Cricketers who played for Pakistan national team far more times than they deserved to

[moghul]

1-Shoaib Malik : overall an average cricketer, has been a nation captain and playing for last 20 years.

2-Hafeez: again nothing special, was useful when him and Ajmad were chucking and taking wickets. Can't believe he has been in the team for 16 years.

3-Imran Farhat

4-Ahmed Shehzad

5-Razzaq: used to play a good knock once in a while but over all a bits and piece player.

6- Sarfraz: the luckiest one. A very average captain/player/keep/batsman, who captained national team in all three formats, had a brief purple patch on UAE wickets , unbelievable.

 

[Ronaldo7]

Abdul Razzaq??
He's considered as one of pak's best all rounders.

 

[moghul]

Abdul Razzaq??
He's considered as one of pak's best all rounders.

He was good for 3-4 years, but played for 15 years for Pakistan. Average bowler when at peak but turned to be a useless bowler when turned 25 "offically " , Good late order hard hitting batman for a 20-30 runs that was not enough for such a long career.

 

[Pete Rose]

Shahid Afridi

 

[Zaz]

Throw in shahid afridi

To play nearly 400 odis and 20 years was a travesty of the highest order

 

[PakWarrior]

Shahid Afridi

 

[moghul]

Throw in shahid afridi

To play nearly 400 odis and 20 years was a travesty of the highest order

Agree 100% , was a useful player but played for 20 years, unbelievable.

 

[irfan]

Most of them once they became so called established seniors.

 

[Finisher]

Younis Khan in ODIS

 

[Hasan123]

Sarfraz
Hafeez
Younis in ODIs
Misbah in ODIs

 

[Ozeirk]

Sarfaraz and Shoaib Malik

 

[Energy]

Notice the mediocrity link.

Malik, Hafeez, Afridi - all have had 20 years career. Shows you there is a permanent spot for relukattas available in Pakistan. Its a free space. And everybody wants that now.

 

[Zaz]

Notice the mediocrity link.

Malik, Hafeez, Afridi - all have had 20 years career. Shows you there is a permanent spot for relukattas available in Pakistan. Its a free space. And everybody wants that now.

How do u expect the team to win games when game after game and year after year 2-3 players a time are getting free passes in the team regardless of performance

No team can be consistently good carrying passengers around

 

[Zhasan]

Ramiz Raja is the poster child of undeserved selection...

Man played 58 tests, more than the great Saeed Anwar and only managed two 100's one against the minnows of the era Lankans and another lowly team Kiwis and both in home conditions...

This is especially farcical given that he kept another ace opener in Shoaib Mohammad out of the team for most of those 58 tests...

 

[moghul]

Ramiz Raja is the poster child of undeserved selection...

Man played 58 tests, more than the great Saeed Anwar and only managed two 100's one against the minnows of the era Lankans and another lowly team Kiwis and both in home conditions...

This is especially farcical given that he kept another ace opener in Shoaib Mohammad out of the team for most of those 58 tests...

58 tests, too many for an very average players like him and above all he captained the team also at one point.

 

[Cric1234]

Asad Shafiq in ODIs
M Sami in tests

Blindly backing some hidden talent (pace technique) despite zero performances.

 

[CadPakFan]

Faheem Ashraf

 

[PetroDollars]

salman butt

 

[Zhasan]

salman butt

Salman Butt scored two hundreds in Australia, one was against probably the best bowling attack of all time..

Nobody surpasses the mediocrity and rubbishness of Ramiz Raja.

 

[Chokli]

Salman Butt scored two hundreds in Australia, one was against probably the best bowling attack of all time..

Nobody surpasses the mediocrity and rubbishness of Ramiz Raja.

Imran Nazir has a 100 against Walsh and Co. Doesn't mean anything if you're not consistent.

Butt had a pathetic average of 30 in Tests

 

[Zhasan]

Imran Nazir has a 100 against Walsh and Co. Doesn't mean anything if you're not consistent.

Butt had a pathetic average of 30 in Tests

Don't take yourself too seriously, look at the context...nobody is praising Salman Butt in a vacuum

Compared to Ramiz Raja, both Imran Nazir and Salman Butt were Bradman incarnate...

 

[Justcrazy]

Unfortunately Pakistan has lot of them .

Shahid Afridi , Shoaib Malik , Muhammad Hafeez , Asad Shafiq , Imam Ul Haq ,

 

[extracover]

Unfortunately Pakistan has lot of them .

Shahid Afridi , Shoaib Malik , Muhammad Hafeez , Asad Shafiq , Imam Ul Haq ,

Most of these are players that stayed fit for long periods. Can put the so called talented youngsters to shame with their fitness.

More a reflection of the system/structure that allows this to happen. PCB administration is asleep at the wheel until it’s too late.

 

[superman]

For ODI’s younis khan by a country mile

 

[MMHS]

Many - today emotions are high so every bit of anger is burning recent players. We have to remember one thing, and I am not rubbing - this is border line minnow Pakistan team, all these recent names most cases actually made the squad on merit. May be they could & should have off loaded them, but don’t think, on playing merit MoHa, Malik & few others were that much a criminal (Imran Farhat will be almost Sir Alister Cook of this 7th ranked PAK Test team).

There are many players who shamelessly forced their way to prolong career and sadly some of them are PAK greats, even ATG. Here are my list, not mentioned in OP with no particular order apart from no. 1

1. Javed Miandad
2. YK in ODI
3. WY
4. Shoaib Akther
5. IuH
6. Rambo Raza
7. Afridi (in ODI, in T20 he might have made the squad even now!!!!)
8. Moin Khan

 

[moghul]

Misbah, played at least 3 years too long, should have retired much earlier, was in mid 40s when left finally.

 

[Justcrazy]

[MENTION=79064]MMHS[/MENTION] Do you not think that Afridi made a mistake by leaving Test Matches early ?

I have a feeling that playing Test would have improved his OD . Also specially in subcontinent , what you say if he played as a second spinner and bat at number 8 . I am speaking about Test Matches strictly.

 

[watson367]

Definitely Malik, Afridi, and Sarfraz.

 

[GrandMaster]

Afridi

 

[amvbfm]

Many - today emotions are high so every bit of anger is burning recent players. We have to remember one thing, and I am not rubbing - this is border line minnow Pakistan team, all these recent names most cases actually made the squad on merit. May be they could & should have off loaded them, but don’t think, on playing merit MoHa, Malik & few others were that much a criminal (Imran Farhat will be almost Sir Alister Cook of this 7th ranked PAK Test team).

There are many players who shamelessly forced their way to prolong career and sadly some of them are PAK greats, even ATG. Here are my list, not mentioned in OP with no particular order apart from no. 1

1. Javed Miandad
2. YK in ODI
3. WY
4. Shoaib Akther
5. IuH
6. Rambo Raza
7. Afridi (in ODI, in T20 he might have made the squad even now!!!!)
8. Moin Khan

There are various categories of such players:
- Those who never deserved to be selected in the first place but played a fair few games: Akram Raza, Ata-ur-Rehman, Anwar Ali
- Those whose initial selection was not so questionable but were then not dropped despite being useless: Imran Farhat, Mohammad Sami, Asad Shafiq, Ahmed Shahzad, Sarfraz, Kamran Akmal, Nasir Jamshed, Hafeez and the list goes on
- Those who were given chances in the wrong format: Afridi, Yasir Shah
- And finally all those past greats who selfishly clung on. This list too is very very long and includes everyone in the list above and many more.

 

[Mr Crickekter]

Imran Farhat
Shoib malik
Younus khan
Asad shafiq
Khuram manzoor
Misbah
Hasan Ali
Wahab riyaz
Hafeez
Azhar Ali
Imam ul haq
Ahmed shehzad
Sarfaraz Ahmad
Iftiqar anjum
Umar akmal
Kamran akmal
Moin khan
Abdur Rehman
Azhar mahmood (pak bowling coach)
Yasir shah

 

[irfan]

[MENTION=79064]MMHS[/MENTION] Do you not think that Afridi made a mistake by leaving Test Matches early ?

I have a feeling that playing Test would have improved his OD . Also specially in subcontinent , what you say if he played as a second spinner and bat at number 8 . I am speaking about Test Matches strictly.

I would agree,he actually wasn't a bad test all rounder, own fault though he just did not have the dedication and mentality to be a test player; he will never be forgiven for cowardly deserting the team as captain mid series though.

 

[saeedhk]

Ahmad Shehzad.

 

[MMHS]

[MENTION=79064]MMHS[/MENTION] Do you not think that Afridi made a mistake by leaving Test Matches early ?

I have a feeling that playing Test would have improved his OD . Also specially in subcontinent , what you say if he played as a second spinner and bat at number 8 . I am speaking about Test Matches strictly.

Could have been a brilliant Test all-rounder, better than what he was in ODI. After his first 4-5 Tests, he had one 100, one 50, one 5for, one 3 for. And, those were against the best two opponents that time - Aussies & IND in IND.

He went for cheap publicity & never tried to develop his game; otherwise could have earned a career like ~150 Tests, 7000+ runs at 35-38 and 400+ wickets at similar (35-38) average. 10-12 Test hundreds, 10-12 5fors .... and 100+ catches.

 

[topspin]

Misbah-ul-Haq

In Tests: Misbah should have retired after the drawn Zimbabwe and SA whitewash series in 2013.

In ODIs: He was even more inept in the shorter format and should have called it a day after the Mohali knock. But if that wasn't enough, the disastrous 2013 CT campaign should have been the final nail in the coffin, as for his international career concerned.

He retired on the same month of his 43rd birthday and unfortunately this has set a bad precedent for this generation, because the current crop of players, who are in their early 30s, will think they are still young enough to extend their international career for a further 10 years.

This is perhaps the reason why the likes of Shoaib Malik and Hafeez haven't retired yet. Then we have the likes of Abdul Razzaq making a comeback in domestics, so he can get a PSL contract. Doesn't take a genius to figure out who gave him such hope

It is disgraceful to see an underperforming 45 year old uncle continuing to play professional cricket at the expense of a promising youngster. None of the major cricket boards would allow such a substandard batsman of pace bowling to prolong his career in domestics.

The toxic seniority culture was bad enough before he was captain, but Misbah deserves all the credit having merely reinforced it.