Does Pakistan need a back foot pinch hitter to address their woes against spin bowling?

[The Bald Eagle]

Pakistan cricket team in recent team has struggled badly against spinners especially left-arm spinners. And one common thing in majority of these dismissals have been inability to play big shots from back foot. Babar Azam is among the few players who could whack the spinners on back foot but of late his skills against spinners have declined drastically. Furthermore, a player like player can never or hardly ever hit a six on back foot.

While in contrast players like Heinrich Klassen, Mitchell Marsh, Mathew Hayden could easily dispatch ball rows back without running down the ground. So can hunt for a player with good back foot skills and pinch hitting abilities solve Pakistan's spin woes. Or should PCT continue its journey on recruiting more and more down the track hitters in the side to tackle chuckers-styled spinners?

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Back foot Pinch hitters have really torn apart overrated spinners and chuckers over the year. I believe PCT also need such players like Moeen Ali, Livingston, Mitch Marsh, Heinrich Klassen etc

 

[charlie007]

Why do you need a “pinch hitter” and not just a good back foot player who can defend or hit as needed? Pinch hitters used to be tailenders sent up the order to swing their bats so even if they got out it wouldn’t affect the team much but if they succeeded it was a huge positive.

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Why do you need a “pinch hitter” and not just a good back foot player who can defend or hit as needed? Pinch hitters used to be tailenders sent up the order to swing their bats so even if they got out it wouldn’t affect the team much but if they succeeded it was a huge positive.

Problem with PCT is we don't have good rotators of strike, and recent stats have shown that PCT has highest dot ball percentage and highest attacking shots percentage too. The thing is our players are unable to time the ball well and many a time sky it high for their demise. So unless we can't come up with good rotators of strike with elegant wrists we should look out for guys like Stoinis, Tim David etc...who could stand and deliver to ease off the pressure.

Like Marsh salvaged Australia today

 

[tiger_khan]

Back foot Pinch hitters have really torn apart overrated spinners and chuckers over the year. I believe PCT also need such players like Moeen Ali, Livingston, Mitch Marsh, Heinrich Klassen etc

The problem with Pakistan is that most of its batters are one-sided hitters. They hardly hit sixes on the off-side. One reason behind is that the average height of our cricket team has gone down significantly. There are not many batters with long levers. In other words, our batters have shorter reach than other international players

Even if one is of short stature, one can play all-round if one has a good technique. For example Warner.
If one doesn't have a good technique then one needs to develop unconventional shots - reverse sweeps, switch hits, scoops, etc.

No one in the domestic circuit is working on improving and expanding the reach of the batters

Look at Khushdil Shah. He is a very strong lad. He tries to pull the ball from the seventh or 8th off stump to cow-corner. His chest opens while doing so if the ball is going away from him. He gets out lots of time top-edging the ball. All he has to do is to stay side-on. He is strong enough to hit sixes over the covers and point. Can even guide the ball to third man. But because his chest gets open, he can't do any of the the above.

In summary, there are already pinch hitters in Pak team. They have a very poor technique. They need to expand their reach and it will help their game.

 

[The Bald Eagle]

The problem with Pakistan is that most of its batters are one-sided hitters. They hardly hit sixes on the off-side. One reason behind is that the average height of our cricket team has gone down significantly. There are not many batters with long levers. In other words, our batters have shorter reach than other international players

Even if one is of short stature, one can play all-round if one has a good technique. For example Warner.
If one doesn't have a good technique then one needs to develop unconventional shots - reverse sweeps, switch hits, scoops, etc.

No one in the domestic circuit is working on improving and expanding the reach of the batters

Look at Khushdil Shah. He is a very strong lad. He tries to pull the ball from the seventh or 8th off stump to cow-corner. His chest opens while doing so if the ball is going away from him. He gets out lots of time top-edging the ball. All he has to do is to stay side-on. He is strong enough to hit sixes over the covers and point. Can even guide the ball to third man. But because his chest gets open, he can't do any of the the above.

In summary, there are already pinch hitters in Pak team. They have a very poor technique. They need to expand their reach and it will help their game.

Thanks, explained better than OP

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Mohammad Haris has a great potential for it but unfortunately he doesn't time the ball well, fails to play the field and sometimes fall short because of not being as strong in muscles as Russell

The problem with Pakistan is that most of its batters are one-sided hitters. They hardly hit sixes on the off-side. One reason behind is that the average height of our cricket team has gone down significantly. There are not many batters with long levers. In other words, our batters have shorter reach than other international players

Even if one is of short stature, one can play all-round if one has a good technique. For example Warner.
If one doesn't have a good technique then one needs to develop unconventional shots - reverse sweeps, switch hits, scoops, etc.

No one in the domestic circuit is working on improving and expanding the reach of the batters

Look at Khushdil Shah. He is a very strong lad. He tries to pull the ball from the seventh or 8th off stump to cow-corner. His chest opens while doing so if the ball is going away from him. He gets out lots of time top-edging the ball. All he has to do is to stay side-on. He is strong enough to hit sixes over the covers and point. Can even guide the ball to third man. But because his chest gets open, he can't do any of the the above.

In summary, there are already pinch hitters in Pak team. They have a very poor technique. They need to expand their reach and it will help their game.

 

[tiger_khan]

Mohammad Haris has a great potential for it but unfortunately he doesn't time the ball well, fails to play the field and sometimes fall short because of not being as strong in muscles as Russell

Haris has been dealt with unfairly. The guy is a top order batsman and has been asked to bat very low in the order.
PCT fans have been unfair to him too.

His batting is tailor-made for T20 opening. The ball is much softer when he comes to bat in the 17th or 18th over.

I would take him in place of Babar any day in a T20 team.

Hasan Nawaz and Mohd Haris have been wronged by the management. They should be playing in place of Babar and Osman Khan.

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Haris has been dealt with unfairly. The guy is a top order batsman and has been asked to bat very low in the order.
PCT fans have been unfair to him too.

His batting is tailor-made for T20 opening. The ball is much softer when he comes to bat in the 17th or 18th over.

I would take him in place of Babar any day in a T20 team.

Hasan Nawaz and Mohd Haris have been wronged by the management. They should be playing in place of Babar and Osman Khan.

Yes, it seems to be the case, although his recent performances were disappointing but I totally back your point. May be we are not utilizing him well, Hassan Nawaz seems to be a guy with great potential but poor technique against pace...the only thing I dislike about him is his inability to rotate strike smoothly

 

[Local.Dada]

Pakistan needs a spin destroyer like Shivam
Dube.

The current lot can’t play or get stuck against quality spin.

This is why Shoaib Malik and Hafeez were invaluable for Pak. They were more effective than most “power hitters” vs spin bowling and even good spin bowling on tricky surfaces at times. Most of us judge them for their ability against quality pace I guess.

 

[Savak]

Klassen is the best guy who does this i.e. hit sixes of spinners off the back foot, its not even a huge swing, just a slight punch of the shoulders and deep into the stands the ball goes.

 

[jnaveen1980]

cut shot is a brilliant shot to employ. When SKY was in full form that was one of his go to shot. He would usually violently cut the ball. Jaiswal does it in every format. Cut shot. A safe shot.

 

[sweep_shot]

Klassen is the best guy who does this i.e. hit sixes of spinners off the back foot, its not even a huge swing, just a slight punch of the shoulders and deep into the stands the ball goes.

Yup.

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Why do you need a “pinch hitter” and not just a good back foot player who can defend or hit as needed? Pinch hitters used to be tailenders sent up the order to swing their bats so even if they got out it wouldn’t affect the team much but if they succeeded it was a huge positive.

If you had seen the dismissal of Sahibzada Farhan today in the 3rd T20I against South Africa, then you can clearly figure out the need for a pinch hitter. Sahibzada is good on front foot and coming down the ground. But he struggles a bit in hitting clean on backfoot

 

[charlie007]

If you had seen the dismissal of Sahibzada Farhan today in the 3rd T20I against South Africa, then you can clearly figure out the need for a pinch hitter. Sahibzada is good on front foot and coming down the ground. But he struggles a bit in hitting clean on backfoot

The bigger problem for Farhan and most Pakistani batsmen is not as much hitting boundaries as it is playing dot balls. The batsmen hit a 6 but play 4-5 dot balls that nullifies the impact that the boundary shot created. If you had such a back foot pinch hitter, he would already be in the team. Because you don’t, you should try solving the more solvable problem.

 

[Cover Drive Six]

Pakistan earlier had good backfoot hitters like Asif Ali and Iftikhar. It’s not about hitting ability, what Pakistan really needs is match awareness and smart shot selection based on the situation.

 

[The Bald Eagle]

The bigger problem for Farhan and most Pakistani batsmen is not as much hitting boundaries as it is playing dot balls. The batsmen hit a 6 but play 4-5 dot balls that nullifies the impact that the boundary shot created. If you had such a back foot pinch hitter, he would already be in the team. Because you don’t, you should try solving the more solvable problem.

But we definitely need a pinch hitter to seal the match in crunch and tense moments... Especially in big chases

 

[charlie007]

But we definitely need a pinch hitter to seal the match in crunch and tense moments... Especially in big chases

Bhai, everyone wants to win a lottery but till that happens you keep working to keep your household running!

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Bhai, everyone wants to win a lottery but till that happens you keep working to keep your household running!

Yeah got your point, but to sum up my point of view....no matter how fluent are Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane top the order, you always need Hardik Pandya to finish it off early instead of engendering a bottle job.