How bad must Azhar Ali, Yasir Shah and Fakhar Zaman be to have failed in South Africa?

[Junaids]

We have seen in recent years that the South African team is in decline. Steep, steep decline.

Twelve months ago they defeated Pakistan 3-0 at home, only to immediately lose 2-0 to a puny Sri Lanka team, and now they are losing to a very weak England team.

The thing is, when you look back at the 2018-19 series in South Africa, it was actually a low-scoring series between two teams which were fairly evenly matched, except for the fact that 3 Pakistan players were absolutely rubbish.

Azhar Ali: 59 runs in 6 innings at an average of 9.83
Fakhar Zaman: 32 runs in 4 innings at an average of 8.00
Yasir Shah: 1 wicket in 2 Tests at an average of 123.00.

If you take out those three players and their pathetic and paltry contributions, the rest of the Pakistan team did no worse than their South African opponents.

But you really do have to wonder how Azhar Ali and Yasir Shah continue to get picked at Test level when their contributions were so bad. And were just as bad all over again eleven months later in Australia.

Consider these head-to-head performances in the same series:

Yasir Shah: 1 wicket in 2 Tests at 123.00
Shadab Khan: 4 wickets in 1 Test at 20.00.

I would add another example:

Hasan Ali: 6 wickets in 2 Tests at 44.50
Faheem Ashraf: 6 wickets in 1 Test at 16.50

 

[Bhaijaan]

Its strange but most teams usually operate at their best when playing Pakistan. Either by plan or accident.

They were tormented by a tall bouncer barrage machine who never played again. That's Pakistan's qismat.

 

[HappyWarsFan]

Its strange but most teams usually operate at their best when playing Pakistan. Either by plan or accident.

They were tormented by a tall bouncer barrage machine who never played again. That's Pakistan's qismat.

Olivier played against Sri Lanka too.

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

Unfair. England always do well in South Africa. I think they've been winning there since atleast 2005/6. South Africa otherwise is a very tough team to beat at home. India and Australia both got beaten. Sri Lanka's win was something special altogether but still an anomaly. South Africa also does not have Steyn, Olivier, Morkel, and with a tiring Vern that makes the current South African attack pale in comparison to the 2018,19 attack

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

Its strange but most teams usually operate at their best when playing Pakistan. Either by plan or accident.

They were tormented by a tall bouncer barrage machine who never played again. That's Pakistan's qismat.

Last I checked Pakistan and India both lost in South Africa. And you can laugh all you want but till a couple of years back Indian batting was considered a joke in seaming conditions. It probably still is in England. Barring Kohli all batsmen looked like deer caught in the headlights.

 

[jnaveen1980]

Unfair. England always do well in South Africa. I think they've been winning there since atleast 2005/6. South Africa otherwise is a very tough team to beat at home. India and Australia both got beaten. Sri Lanka's win was something special altogether but still an anomaly. South Africa also does not have Steyn, Olivier, Morkel, and with a tiring Vern that makes the current South African attack pale in comparison to the 2018,19 attack

Srilanka's win coincided with ABDV's exit. So you could say his absence hurt them badly. Not just his batting was missing. Also Faf took inputs from childhood buddy ABDV from time to time. Faf looked different when he was with AB.

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

Srilanka's win coincided with ABDV's exit. So you could say his absence hurt them badly. Not just his batting was missing. Also Faf took inputs from childhood buddy ABDV from time to time. Faf looked different when he was with AB.

True but the South African batting was still pretty good. Sri Lanka won the series because they tamed South Africa's vicious pace attack.

 

[AFM]

Srilanka's win coincided with ABDV's exit. So you could say his absence hurt them badly. Not just his batting was missing. Also Faf took inputs from childhood buddy ABDV from time to time. Faf looked different when he was with AB.

No it didn't. DeVilliers retired after the sandpaper series. When we played them, there was no ABDV.

 

[Junaids]

How on earth do Don Bess and Joe Root spin out South Africa, while Yasir Shah got clubbed like a seal?

How does Mark Wood look like Donald Bradman compared with Azhar Ali and Fakhar Zaman?

 

[ind_win]

This SA side will see more teams coming to beat them - Ind, Nz will soon join the list - Eng & Aus have always done well in SA. It could be due to quota system or lack of natural talent pool, SA is probably weaker than Pakistan or even BD at the moment in Test cricket format. With Philander retiring, bowling is weakened further. As for the current tour, no Abd, amla, steyn, morkel from the team that India lost against. No comparison. Still, one has to play well and Eng did that.