Do we need a good batting tail in Tests in Australia?

[ads101]

Seeing everyone's posted XIs, I've realised this is an issue. In fact if both Yasir and Riaz don't play (Which I wouldn't include them either on merit, not that they're fantastic with the bat either), we'll be fielding possibly our weakest tail in History. Imran, Abbas, Shaheen, Musa, Shah etc., I'm not really sure can bat much at all.

If anything I'm a little scared with these guys having to come in at 8 or 9 on Australian pitches, they might get injured. I mean can you imagine say Shaheen coming to bat at 8? Because he might depending on the line up.

I'm inclined to take the risk and go with the weak tail though. What do you think? And do you think Misbah will try to compensate the batting and weaken the bowling by selecting a slightly stronger tail?

 

[Markhor]

20 wickets should be the priority. This Junaids theory that your 8, 9, 10 and 11 will produce a matchwinning 20-25 combined is for the birds. Why ?

As the runs they'll score with the bat will not compensate for the runs they'll concede playing ahead of a better bowler.

 

[Plumb]

If you have a batting lineup which gives you big totals 8-10 times then you don't need a bowler who can't take wickets but gives you 20-30 runs. You need proper bowlers who can first get wickets.

 

[Titan24]

While its always good to have a long tail but if we see recent heroics of Srl in SA and Ind winning in Aus, it was more of batsmen doing their job and bowlers doing theirs.

If a batsman can provide a bowling option like Iftikhar and a bowler can provide some runs as we saw from Faheem and Shadab in Eng, its good but that shouldnt be at the cost of their main jobs.

If one doesnt have good specialists like Eng in tests few years ago and to some extent even now than its always good to have someone might not be a world beater with ball but atleast he provides something with bat in hand.

With Pak currently having Shaheen, Naseem and Abbas as pacers I dont think we have good enough all rounders to replace them though in spin bowling department Kashif Bhatti or Shadab definitely makes sense as Yasir hasnt done anything of not in overseas test except in Lords.

If Faheem or Amad butt can improve their bowling, their might be a case for them in future to have a 5 bowler combination in which 2-3 can bat.

Aim is to give yourself best chance of scoring 300+ runs in both innings and getting 20 wickets as early as possible.

 

[hadi123]

Have to play your best bowlers. If someone is an all rounder that's different, as we've seen they can make a difference like Faheem and Shadab's innings' in England + Ireland but if you're choosing between out and out bowlers, can't choose on the basis of 'player x might score 15 runs as opposed to player Y who will score 1'