England tour of Pakistan - 7 T20Is, 3 Tests

[Ahmad94]

View attachment 273891

As much as there is credit for Bazball! Credit to Stokes for the new-era for aggressive captaincy and playing for the win! Could be a new revolution to the game of Test Cricket

 

[Bevab]

If I remember correctly, Pujara used to average around 50-ish a calendar year until COVID hit, and then he had a little slump. I remember him playing a lot of solid innings in Australia, and England after a small collapse at the top and his ability to hold up an end whilst the guy at the other end attacked.

Azhar Ali was tipped to be the man to take over the Test Side post-Misbah and Younis Khan's retirement, he even became captain and played the same brand of cricket and we lost a bunch of games. Plus, he wanted to lead the ODI side and had to transform his slow approach to fit ODI cricket - which he did a few times very successfully (ala 2017 CT, and a few series against Sri Lanka in the UAE). But in general, when we weren't playing on the boring docile tracks of UAE, he was mediocre at best (maybe a little unfair because his performances were crucified during a turbulent time trying to create a Test side without the older guys).

He averaged 30 odd in England, WI and NZ (where we were trashed resoundingly), and averaged 15 odd in South Africa. His average is heavily propped up by his UAE average of 54 where the pitches are stupidly flat for the first 3 days and we played a bunch of games against WI and Sri Lanka.

Maybe that was a little unfair on him - but I honestly feel that he had a lot more quality in him than his average and his performances suggest. He proved it when he played County Cricket or during his short stint in ODI but may be due to management or for whatever reason - he seemed to prefer just playing out over after over without the solid cricketing technique of someone like Pujara.

I wanted to chime in on this topic but this post perfectly encapsulates what I was thinking of. Azhar was looking really good during the Misbah era and should have been the next big Pakistani star before Babar came through with Shafiq aiding him and neither of them really did any justice to their potential.

Pujara on the other hand... I don't think there's ever been the type of expectation from him that was placed on Kohli or even a Rahane. He was mostly seen as the Asia specialist who would underperform on SENA tours. Those BGT tours really helped to raise his reputation until the slump hit again. Him playing in a better batting lineup also helped him out in the end.

 

[Bevab]

Granted that thus far he hasn't been able to make a huge mark but Zampa was quite similar few years ago if you remember. Personally, I like how he is old school with his action and has the potential to be an attacking spinner will proper guidance. I am sure with someone like Saqlain, his bags of tricks would amplify and might become a potent weapon for Pakistan in times to come.

Zampa's not an inspiring comparison either as the former's not done anything of note with the red ball and it took ages of hard work and backing at the top level for him to be successful with the white ball. I'm not sure if the stats back me up but I reckon this is the first season in ages where he's looked like a half decent FC spinner.

I honestly don't see much of a future for Qadir unless he massively improves. He's just too loose with his deliveries.

 

[Aislabie]

Even an Englishman on the internet knows better than our current lot

I'll play this game too. To keep things fair I've not looked at @wasteyouryouth 's post, I'm just going to go off what I can find.

XI	Notes
1. Abdullah Shafique	He's done plenty well enough to get a 30+ Test run in the side.
2. Imam Ul-Haq	I rate him. Plus, it's all about the glasses life.
3. Muhammad Hurraira	He's a 100-Test quality player and the sooner they pick him the better.
4. Babar Azam	The best batter in the team, but never ever captaincy material good grief.
5. Saud Shakeel	He's absolutely Test standard, and obvious captaincy material.
6. Mohammad Rizwan	The premier keeper-batter
7. Salman Agha	He's probably not going to set the world alight, but he bats really well with the tail and seems like a handy stock spinner.
8. Hasan Ali	He's averaged 21 with the ball since he came back to the Test side. Stick with him.
9. Shaheen Shah Afridi	Manage him more carefully though please. Best left-armer in the world.
10. Naseem Shah	He's a top quality prospect, but again - manage his workload.
11. Abrar Ahmed	Arrived with a huge bang, and he's just a properly good leg-spinner.
-	-
R. Shan Masood	Thoroughly adequate batting cover for any top four position; probably never going to replace them long-term either.
R. Rohail Nazir	Don't go back to the Sarfaraz well - he's had his time.
R. Mubasir Khan	As soon as Salman starts to struggle he fits right in, but he can cover any role from Shakeel to Salman to Abrar at a push.
R. Mohammad Wasim	He looked Test-ready on his debut, and he definitely should be in the pecking order.
R. Aamer Jamal	Had a really impressive Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, and you always need a second reserve seamer.

 

[asprin]

Looking at these future XIs, whatever happened to Mohammad Abbas? If I remember correctly, that guy had insane bowling average at the start of his career.

 

[Rehan_24]

If I remember correctly, Pujara used to average around 50-ish a calendar year until COVID hit, and then he had a little slump. I remember him playing a lot of solid innings in Australia, and England after a small collapse at the top and his ability to hold up an end whilst the guy at the other end attacked.

Azhar Ali was tipped to be the man to take over the Test Side post-Misbah and Younis Khan's retirement, he even became captain and played the same brand of cricket and we lost a bunch of games. Plus, he wanted to lead the ODI side and had to transform his slow approach to fit ODI cricket - which he did a few times very successfully (ala 2017 CT, and a few series against Sri Lanka in the UAE). But in general, when we weren't playing on the boring docile tracks of UAE, he was mediocre at best (maybe a little unfair because his performances were crucified during a turbulent time trying to create a Test side without the older guys).

He averaged 30 odd in England, WI and NZ (where we were trashed resoundingly), and averaged 15 odd in South Africa. His average is heavily propped up by his UAE average of 54 where the pitches are stupidly flat for the first 3 days and we played a bunch of games against WI and Sri Lanka.

Maybe that was a little unfair on him - but I honestly feel that he had a lot more quality in him than his average and his performances suggest. He proved it when he played County Cricket or during his short stint in ODI but may be due to management or for whatever reason - he seemed to prefer just playing out over after over without the solid cricketing technique of someone like Pujara.

Pretty good summed up in case of Azhar Ali. I haven't seen Pujara much so I can't comment on it. However, the double century in the boxing day tes in Australia from Azhar Ali was his biggest achievement. Its just that our media isn't good enough on promoting the positives from our players. He was certainly not to the level of Yousaf, Inzy, and Younis Khan but on the other hand, He didn't get the due credit of his consistent batting during the hay days of Pakistan Cricket on the UAE pitches. I believe the captaincy saga ruined it for Azhar Ali otherwise Pakistan cricket could have extract much more from him during that era.

On the side note, in general Pakistan Wins in UAE pitches was not merely due to pitches, rather it was Misbah's captaincy that he used to captilize it so well with his bowlers with the likes of Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, and later on Yasir Shah

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Looking forward to a 7-3 win.

 

[Fenil]

I'll play this game too. To keep things fair I've not looked at @wasteyouryouth 's post, I'm just going to go off what I can find.

XI	Notes
1. Abdullah Shafique	He's done plenty well enough to get a 30+ Test run in the side.
2. Imam Ul-Haq	I rate him. Plus, it's all about the glasses life.
3. Muhammad Hurraira	He's a 100-Test quality player and the sooner they pick him the better.
4. Babar Azam	The best batter in the team, but never ever captaincy material good grief.
5. Saud Shakeel	He's absolutely Test standard, and obvious captaincy material.
6. Mohammad Rizwan	The premier keeper-batter
7. Salman Agha	He's probably not going to set the world alight, but he bats really well with the tail and seems like a handy stock spinner.
8. Hasan Ali	He's averaged 21 with the ball since he came back to the Test side. Stick with him.
9. Shaheen Shah Afridi	Manage him more carefully though please. Best left-armer in the world.
10. Naseem Shah	He's a top quality prospect, but again - manage his workload.
11. Abrar Ahmed	Arrived with a huge bang, and he's just a properly good leg-spinner.
-	-
R. Shan Masood	Thoroughly adequate batting cover for any top four position; probably never going to replace them long-term either.
R. Rohail Nazir	Don't go back to the Sarfaraz well - he's had his time.
R. Mubasir Khan	As soon as Salman starts to struggle he fits right in, but he can cover any role from Shakeel to Salman to Abrar at a push.
R. Mohammad Wasim	He looked Test-ready on his debut, and he definitely should be in the pecking order.
R. Aamer Jamal	Had a really impressive Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, and you always need a second reserve seamer.

Just had a look at Hurraira's record. God damn! 14 50+ scores in 36 innings with a triple hundred is absolute gold!! If they can play Mohammad Wasim Jnr after 20ish FC matches experience then they can surely give a chance to Hurraira.

Thats a pretty solid side if you ask me albeit I thought Salman batted poorly with the tail because he was exposing the tailenders in a fresh over instead of guarding them for the majority of the overs as any sensible batsman would do. Though he got runs, he seem to be lacking that basic match awareness. Plus, if you draft Nawaz in the side, you get the left arm variety and he obviously is a better bowler than Salman and also did well in the chance that he got so he would start for me and Salman be in the reserves. I haven't seen Mubasir to be honest so cannot comment on his prowess.

 

[Toby]

I've grown up watching test match cricket being played with a grind-to-win approach. But watching the Poms play test cricket in the past few months with their newfound aggressive gung-ho approach named 'Bazball'- or whatever the fearsome tweak that is- has me stuck in a dilemma. I love watching this present team play, making runs at a rate of about 7 an over and taking wickets by making Anderson bowl his first over when 20-odd over shave already been bowled; but then I also hate them for playing like this, watching them bully the opponents by playing in T20 mode makes me both excited and infuriated. It's challenging the test cricket morals that I've learned as a growing kid. After the English summer was over, I thought that this Bazball approach wouldn't work abroad and that it's a short-term thing- but if anything, the English are getting better at it. I don't like this, and I'm afraid.

Anyway, my question is...I'm 19, and how long do I wait before I finally feel the touch of a human female?

 

[Fenil]

What are your all thoughts about Mir Hamza? He is 30 nit 376 wickets at 21 is a phenomenal record. He is a left armer as well. I don't understand why Hasan Ali was not played if the first in line fast bowlers were injured instead of going with just 3 frontline bowlers in the last Test in particular.

Mir Hamza career profile

 

[Gurukirat]

Abrars 17th wkt in the series >2 test.

Eng 170/2*

Crawley 41, Stokes 33 not out, Duckett 82 not out


Abrar Ahmed
12/0/78/2

Nauman Ali
5/0/38/0

Mohammad Wasim Jr
9.1/1/40/0

Faheem Ashraf
2/0/13/0

Eng won by 8 wkts

Eng won series by 3/0

Azhar lead team back in his last test for pakistan

19 test Hundred over 7000 test runs in 97 test

Cong. Azhar bhai

Folks,
Not to go far away once again at 10.30 am dec 27 see you for Babar vs Southee 1st test here in Karachi



Harry Brook MOM & player of the series
==
Brook already hits 30 sixes & 85 fours in his international Career.

Congratulation!
Yorkshire man

 

[Fenil]

Zampa's not an inspiring comparison either as the former's not done anything of note with the red ball and it took ages of hard work and backing at the top level for him to be successful with the white ball. I'm not sure if the stats back me up but I reckon this is the first season in ages where he's looked like a half decent FC spinner.

I honestly don't see much of a future for Qadir unless he massively improves. He's just too loose with his deliveries.

I think you are right. Usman indeed would have been a stretch at this moment. I personally like his style. Wish only if he was consistent enough for Test matches. He is wonderful to watch, pretty much like Bishnoi. That old school runup and action is so eye catching.

 

[Fenil]

Mir Hamza from South Africa i guess

At least Babar seems to be unaware about the potential talents in the pool, heck he was unaware about the skill from the players in the XI. How else can anyone explain Ashraf and Salman bowling only 1 over each while other three overs bowled about 80 overs!!

 

[LiveLoveABD]

Benjamin Andrew Stokes!

I know there have been some serious all rounders in the history of this beautiful game but I think I have finally seen someone who trumps Imran Khan now in every department. I don't care about his stats. Bloke is a serious cricketer and easily now my pick in an all time cricket XI. The format doesn't matter!

 

[Satan666]

Benjamin Andrew Stokes!

I know there have been some serious all rounders in the history of this beautiful game but I think I have finally seen someone who trumps Imran Khan now in every department. I don't care about his stats. Bloke is a serious cricketer and easily now my pick in an all time cricket XI. The format doesn't matter!

LiveLoveBAS!

I’ll be sure to show this to Abraham!