Savak
World Star
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- Feb 16, 2006
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How can the PCB better manage & get the best out of their pacers given the volume of cricket today?
Pakistan has the following bowlers at their disposal
Mohammad Amir
Mohammad Abbas
Junaid Khan
Wahab Riaz
Rahat Ali
Usman Khan Shinwari
Shaheen Shah Afridi
Faheem Ashraf
Mohammad Hasanain
Haris Rauf
Muhammad Musa
Some of these bowlers have shown the ability to bowl at 145-150 km/hr plus and some at around 140-145 km/hr. But too often i have seen a lot of these bowlers given that as they play more and more games, they tend to slow down and become much slower and ineffective where they start bowling at 128-132 km/hr.
For me Mohd Amir is a classic example. When he first came back to Cricket in 2016, he was bowling at 140-147 km/hr in his first couple of come back series but he has bowled a lot of overs in international cricket between 2016 and 2019 today where he has practically played in all the T-20 leagues and all international games for Pakistan and the end result we can see in front of us where he now trundles at 130-135 km/hr.
Same is the case with Junaid Khan who initially at the start of his career operated in the late 130's to early 140's but then as he played more and more games, started to slow down and trundling.
Similarly there are spells where Wahab has bowled in the late 140's and even early 150's but then as the volume of cricket has gone up, he has tended to operate in the late 130's to early 140's.
Usman Shinwari, Shaheen Afridi bowl in the late 130's to early 140's, but if they too get run to the ground, they too will start trundling.
Pakistan has a large pool of pace options. We are not using it to our advantage. We need to take a leaf out of Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa where they preserve their main pacers like Steyn, Rabada from useless ODI's, T-20 series and even rest them from inconsequential test matches. It's no wonder why Australian pacers like Starc and South African pacers like Steyn and Rabada tend to bowl at higher speeds in comparison to pacers from other countries.
Amir in an interview all mentioned that Pakistan is blessed to have plenty of pace options and the team management needed to utilize this to their advantage. He mentioned that the way the pacers on average needed to managed and utilized is that play a fast bowler for 45-50 test matches in his entire career as oppossed to a hundred but give the pacer the best possible opportunity where he bowls and runs in at full throttle at 145-150 km/hr throughout those 45-50 test matches as oppossed to trundling in at 128-132 km/hr for 100 test matches.
I believe there is merit behind this approach. Out of the list mentioned only the likes of Faheem Ashraf and Mohd Abbas can be expected to do the donkey work of bowling 20 plus overs a day, maybe Pakistan can find other donkey work pacers in domestic cricket but the guys who bowl around the 140-150 km/hr need to be managed in such a way that they can bowl at those speeds for 45-50 matches for Pakistan so that Pakistan gets the best out of them.
I wonder if the PCB and Mickey Arthur and co even acknowledge that this is a serious problem for the team?
Pakistan has the following bowlers at their disposal
Mohammad Amir
Mohammad Abbas
Junaid Khan
Wahab Riaz
Rahat Ali
Usman Khan Shinwari
Shaheen Shah Afridi
Faheem Ashraf
Mohammad Hasanain
Haris Rauf
Muhammad Musa
Some of these bowlers have shown the ability to bowl at 145-150 km/hr plus and some at around 140-145 km/hr. But too often i have seen a lot of these bowlers given that as they play more and more games, they tend to slow down and become much slower and ineffective where they start bowling at 128-132 km/hr.
For me Mohd Amir is a classic example. When he first came back to Cricket in 2016, he was bowling at 140-147 km/hr in his first couple of come back series but he has bowled a lot of overs in international cricket between 2016 and 2019 today where he has practically played in all the T-20 leagues and all international games for Pakistan and the end result we can see in front of us where he now trundles at 130-135 km/hr.
Same is the case with Junaid Khan who initially at the start of his career operated in the late 130's to early 140's but then as he played more and more games, started to slow down and trundling.
Similarly there are spells where Wahab has bowled in the late 140's and even early 150's but then as the volume of cricket has gone up, he has tended to operate in the late 130's to early 140's.
Usman Shinwari, Shaheen Afridi bowl in the late 130's to early 140's, but if they too get run to the ground, they too will start trundling.
Pakistan has a large pool of pace options. We are not using it to our advantage. We need to take a leaf out of Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa where they preserve their main pacers like Steyn, Rabada from useless ODI's, T-20 series and even rest them from inconsequential test matches. It's no wonder why Australian pacers like Starc and South African pacers like Steyn and Rabada tend to bowl at higher speeds in comparison to pacers from other countries.
Amir in an interview all mentioned that Pakistan is blessed to have plenty of pace options and the team management needed to utilize this to their advantage. He mentioned that the way the pacers on average needed to managed and utilized is that play a fast bowler for 45-50 test matches in his entire career as oppossed to a hundred but give the pacer the best possible opportunity where he bowls and runs in at full throttle at 145-150 km/hr throughout those 45-50 test matches as oppossed to trundling in at 128-132 km/hr for 100 test matches.
I believe there is merit behind this approach. Out of the list mentioned only the likes of Faheem Ashraf and Mohd Abbas can be expected to do the donkey work of bowling 20 plus overs a day, maybe Pakistan can find other donkey work pacers in domestic cricket but the guys who bowl around the 140-150 km/hr need to be managed in such a way that they can bowl at those speeds for 45-50 matches for Pakistan so that Pakistan gets the best out of them.
I wonder if the PCB and Mickey Arthur and co even acknowledge that this is a serious problem for the team?
