting's innings, but what an awesome knock that was. Over a dozen boundaries and nine sixes, Ponting's onslaught was even more brutal than the one he had given India.

It had only been 3 months since I had moved to Lahore in 1998 and I was excited at the prospect of watching my first ever match at the Gaddafi Stadium. Wasim Akram, Aamer Sohail, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar, I was going to watch some of my favorite cricketers live. At the end of the first innings, I was extremely pleased with the proceedings; Pakistan had posted 315 and I had just witnessed centuries from Ijaz Ahmed and Mohammad Yousuf (Then Yousuf Yohanna). Even Afridi played a cameo and entertained the crowd. What more could I have asked for from my first LIVE game at the Gaddafi. Ponting had different ideas however, and he made sure that I did not leave a happy man from the ground. Wasim Akram has dismissed Mark Waugh early, which had brought Ponting to the crease. For the next 30 overs, Pakistan could not pick up a wicket as both Gilchrist and Ponting took the bowlers to the cleaners and knocked centuries. Ponting remained unbeaten on 124 in the game and ensured an Australia victory, which seemed unlikely at the end of Pakistan's innings. I can't forget the sight of Ponting thrashing Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar all over the Gaddafi stadium. Akhtar was bowling at 150+ and Ponting was treating him like a school kid!

Half a year had passed since Ponting had massacred the Indians at the Wanderers in the World Cup Final in 2003, but his liking for Zaheer Khan and the Indian attack was apparent yet again in Bangalore at the end of the same year when Ponting smashed an unbeaten 108. The similarity between this match and the World Cup Final earlier in the year was in the result, the score lines, and sixes flying off Ponting's bat all over the ground. Ponting hit seven sixes in this innings and he was once against particularly severe on Zaheer Khan.

In 2009, Ponting became the first ever Australian captain in over a 100 years to lose two successive Ashes series in England. But that did not take away his ability to thrash bowling attacks in ODIs. In the ODI series that followed the Ashes loss, England had posted 299 in one of the ODIs. In response, Ponting produced an amazing counter attack with a knock of 126 at significantly faster than run a ball. I remember him giving a lot of stick to Broad and Bresnan during his innings and it was one of the best ODI run chases I had seen. Not as heartbreaking as the one in Lahore, but just as good.

I hope I do not have to think about my favourite Ponting test innings tomorrow, and that some of his best test knocks are still to come.

Well Pitched was 1 year old.

The Dubai International Cricket Stadium was under construction.

Graeme Swann had not played a test match for England.

No one had heard of Umar Akmal.

Jonathan Trott had not played an ODI nor a Test for England.

Eoin Morgan was playing for Ireland.

Shoaib Malik was the captain of Pakistan.

Anfrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison were key members of the England team.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul was the number 1 ranked test batsman.