cricketerB94
Local Club Regular
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- Oct 13, 2013
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I believe that this is the need of the hour if PCB wants to be considered as a top 5 cricket team. There are a lot of issues with Pakistan team currently. I am going to write down the issues and their probable solutions below.
1- The captain.
This is the biggest issue that we have currently. Babar Azam is an ultra defensive captain which is proven many times. In test matches, his first approach is to go for draw. He admitted it himself many times. In ODIs, he has lost a series against England Z team last year and will probably lose the series against Australia D now. He is not the type of captain that inspires his team to play fearless cricket and win matches. Instead he keeps playing the players like Hasan when we have Naseem and Dahani waiting for their turn.
Probable solution: In tests, make Rizwan the captain and in LOIs, make Shadab the captain and Shaheen his deputy. If both of Shadab and Shaheen are not available for LOIs due to injury, then make Rizwan the part time captain in these formats too.
2- Too many accumulators in ODIs.
We have too many accumulator type batsmen in ODIs. Imam, Babar, Saud and Rizwan, all these batsmen are in our top 5. The stats guy should be fired from the team management as he is not able to tell the management that Rizwan is of no use below number 4. He has acceptable stats at number 4, but below that number, he is just a tailender.
Probable solution: The management should take some bold steps and fix the numbers of players which are most suited to them. If I was a part of team management, I would look to play this team: Fakhar, Haris, Babar, Rizwan, Kamran / Haider / Qasim (or any domestic middle order performer who has the ability to shift gears when required), Khushdil, Shadab, Nawaz, Shaheen, Rauf, Naseem
Dropping Imam and Saud is hard, but they just do not fit in the team until they develop the approach to bat more aggressively.
3- Persistence with failures.
I am not able to understand the logic behind playing Hasan Ali in every match. Any one can see that he is out of form and needs some distance from international cricket, but I guess the team management wears some special glasses through which whenever they see Hasan Ali, they see a champions trophy man of the tournament trophy in his hand too. Otherwise, there is no explanation of why the team management is not dropping Hasan Ali in this form.
Probable solution: Replace Hasan with Naseem.
Final verdict:
Many cricket pundits associate Babar and Rizwan with top 4 or 5 cricketers. They are not even close to them. Babar has hardly more than 5 or 6 match winning innings in his 7 years of international cricket career yet. Rizwan has only performed consistently in T20Is and that too as an opener. This is a team that needs high level changes to perform better on field. In last 4 years, they had only some acceptable performance in last year's T20 WC and that too with some major luck factor as winning toss was very important in that tournament and this team feels like they are some kind of superstars after that WC. In the current state, they are not even watchable on TV.
1- The captain.
This is the biggest issue that we have currently. Babar Azam is an ultra defensive captain which is proven many times. In test matches, his first approach is to go for draw. He admitted it himself many times. In ODIs, he has lost a series against England Z team last year and will probably lose the series against Australia D now. He is not the type of captain that inspires his team to play fearless cricket and win matches. Instead he keeps playing the players like Hasan when we have Naseem and Dahani waiting for their turn.
Probable solution: In tests, make Rizwan the captain and in LOIs, make Shadab the captain and Shaheen his deputy. If both of Shadab and Shaheen are not available for LOIs due to injury, then make Rizwan the part time captain in these formats too.
2- Too many accumulators in ODIs.
We have too many accumulator type batsmen in ODIs. Imam, Babar, Saud and Rizwan, all these batsmen are in our top 5. The stats guy should be fired from the team management as he is not able to tell the management that Rizwan is of no use below number 4. He has acceptable stats at number 4, but below that number, he is just a tailender.
Probable solution: The management should take some bold steps and fix the numbers of players which are most suited to them. If I was a part of team management, I would look to play this team: Fakhar, Haris, Babar, Rizwan, Kamran / Haider / Qasim (or any domestic middle order performer who has the ability to shift gears when required), Khushdil, Shadab, Nawaz, Shaheen, Rauf, Naseem
Dropping Imam and Saud is hard, but they just do not fit in the team until they develop the approach to bat more aggressively.
3- Persistence with failures.
I am not able to understand the logic behind playing Hasan Ali in every match. Any one can see that he is out of form and needs some distance from international cricket, but I guess the team management wears some special glasses through which whenever they see Hasan Ali, they see a champions trophy man of the tournament trophy in his hand too. Otherwise, there is no explanation of why the team management is not dropping Hasan Ali in this form.
Probable solution: Replace Hasan with Naseem.
Final verdict:
Many cricket pundits associate Babar and Rizwan with top 4 or 5 cricketers. They are not even close to them. Babar has hardly more than 5 or 6 match winning innings in his 7 years of international cricket career yet. Rizwan has only performed consistently in T20Is and that too as an opener. This is a team that needs high level changes to perform better on field. In last 4 years, they had only some acceptable performance in last year's T20 WC and that too with some major luck factor as winning toss was very important in that tournament and this team feels like they are some kind of superstars after that WC. In the current state, they are not even watchable on TV.
