Babar Azam "The Shakeel dismissal cost us. It looked to us as if the ball had touched the ground"

[MenInG]

Babar Azam "The Shakeel dismissal cost us. It looked to us as if the ball had touched the ground"

Reactions on this dismissal:

Babar Azam

"The Shakeel dismissal cost us"

"It looked to us as if the ball had touched the ground. As a professional, you have to respect the umpire's decision, but we felt the ball had been grounded."

"I think it's for the umpires to decide [if the soft signal should be done away with]. Like I said, we felt the ball was grounded."


Ben Stokes

"I don't think [there were any doubts about the catch], personally"

"The only thing where you start worrying is when it gets looked at for a long period of time because that's when you start having doubt in your own head. I've been part of games before where I've been on the team who's been on the receiving end of those decisions and you're always like, 'that's not carried'.

"You see a lot of lot of those decisions and those type of catches in cricket. You could say the similar thing was when Rooty got caught at short leg - you could say that might have touched the floor. But you've just got to go with what the umpire's decision is. It went our way but I've been involved in a few decisions where stuff like that has gone against us. But you can't change that."


Ollie Pope

"I knew it had carried,"

"I didn't think it had bounced before. As a keeper when you've got the gloves on you honestly can't tell. I didn't think it had touched the ground after. When you have gloves on you feel it go in but that's it."

 

[MenInG]

It looked pretty clear it was not out.

Babar correctly peeved about it.

 

[jeeteshssaxena]

So Ben Stokes is convinced that it was out.
Looked not out to me, but chances like these happen quite a few time in test cricket.
Babar should move on.

 

[Markhor]

Ready made excuse.

What about the 1st inns collapse and your dismissals Bqbar ?

 

[dildilpak]

Should just take out soft signal, thats the crux of the matter.

 

[boomboomcheema]

Babar making excuses shameless..Saud could have got dismissed a little later for all we know.. Pakistan were always struggling after the flop show by Babar and Rizwan upfront

 

[BreadPakoda]

Perfect get out of jail free card. Now Ramiz / Babar won’t have to resort to “we lost but cricket has finally returned to Pakistan”, “we lost but it was a great advertisement for test cricket”, “thank you England / Ben Stokes for entertaining the Pindi crowd”, etc.

 

[Mamoon]

The fact that you are averaging 2.50 in the fourth innings in this series has cost Pakistan more.

England gave Pakistan massive windows of opportunity in both Tests. Pakistan could have been 2-0 up if Babar had even scored 30-40 in both innings.

He is as responsible for Pakistan being 2-0 down as anyone else on the team.

 

[James]

I think Pakistan got unlucky with this one.
For me it was not out.

Admittedly “live” it did look out to me at first, but there was surely enough subsequent evidence on the video replay to overturn the soft signal and give that appeal not out.

I’m not sure if Saud staying in longer would have affected the match result, because England had settled on the leg side short pitched plan with Mark Wood taking the new ball and they had already got Nawaz out with it, so Saud who looked vulnerable to it as well could have fallen at a different time.

But it should have been given not out.
England got lucky here.
It didn’t “cause” England to win, but it certainly helped them along the way.

 

[MenInG]

The fact that you are averaging 2.50 in the fourth innings in this series has cost Pakistan more.

England gave Pakistan massive windows of opportunity in both Tests. Pakistan could have been 2-0 up if Babar had even scored 30-40 in both innings.

He is as responsible for Pakistan being 2-0 down as anyone else on the team.

I agree

Unfortunate as it was, we cannot compete with top teams of the world based upon one guy's innings.

 

[zaidihusain]

Although there were some serious flaws in team selection, still Pakistan could have won both test matches if the likes of Babar, Azhar, Rizwan & Imam have batted with more responsibility. It's a huge opportunity loss for Pakistan

 

[jnaveen1980]

Babar AZam seems to be happy with moral wins.

 

[Savak]

Saud was batting very defensively and seemed content with just nudging the ball here and there. Based on what i have seen, he doesn't seem to have a third gear and i haven't seen a lot of boundaries of pacers, Stokes identified his release shot of Leech on the leg side and eventually put a man out there to deter him from that leg side swipe.
Yet another "Too scared to attach because of the fear of getting out" player we have produced.

 

[The_KING]

You just know that our fans and players are going to use the Saud Shakeel dismissal as an excuse for this defeat, and to avoid looking at the bigger picture, which is that Babar Azam is a mental midget and a softie, who can’t score runs when it matters. Had he scored runs in the fourth innings, we would have won. Babar Azam is the main reason behind our defeat.

 

[shamaan]

Saud was batting very defensively and seemed content with just nudging the ball here and there. Based on what i have seen, he doesn't seem to have a third gear and i haven't seen a lot of boundaries of pacers, Stokes identified his release shot of Leech on the leg side and eventually put a man out there to deter him from that leg side swipe.
Yet another "Too scared to attach because of the fear of getting out" player we have produced.

He tried to attack in the first Innings and lost his wicket to a rash shot I would much rather he plays his game than trying to play a game that isn't suited to him.

 

[kingusama92]

It was not out but also a poor shot when it was clear what Wood's plan was.

This is the hard part of putting the entire chase on the shoulders of a young batsman. He did well for the situation he found himself in.

 

[Savak]

He tried to attack in the first Innings and lost his wicket to a rash shot I would much rather he plays his game than trying to play a game that isn't suited to him.

Test matches in the modern format is not just about blocking and nudging to score impactless runs, you have to be able to shift gears and accelerate as well and to counter the opposition's plans against you.

We have dealt with the torture of Azhar Ali's game which suited him at the expense of the team. Our team cannot afford an Azhar Ali two.

 

[PakLFC]

Well if the great Babar who I keep hearing is world class had scored 26 runs in two innings we wouldn't be having this discussion.

 

[Farabi]

I think Pakistan got unlucky with this one.
For me it was not out.

Admittedly “live” it did look out to me at first, but there was surely enough subsequent evidence on the video replay to overturn the soft signal and give that appeal not out.

I’m not sure if Saud staying in longer would have affected the match result, because England had settled on the leg side short pitched plan with Mark Wood taking the new ball and they had already got Nawaz out with it, so Saud who looked vulnerable to it as well could have fallen at a different time.

But it should have been given not out.
England got lucky here.
It didn’t “cause” England to win, but it certainly helped them along the way.

England won by just 26 runs at the end. I don’t think Saud was gonna take that leg side bait again if it were given not out. His dismissal was the game right there for England.
But this happens, and decisions go either way, England was the better side for most of the sessions though.

 

[Kianig89]

You can never succeed if you keep looking for excuses

 

[Blistering Barnacle]

Pak would have lost anyway. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things about the team and it's composition and how they are led.

 

[CrIc_Mystique]

Did'nt watch it live. Watch on highlights. at first glance looked out.
upon viewing replays I am convinced it was not out. was touching the grass. hard luck to Pak. there was enough evidence to overturn this into not out, benefit of doubt has to be given to batsman.
- alim Dar is incompetent and needs replacing. I coud;nt believe that LBW appeal in which he says that the batsman was hitting/playing a shot - blind freddy can see he was not attempting a shot. He's been pathetic for so many years now.
But then so was the root decision in the 1st innings-debatable as well

- the soft signal rule is a monstority and a blot on the game and needs replacing.
Good luck pak for 3rd test.

 

[Shafi]

This guy is full of excuses. He should looks at his own performances in catching, captaincy and batting. We were lucky to have a close match but the match is always going to England's way.

 

[hass]

I would say the collapse in the first innings, Imam's soft dismissal in the second innings and the failure of Babar and Ashraf to turn up with the bat in the fourth innings cost Pakistan a whole lot more.

 

[Kroll]

I recall Babar dropping a dolly in this match, did he acknowledge this?

 

[badsha001]

This guy needs to be sacked from Pak cricket for good. You can't teach new tricks to old dogs and he is nothing but an old dog.

 

[asfandyar]

Statements like these serve no purpose. Better to be the bigger person and extrude an aura of positivity by showing grace (not Irfan Pathan version) in defeat.

 

[zaidihusain]

I recall Babar dropping a dolly in this match, did he acknowledge this?

No he hasn't. Had that catch was dropped by Nawaz or any other fielder, the team management might have made a video and posted it on twitter

 

[shamaan]

Test matches in the modern format is not just about blocking and nudging to score impactless runs, you have to be able to shift gears and accelerate as well and to counter the opposition's plans against you.

We have dealt with the torture of Azhar Ali's game which suited him at the expense of the team. Our team cannot afford an Azhar Ali two.

He's only been in the team for 1 series you can't expect to express himself straight away before cementing his place in the xi

 

[TheSultan]

I just knew these losers would use the shakeel dismissal and try to hoodwink the public in to believing that they got robbed.

Otherwise don’t worry “everything is rosy”.

Such a pathetic bunch of losers.

It may have been a slightly controversial decision but they would have found a way to lose even without that. You know why? They are losers with complete loser mentality.