Pakistan Team Discussion

[raheelz]

Sharing my reaction to the Pakistan world cup campaign and the world cup overall

In English:

In Urdu:

 

[aditya123]

We did a podcast episode with Ahmer Naqvi (karachikhatmal) the other day where we discussed this WC, Pakistan's performance, ODI cricket after the WC and the state of cricket broadcasting. Give it a listen.

https://anchor.fm/thefourthseat/epi...Cricket-pe-Charcha-with-KarachiKhatmal-e4i84h

 

[Na Maloom Afraad]

I don't have issues with Sarfraz's captaincy skills, but on batting form alone, he doesn't warrant inclusion in the XI. With Hafeez and Malik finally out of the picture it is the perfect chance for him to show some guts and move up the order. Haris at 4, Sarfraz at 5, Asif at 6. We need Asif desperately, the only guy who can go big at the death is Imad.
As for bowling, Wahab is 34, and although he wasn't bad in this tournament, i feel it's time to move on. He isn't gonna make it to 2023, but i'd keep him for the 2020 WT20. Hasan or Shinwari should come in for him, though the latter needs some time in domestic to get back in form. Junaid would be fine, but i feel he's been Alam'd. Hasnain needs polishing.
Apart from Wahab's inclusion (which turned out fine), we had a very stable lineup coming in to this tourney, and credit must be given to Inzi and Arthur for that, as well as Sarfraz. This leadership team should be persisted with, but Inzi should be incouraged to adopt a hands-off approach in terms of selecting the playing XI (unless the reporting about his involvement is false, which is very plausible). And for heaven's sake, hire Steve Rixon back, whatever it takes.
And yes, it's time for us to get off Imam's back, myself included, and accept that he deserves his spot in the team, just hope that he improves his SR, and his partner gains some form back.

Imam
Fakhar/Abid
Babar
Haris
Sarfraz
Asif
Imad
Shadab
Amir
Hasan/Shinwari/Junaid
Shaheen

Backups : Rizwan, Faheem, Saad Ali

Just getting to this now, 'cause I have A LOT to say about this and I didn't have the time before, so here goes...

I don't know why Mickey Arthur's getting so much hate. He's been an excellent coach, and just the kind a team like Pakistan needed. A few bad series followed by an modest World Cup and you're gonna show him the door? I think it's quite evident that the change we see in this Pakistan team compared to the one from 2011 or 2015 is a positive change. And I don't think that would've been possible without Mickey Arthur.

As for Sarfaraz, I think it's commendable how he salvaged Pakistan's campaign, when it looked like it could've been completely disastrous. His captaincy skills have been questionable at times, but the comeback that team made in the last four games was remarkable given how we started the tournament. Think Sarfaraz should be praised for that. He should definitely change his batting position though.

I don't think our immediate goal should be to build a team for the 2023 World Cup, because there's a Twenty20 World Cup next year. And for that, I'd like the Sarfaraz-Mickey duo to continue. Sure, if you want to remove Sarfraz from the One-Day/Test captaincy then that's fair. But, for the twenty20s he should remain as the captain.

Fakhar Zaman should not be dropped. He's in a bad form, and that's all. That's why we can never have good things. Whenever an opener performs, we make him to be the second coming of Saeed Anwar. But, as soon as he has a bad patch, we drop him, criticise him, and tell him to fix his technique and all that. Remember Nasir Jamshed? He was pretty great in the first part of his career, but then he had a bad patch, and we sent him back to play First-Class and he 'changed his technique'. That completely destroyed him. I can even give a recent example in Faheem Ashraf. Although not an opener, Faheem Ashraf was gradually becoming an integral part of the team, but a few bad series and he gets dropped and is likely to not return unless he has a few remarkable PSL seasons. We've failed to give our players the confidence and the backing they need, when they need it the most. The moment they're down, we start kicking them to the curb.

A prime example of that, (from a tweet stating all the statistics that I can't remember from Saj Sadiq), is Rohit Sharma. He had like 5 hundreds in his first 100 ODIs and was averaging in mid-30s. But, the Indian board was persistent with him because they saw the potential and boy did it pay off. We need to do the same with Fakhar, Hasan, and Faheem.

And yes, we NEED Steve Rixon back.

Here's how I would go about with Pakistan's T20 lineup, because the next big tourney is the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia, next year.

1. Fakhar
2. Babar
3. Haris
4. Sarfaraz
5. ??? (Malik/Hafeez???)
6. Asif
7. Imad/Faheem?
8. Shadab
9. Wahab
10. Aamir
11. Shaheen

And quite frankly, I see nothing special in Usman Shinwari, Rumman Raees or Husnain.

 

[CerealKiller]

1. Fakhar
2. Babar
3. Haris
4. Sarfaraz
5. ??? (Malik/Hafeez???)
6. Asif
7. Imad/Faheem?
8. Shadab
9. Wahab
10. Aamir
11. Shaheen

Malik hasn't retired from T20Is, so he's likely to play at 5.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

He had like 5 hundreds in his first 100 ODIs and was averaging in mid-30s. But, the Indian board was persistent with him because they saw the potential and boy did it pay off.

Just 2 hundreds and an average of 29.76.

 

[Rehan_24]

Meanwhile every day a pair of Pakistani players are coming in the press room and behaving as if they had such a Great WC campaign and it was in their pocket but O alas NRR came upfront. I consider this behavior of players nothing more than a nosedive for Pakistan Cricket when you are not willing to accept your mistakes openly, talk sense and less educated on how to handle the media.

Sarfraz press conference was the need of the time. He is the captain and he showed responsibility by doing a Press Conference. The players' press conferences are not necessary at all. Better go back to domestic cricket and improve your performance Imam, Shadab and Imad rather than coming over media and talk non-sense

 

[Rehan_24]

Here's how I would go about with Pakistan's T20 lineup, because the next big tourney is the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia, next year.

1. Fakhar
2. Babar
3. Haris
4. Sarfaraz
5. ??? (Malik/Hafeez???)
6. Asif
7. Imad/Faheem?
8. Shadab
9. Wahab
10. Aamir
11. Shaheen

And quite frankly, I see nothing special in Usman Shinwari, Rumman Raees or Husnain.

I agree with you partially but this team seems exactly the same WC One and if some of the players don't realize and blame everything on NRR they won't learn from the worst mistakes they did at the beginning of WC, In the first all-important matches except the England one. All they are doing is making excuses at the moment.

 

[Rizwan Vlogs]

My vlog on the efforts of Pakistan team. Mainly in Urdu.

 

[Alexei.]

Get them to Lahore :3[DOUBLEPOST=1562906504][/DOUBLEPOST]

And yes, we NEED Steve Rixon back.

He had some issues with the board or something like that.

 

[Na Maloom Afraad]

He had some issues with the board or something like that.

He didn't get payed on time.

 

[Punk_Sk8r]

What happened to Anwar Ali? I just saw that U19 swing ball he did to bowl Rohit Sharma and dam that swing was completely insane...look where it pitched!

 

[Ahmad94]

What happened to Anwar Ali? I just saw that U19 swing ball he did to bowl Rohit Sharma and dam that swing was completely insane...look where it pitched!

Got injured - then lost his swing almost completely.

Just a generic player at the moment - mostly plays t20's circuits. Played a bunch of t20 games due to the preference of Sarfaraz as an all-rounder - but wasn't good enough to play as a batsman nor bowler.

 

[Punk_Sk8r]

That's quite sad, how did he lose his swing? due to the injury?

EDIT: Just for those who might not have seen;

This is incredible...

 

[Ahmad94]

That's quite sad, how did he lose his swing? due to the injury?

EDIT: Just for those who might not have seen;

This is incredible...

"Anwar says he had to change his action due to a serious side-strain. “I started playing four-day domestic cricket for Karachi. I bowled some very long spells and as a consequence, I suffered a serious side-strain which meant that I had to change my bowling action. Unfortunately, when I changed my bowling action, the in-swing was lost.”

 

[Punk_Sk8r]

@Ahmad94 Can't he just use that action few times to get the in swing though...