[EXCLUSIVE] "Pakistan's overreliance on spin is a backward step": Fazeer Mohammed

[FearlessRoar]

Fazeer Mohammed, the renowned cricket commentator, joined Saj for an exclusive interview for PakPassion, offering his deep insights into the thrilling West Indies victory over Pakistan in the second Test. Drawing from his extensive experience, Fazeer discusses the broader challenges faced by both teams and the declining state of West Indies cricket. Known for his passion for Caribbean cricket, he reflects on how complacency cost Pakistan in this Test series and highlights key areas where the team fell short.

Fazeer examines how the West Indies beat Pakistan at their own game with spin, emphasizing the importance of grassroots development for the Caribbean team’s future. He also critiques Pakistan’s overreliance on spinners, which has hindered their fast-bowling legacy.

The interview also delves into West Indies' unity and belief as crucial factors behind their success and questions whether this victory marks a new era for their cricket or is just a brief resurgence. Fazeer also urges Pakistan to adopt a more balanced tactical approach moving forward.

Main topics covered in this interview:

West Indies' victory in the second Test: Reflects on the thrilling second Test and the key moments that contributed to West Indies' impressive win over Pakistan.

The unpredictability of the West Indies team: A discussion on how the West Indies, often unpredictable, managed to surprise with a performance that blended resilience and skill.

Pakistan’s complacency in the series: Analyzes whether Pakistan's relaxed attitude during crucial moments led to their downfall in this Test series.

West Indies’ aggressive approach to victory: The Caribbean side’s bold, spin-heavy approach was instrumental in turning the game in their favor, showcasing their aggressive strategy.

Kraigg Brathwaite’s leadership: Highlights the key role of Kraigg Brathwaite in leading the West Indies, providing solid guidance through tough conditions.

Jomel Warrican and Gudakesh Motie’s impact: The standout performances of spinners Jomel Warrican and Gudakesh Motie were pivotal to West Indies' success in the series.

Unity and cohesion within the West Indies team: How the unity and belief within the team were crucial in their victory, demonstrating a more cohesive and collective effort.

Breaking a 34-Year drought in Pakistan: West Indies’ victory in Pakistan marked the end of a 34-year wait, a historic achievement with great significance for both teams.

A potential new era for West Indies cricket: Discusses whether the win marks a true revival for West Indies cricket or if it’s just a brief resurgence.

Pakistan’s tactical mistakes: Examines the tactical errors made by Pakistan and identifies the areas they need to address for future success.

Watch the full interview here:

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Lol...it's just too ironic how Pakistan team got robbed of their unpredictable status by West Indies.

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

It's not a backward step. It's a step rooted in ground realities.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

Fazeer is bang on the money here

 

[BouncerGuy]

Fazeer is spitting some facts that many might not be able to handle. Especially what he said about spin is right.

 

[moghul]

Thanks Saj for conducting a great interviews and asking extremely important questions regarding state of Pakistan cricket. I love listening Fazeer, he possesses great knowledge of the game and unlike our " experts" from Pakistan , he doesn't carry any personal agenda and interest which would have influenced his opinion.

His best comments was " looking at the fast bowlers are treated in Pakistan team , why would a young cricketer from Burewala ( for example, or any other town ) want to become a fast bowler , a naked truth , I hardly hear this sort of passionate comments from our Pakistani counterparts.

Hope to continue to hear from Him in future.

 

[FearlessRoar]

It's not backward - it's the only solution we have because we fast bowlers are trundlers.

 

[Xoib]

It's not a backward step. It's a step rooted in ground realities.

Just because Naseem Shaheen and co are uninterested in test cricket does not mean we give up on pace bowling there are enough talented bowlers performing in domestic cricket groom them get them to play red ball cricket this spin is all strategy is not sustainable

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

Just because Naseem Shaheen and co are uninterested in test cricket does not mean we give up on pace bowling there are enough talented bowlers performing in domestic cricket groom them get them to play red ball cricket this spin is all strategy is not sustainable

No there aren't. It's just a bunch of medium-pace trundlers. Go look up the domestic stats from the last 2-3 years. You will find the names of all the trundlers already in the test side.

 

[Xoib]

No there aren't. It's just a bunch of medium-pace trundlers. Go look up the domestic stats from the last 2-3 years. You will find the names of all the trundlers already in the test side.

No we haven’t all the top performers this season Arshadullah, ismail , Azab, Ali Raza are untested only Musa is tested and that was 5 years back back these guys along with Khurram who has been decent in the limited chances there is enough to work with this spin is king strategy is regressive we have never produced great spinners compared to India and SL we should go back to our strength

 

[BouncerGuy]

Pacers are trundlers. Shaheen naseem etc are not that much interested by themselves and even if they play, they do it out of courtesy I think, no real intent.

Spin strategy will work only if our batters are good enough to face the spin as well, which they are not good at.

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

No we haven’t all the top performers this season Arshadullah, ismail , Azab, Ali Raza are untested only Musa is tested and that was 5 years back back these guys along with Khurram who has been decent in the limited chances there is enough to work with this spin is king strategy is regressive we have never produced great spinners compared to India and SL we should go back to our strength

That's where you are wrong. Pakistan have always produced a plethora of left-arm spinners and off-break bowlers going back to the 1960s, who were hugely successful on these dry, barren wickets in domestic cricket. Because Pakistan happened to produce some great fast-bowlers in the succeeding years who were able to use reverse-swing to their advantage, Pakistan relied on them. But that has changed now because all the pacers are trundlers who don't have the pace nor the skill to use reverse-swing.

'This season'...I am talking about the last three years. All the wickets in domestic were taken by guys like Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Ali, Abbas...

You are living in a deluded fantasy if you still think that pace is our strength, because its not. We have one of the worst pace-attacks in test cricket. And the sad thing is that these are more or less the best fast-bowlers we have. There is no one better in domestic. The untested performers you named are 2-3 years away from being ready for test cricket. And who knows how much their pace will drop after have to bowl long overs on a consistent basis, or start playing other domestic formats.

 

[Xoib]

That's where you are wrong. Pakistan have always produced a plethora of left-arm spinners and off-break bowlers going back to the 1960s, who were hugely successful on these dry, barren wickets in domestic cricket. Because Pakistan happened to produce some great fast-bowlers in the succeeding years who were able to use reverse-swing to their advantage, Pakistan relied on them. But that has changed now because all the pacers are trundlers who don't have the pace nor the skill to use reverse-swing.

'This season'...I am talking about the last three years. All the wickets in domestic were taken by guys like Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Ali, Abbas...

You are living in a deluded fantasy if you still think that pace is our strength, because it’s not. We have one of the worst pace-attacks in test cricket. And the sad thing is that these are more or less the best fast-bowlers we have. There is no one better in domestic. The untested performers you named are 2-3 years away from being ready for test cricket. And who knows how much their pace will drop after have to bowl long overs on a consistent basis, or start playing other domestic formats.

Pakistan has produced 3 of the top 15 pacers in history of test cricket very few nations boast that record then we have had some real quality apart from top 3 Shoaib , Asif , Fazal
Mehmood would all qualify for NZl, SL, India AT XI on the other hand our spinners have mainly been just decent and below their other sub cont counterparts .

We are still producing 90 mph bowlers Shaheen , Naseem, Akif, Hasnain , Haris Wasim jr are all 90 mph bowlers when they started that just in this generation the solution is to manage your 90 mph bowlers properly their work load their injuries everything should be carefully managed so they can maintain their pace and stamina over the long term the solution is not to change your strengths to something you are not good to begin with

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

Pakistan has produced 3 of the top 15 pacers in history of test cricket very few nations boast that record then we have had some real quality apart from top 3 Shoaib , Asif , Fazal
Mehmood would all qualify for NZl, SL, India AT XI on the other hand our spinners have mainly been just decent and below their other sub cont counterparts .

We are still producing 90 mph bowlers Shaheen , Naseem, Akif, Hasnain , Haris Wasim jr are all 90 mph bowlers when they started that just in this generation the solution is to manage your 90 mph bowlers properly their work load their injuries everything should be carefully managed so they can maintain their pace and stamina over the long term the solution is not to change your strengths to something you are not good to begin with

If you compared Pakistan's fast-bwoling output to countries like Australia and South Africa, you will find that its a pittance. And how long are we going to keep living in the past? Fact is, no Pakistani fast-bowler has even taken 200 test wickets since Wasim and Waqar. For context, Ishant Sharma has 236 test wickets. That's an embarrassing stat that perfectly encapsulates where Pakistan's fast-bowling has been in the 21st century. While you can excuse an outlier like Shoaib, who was never supposed to have a long test career, you would think that even one half-decent pacer would have taken atleast 200 test wickets.

We can keep making excuses: he got injured, he was a match-fixer and so and so, but ultimately the simple reality is that we are not producing fast-bowlers who have what it takes to be successful at test cricket. I mean, how many times are we going to keep chalking it up to 'bad luck'?

Of all the current names you mentioned, none of them are capable of playing test cricket. Because they don't have the fitness, don't play enough FC cricket or in the case of someone like Hasnain, simply aren't good enough. If these guys played test cricket you would see one of two things; either their body would break down and they would get injured, or their pace would drop drastically by the second and third spell because they are not accustomed to bowling multiple spells at high-pace.

 

[Xoib]

If you compared Pakistan's fast-bwoling output to countries like Australia and South Africa, you will find that its a pittance. And how long are we going to keep living in the past? Fact is, no Pakistani fast-bowler has even taken 200 test wickets since Wasim and Waqar. For context, Ishant Sharma has 236 test wickets. That's an embarrassing stat that perfectly encapsulates where Pakistan's fast-bowling has been in the 21st century. While you can excuse an outlier like Shoaib, who was never supposed to have a long test career, you would think that even one half-decent pacer would have taken atleast 200 test wickets.

We can keep making excuses: he got injured, he was a match-fixer and so and so, but ultimately the simple reality is that we are not producing fast-bowlers who have what it takes to be successful at test cricket. I mean, how many times are we going to keep chalking it up to 'bad luck'?

Of all the current names you mentioned, none of them are capable of playing test cricket. Because they don't have the fitness, don't play enough FC cricket or in the case of someone like Hasnain, simply aren't good enough. If these guys played test cricket you would see one of two things; either their body would break down and they would get injured, or their pace would drop drastically by the second and third spell because they are not accustomed to bowling multiple spells at high-pace.

You ignored my Mian point and went on a tangent it’s not like we are incapable of producing 90 mph quicks what we are incapable of is managing those quicks to have a long successful career.

Simple business concept is when you have good raw material you work on developing the process to convert that raw material into a quality finished product you don’t abandon that raw material and look to produce something which you are not good at producing

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

You ignored my Mian point and went on a tangent it’s not like we are incapable of producing 90 mph quicks what we are incapable of is managing those quicks to have a long successful career.

Simple business concept is when you have good raw material you work on developing the process to convert that raw material into a quality finished product you don’t abandon that raw material and look to produce something which you are not good at producing

You misunderstood my point altogether. I could care less if someone bowls at 100 mph. If he can't bowl at that pace consistently in matches, it means absolutely nothing to me. Also, being able to bowl at 90 mph and being able to bowl well at 90 mph are two very different things. Mohammad Sami could hit 90 mph consistently. But he was a pretty rubbish and inconsistent bowler who was not cut out for test cricket. India's Umran Malik can bowl over 90 mph consistently. Doesn't mean he will be playing test cricket for India. Infact, I would be surprised to ever see him play for India again.

This is cricket, not construction. It's not as simple as you make it out to be. When your system is royally fudged systemically and from top to bottom, you have very little hope of producing test quality fast-bowlers. For anything to change, you first have to recognise that there is a problem. A serious reassessment needs to be done of fast-bowlers workloads, how their injuries are managed, how much cricket they are playing, and in particular, how much meaningless T20 cricket they are playing. Right now, when ever Pakistan get battered, the view within the PCB is very much that 'oh, they aren't playing enough domestic cricket', not that 'oh, we played Shaheen in a 5 match T20I series against New Zealand Z, that meant nothing and accomplished nothing.'

In other countries, they even estimate the number of balls that their premier bowlers will bowl in any given season or year. Pakistan has failed to keep up with the times and prioritise formats which has led to someone like Shaheen being run into the ground.

 

[khyberlion]

He's spot on. Might as well stop playing cricket with such pitches.

 

[FearlessRoar]

After looking at the situation with our pacers, I think Aaqib Javed's call for Pakistan to rely on a heavy spin attack is necessary.