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How hard is it to work the ball around and rotate the strike?

Amjid Javed

Amjid Javed

PakPassion's 100,000 posts man
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Mar 3, 2004
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When it comes to any format of the game Pakistan must be the undisputed kings of eating up dot balls,
we have players like Hafeez, Azhar, Shehzhad who have been playing international cricket for a significant length of time yet they cant even seem to do the basics of placing the ball into a gap and running a quick single, or playing with soft hands so that again a quick single can be run. Its pathetic to see how many of our batsmen cant even do this simple task, what do these guys actually work on invidiually or with the coaches when its clearly a weakness for most of them. Just watching players like Azhar currently needless eat up dot balls and exert extra pressure on himself or batsmen at other end is painful to watch, its shocking these guys are even playing international cricket when they havent even mastered the basics of the game! :facepalm:
 
Couldn't agree more.

The funny thing is we have Sarfaraz in the same squad , working with the same coaches who is exceptional with Strike rotation.

It is more of a mental thing I believe....Thoughts?
 
1. Dot ball King = WI. Not Pak.
2. Singles is tuk tuk cricket. Hit baby hit (swish and miss) is the new theme. I am going to be the next Universe boss.
 
Strike rotation is the basic skill of a batsman and what separates the wheat from the chaff. Even tailenders can hit boundaries, but it takes a lot talent and technical ability to rotate the strike against quality pace and spin, especially early in your innings.
 
Azhar will always be limited

Shan is there for non cricketing reasons


This is to be expected
 
Amjid have you not played cricket at a decent enough level mate :)) rotating the strike takes skill and you need to be technically sound; in fact it's more challenging then smashing boundaries, those who lack it try to make up for their inability through their ferocious temperament or in other instances find a way to turn their weakness into a strength but working the ball round is not as easy as you think not that am justifying the approach of our players but they're just not good enough in that aspect but Misbah's Pakistan have punched above their weight in the last 7 years through their grit , heart and determination
 
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Azhar averages 55 as an opener. I'm not going to moan about that when youngsta beauties like Babar average literally half as much.
 
Most difficult aspect of batting.

A batsman can rotate strike if ONLY he has all-round game - on both feet, in either side of wickets & has every shot on book. Bowlers won't make it easy by bowling "hit me" length-line, while Captains will block the scoring areas with his 9 fielders, therefore a batsman can rotate strike only if he has multiple shots with placement, timing, sound defence, good belence & great shot selection with batting intelligence. Most of the players who can rotate strike are technically sound, can play every shot on book & has all-round game. But, that's not true for players who scores high % from boundary - be it Afridi or Warner.

PAK players are technically limited, groomed on low-slow wickets, which takes out most of their shot making ability, therefore they are subject to tied down - unless bowlers bowl in their "zone" most of them actually struggles to piercer the in field. Pinnacle of PAK batting in domestics is Misbah, Azhar, Fawad, Ahmed or Asad (Hasan Raza, Faisal Iqbal ...) - players with hardly any flair, back lift or off side game. This is mainly because of the wickets they are groomed on - that eventually makes them struggle in Internationals, where the wicket is far, far better to bat, but so is bowling, fielding & Captaincy standards.
 
And we want to play modern cricket.. These are the pretty basics that we lack.. hope the end of an era will change the mentality of these players...
 
Big Mac said:
Azhar averages 55 as an opener. I'm not going to moan about that when youngsta beauties like Babar average literally half as much.
Click to expand...

The post wasn't just about Azhar... Azhar has an excellent Average and hios strike rate was fine when he was battint at one down but other openers.. Shafique and Legend they all play this tukk tukk game and somehow Ahar has adopted this method which is creating a bit of an issue because he has been our best Test batsman lately..
 
shaz619 said:
Amjid have you not played cricket at a decent enough level mate :)) rotating the strike takes skill and you need to be technically sound; in fact it's more challenging then smashing boundaries, those who lack it try to make up for their inability through their ferocious temperament or in other instances find a way to turn their weakness into a strength but working the ball round is not as easy as you think not that am justifying the approach of our players but they're just not good enough in that aspect but Misbah's Pakistan have punched above their weight in the last 7 years through their grit , heart and determination
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Misbah's Pakistan is also on the longest losing streak in Pakistan history with 7 defeats in 8 matches. For some odd reason this fact gets ignored by you folks. Sure showed some grit, heart and determination when they got bowled out for 81 against 8 ranked West Indies.
 
Syed1 said:
Misbah's Pakistan is also on the longest losing streak in Pakistan history with 7 defeats in 8 matches. For some odd reason this fact gets ignored by you folks. Sure showed some grit, heart and determination when they got bowled out for 81 against 8 ranked West Indies.
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Yeah sure those recent defeats are of greater significance in our overall assessment of their accomplishments, it's like having a go at Wasim Akram for the 1999 WC final loss and making that out to be the defining moment of his career. Barring Imran Khan's Pakistan and Bob Woolmer's Pakistan, there has not been a Pakistani Test team more formidable then Misbah's Pakistan and I'd have thought we'd be more appreciative of that fact. We remain undefeated in the UAE and had our best series in England since 1996 enroute to becoming the no.1 team in the world those are also a consequence of recent events beyond those 7 defeats. The WI's won a test in the UAE but we still won the series and they've beaten us now but the series is still alive, we were ill prepared for the tour of NZ and did poorly in AUS like many teams before us failed to break the jinx.

Simply, England was our peak; since then our team has aged significantly and is in decline; quiet simply, our team has been heavily reliant on Khan/Misbah; when they do well the team wins more often then not and the numbers prove that which highlight their importance beyond their technical limitations which they've made up for through heart, grit and determination; qualities which Pakistani Test teams have lacked for decades.
 
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It's actually very hard to rotate strike. It's not easy to do unless you play variety of shots. There is reason that batsmen like YK and Misbah can still make it in test but don't have skills to do well in ODI format where you have to rotate strike.
 
Not easy. Our best strike rotation came from Yusuf and Inzi. Since then, we've seen Umar Akmal & Malik who are able to rotate strike, but the former gives his wicket away and the latter only does that against spinners in the middle-overs.

For Pakistanis, this is extremely hard :)
 
shaz619 said:
Yeah sure those recent defeats are of greater significance in our overall assessment of their accomplishments, it's like having a go at Wasim Akram for the 1999 WC final loss and making that out to be the defining moment of his career. Barring Imran Khan's Pakistan and Bob Woolmer's Pakistan, there has not been a Pakistani Test team more formidable then Misbah's Pakistan and I'd have thought we'd be more appreciative of that fact. We remain undefeated in the UAE and had our best series in England since 1996 enroute to becoming the no.1 team in the world those are also a consequence of recent events beyond those 7 defeats. The WI's won a test in the UAE but we still won the series and they've beaten us now but the series is still alive, we were ill prepared for the tour of NZ and did poorly in AUS like many teams before us failed to break the jinx.

Simply, England was our peak; since then our team has aged significantly and is in decline; quiet simply, our team has been heavily reliant on Khan/Misbah; when they do well the team wins more often then not and the numbers prove that which highlight their importance beyond their technical limitations which they've made up for through heart, grit and determination; qualities which Pakistani Test teams have lacked for decades.
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No use in arguing with a Misbah hater. Misbah is responsible for everything wrong with Pakistan cricket for him.
 
Hasan123 said:
No use in arguing with a Misbah hater. Misbah is responsible for everything wrong with Pakistan cricket for him.
Click to expand...

He's a good poster but not Misbah's biggest fan :)) anyhow in this moment the least I expect is some respect with the two stalwarts on the brink of retirement and they have done a lot for Pakistan, it's unfair to judge Misbah based on these 7 defeats it's like me defining Arsene Wenger by his run as manager since 05 and neglecting what he achieved with invincibles :afridi or maybe I can :yk lmao it has been a very long and dry dry spell for you. Anyhow we musn't define people entirely by their defeats unless they outweigh all the good you did and Misbah has accomplished great wonders beyond those losses
 
shaz619 said:
He's a good poster but not Misbah's biggest fan :)) anyhow in this moment the least I expect is some respect with the two stalwarts on the brink of retirement and they have done a lot for Pakistan, it's unfair to judge Misbah based on these 7 defeats it's like me defining Arsene Wenger by his run as manager since 05 and neglecting what he achieved with invincibles :afridi or maybe I can :yk lmao it has been a very long and dry dry spell for you. Anyhow we musn't define people entirely by their defeats unless they outweigh all the good you did and Misbah has accomplished great wonders beyond those losses
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Well said. Which is why I don't downplay what Wenger has already achieved .
 
I love how people (Well, the usual suspects) keep bringing up "the worst run of defeats ever" to discredit this team.

When Misbah took over as captain in Nov 2010 against South Africa, Pakistan hadn't won a test series since November 2006. That's four whole years without winning a test series and now the sky is falling in because we lost two series in a row and we long for the glory days of Asif, Amir and the Australian GOAT Salman Butt even though WE HADN'T WON A TEST SERIES IN FOUR BLOODY YEARS.

Complete nonsense.
 
Big Mac said:
I love how people (Well, the usual suspects) keep bringing up "the worst run of defeats ever" to discredit this team.

When Misbah took over as captain in Nov 2010 against South Africa, Pakistan hadn't won a test series since November 2006. That's four whole years without winning a test series and now the sky is falling in because we lost two series in a row and we long for the glory days of Asif, Amir and the Australian GOAT Salman Butt even though WE HADN'T WON A TEST SERIES IN FOUR BLOODY YEARS.

Complete nonsense.
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Asif is one of the greatest bowlers in history I admire his skill with the ball and Amir was great during that period to but what we lacked was a leader like Misbah, no one inspired quiet like him and had a real command over the dressing room since the Inzi/Bob era completely ended.
 
It's a problem that exists with Pakistani batsmen.

Rotating the strike effectively is an art that's hard to master, it's not that easy as you say.
 
Big Mac said:
I love how people (Well, the usual suspects) keep bringing up "the worst run of defeats ever" to discredit this team.

When Misbah took over as captain in Nov 2010 against South Africa, Pakistan hadn't won a test series since November 2006. That's four whole years without winning a test series and now the sky is falling in because we lost two series in a row and we long for the glory days of Asif, Amir and the Australian GOAT Salman Butt even though WE HADN'T WON A TEST SERIES IN FOUR BLOODY YEARS.

Complete nonsense.
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We played only 4 matches in Pakistan in between that

Misbah would have had a similar record as well.
 
Its hard but with practise it can be done and is being done with most International Batsmen.

At International level a Bastmen is expected to have a decent enough technique to be able to do it. No other team apart from Pak and West Indies have a problem with this and both have a dire First Class System, that tells you everything you need to know about the subject
 
Big Mac said:
I love how people (Well, the usual suspects) keep bringing up "the worst run of defeats ever" to discredit this team.

When Misbah took over as captain in Nov 2010 against South Africa, Pakistan hadn't won a test series since November 2006. That's four whole years without winning a test series and now the sky is falling in because we lost two series in a row and we long for the glory days of Asif, Amir and the Australian GOAT Salman Butt even though WE HADN'T WON A TEST SERIES IN FOUR BLOODY YEARS.

Complete nonsense.
Click to expand...

May be because cricket is a team sport and it takes a TEAM to win? Last test Yasir's 7fer set up the match, but what happened? Our batsmen collectively failed and that's been the biggest reason behind our defeats. So in that time period when Asif was dominating, our batting was failing to deliver. Especially that 2010 tour. A more competent batting line up in 2010 could very well have delivered a 3-1 series win over England or 2-2 draw at the least.

Asif and Amir did their part as bowlers to set up the matches but our batsmen failed not to mention the shambolic slip catching !!
 
Post YK-Misbah era, we need to construct a team where strike rotation is an integral part of our scoring. For that we need to select players capable of it. In the test format, Fawad Alam is there. For LOIs besides Sarf and aging Malik, we need to find replacements.

3 singles or odd boundary hitting can easily net 270-300 runs in a day's play generally even with conservative approach.

Whereas 3 singles and a boundary/over in LOIs can yield high scores without extravagant risk taking.
 
shaz619 said:
Amjid have you not played cricket at a decent enough level mate :)) rotating the strike takes skill and you need to be technically sound; in fact it's more challenging then smashing boundaries, those who lack it try to make up for their inability through their ferocious temperament or in other instances find a way to turn their weakness into a strength but working the ball round is not as easy as you think not that am justifying the approach of our players but they're just not good enough in that aspect but Misbah's Pakistan have punched above their weight in the last 7 years through their grit , heart and determination
Click to expand...

Ive played cricket at a pretty decent level for over 10 years+ and one thing you need to do as a batsmen is work on your game and weaknesses. When i first start playing it was all about just smashing the ball to the boundary and very rarely running, but over time i worked with senior players and captain and overseas pro at the club i played for and worked on playing with softer hands and also learning to improve my footwork and pushing ball into gaps, we had plenty of cricket drills to practice this. These guys are international cricketers we are talking about and it looks like they arent even working on anything to improve their game!
 
Its a combination of mental ineptness and technical ineptitude which culminates in a player getting bogged down on crease, rendering him incapable to run a single and get to the other end to save his life. Something Azhar Ali - the so called best batsman in Pakistan's Test lineup & the promised one to take Pakistan to the dawn of new age after MisYou retire - is a perfect quintessence of. When your best batsman lacks such basic skill, can't pierce the gap to run for a single even if his life depended on it, that pretty much sums up the shambles we're in as a cricketing nation. There is no point in adulating a snail paced ugly innings of 50 (150) at top of the order as it does more harm than good, we've seen time and again how such cowardly approach come back to haunt us in later part of Test but to be fair to him or other batsmen we've in our lineup, that's all they have got, they don't possess the requisite skill-set to become quality all round batsmen and it has to do with the grooming at grass roots level.
 
Next time one of our batsmen is interviewed by PP, they should be asked what they actually do interms of practice or lack of it when it comes to this aspect of the game.
 
This is atrocious batting...

I'm sorry but it truly is. One man is only interested in getting his hundred. If he gets out shortly after it'd be an empty effort.
 
Amjid Javed said:
When it comes to any format of the game Pakistan must be the undisputed kings of eating up dot balls,
we have players like Hafeez, Azhar, Shehzhad who have been playing international cricket for a significant length of time yet they cant even seem to do the basics of placing the ball into a gap and running a quick single, or playing with soft hands so that again a quick single can be run. Its pathetic to see how many of our batsmen cant even do this simple task, what do these guys actually work on invidiually or with the coaches when its clearly a weakness for most of them. Just watching players like Azhar currently needless eat up dot balls and exert extra pressure on himself or batsmen at other end is painful to watch, its shocking these guys are even playing international cricket when they havent even mastered the basics of the game! :facepalm:
Click to expand...

You missed the actual kings of dot balls.
 
They're currently sitting [lying asleep] 200-3 but could be 200-5 and could be very soon if nothing changes.

Then what? What has batting like this accomplished exactly? If they don't score 450-500 it's been a shocking dereliction of duty by these batsmen.
 
I somewhat defended this type of batting in the last test, simply because it felt necessary in the conditions but the ball is doing nothing here and these guys are batting at barely 2 an over. Are they looking to get themselves into a tight spot? Batting for their average? Or what?
 
Sirfraz had no issues working ball around and being proactive! yet the rest of team cant! its a joke!
 
Mamoon said:
For Misbah, it is harder than licking his elbow.
Click to expand...

More than limited ability, It's about intent and approach to batting which a guy like Misbah has never been able to understand really. We have Sarfraz playing from the same side and yet he scores at a much better rate.

Sometimes with Misbah and co. it goes onto such an extent that the bowler would have more chance of getting wicket on a rubbish ball than being hit for a four or six.
 
Hitman said:
Dravid once scored 5 off 65 balls before being dismissed. It was during India's tour of Australia 2008.
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Forget about test format.

0 off 15, 2 off 27, 6 off 42 was score by some one when batting first in the last WC in do or die situation.
 
Buffet said:
Forget about test format.

0 off 15, 2 off 27, 6 off 42 was score by some one when batting first in the last WC in do or die situation.
Click to expand...

Harsh to expect such a limited player to bat much faster than that though :sanga
 
Supposidly the coach and batsmen have been working on strike rotation and strike rates! Pathetic how same problems still occuring!
 
As soon as Fakhar gets out early in an inns the rest of batsmen feel need to eat up dot balls like its going out of fashion
 
As I said before, its hard but can be learned and should be practised. The issue with Shezzy is that we are no seeing any improvements.
 
Apart from W.Indies, pakistan have to be right up their in terms of teams who are the worst at strike rotation! :facepalm:
 
The best players in the world are and were all one of the best strike rotators. When Kohli was becoming a beast, he'd hid 4-5 boundaries and score rest with his strike rotation. Sachin did the same and so was every other players.
 
Said it before.. these players especially shezzy and Hafeez hiding behind 30 ball 40/50 of Fakhar. The moment he gets out early we are 30-3. I mean its not rocket science when you see that other teams SR is way above ours. and then there is Babar who plays dot after dot after dot just take a single go to other end
 
Again without sounding like a parrot, our age-old problem came back to haunt us. As we saw in the Asia Cup, we again got bogged down by tight bowling and not rotating the strike to ease the pressure. However, the Indian openers were able to do this effortlessly. Fakhar ended up giving the charge and ultimately his wicket when he was unable to get the BD bowlers away.

i think this is the single most critical issue we need to address as far as our batting is concerned. The boundaries will still come. Heck, even if you take singles on every single delivery, you still reach 300 runs every single time. it seems to me, our players are always looking for a big shot while content to block every other delivery. Obviously this becomes a problem if the fielding side is playing well or the pitch is a minefield.

Although we had made some improvements in this aspect, we seem to have gone back to our rotten old ways during the Asia Cup. This is something that Mickey and his support staff will need to look at urgently if we're to ensure our batting isn't always collapsing like nine pins in ODI's.
 
They can't expect to show up at the game and play with soft hands and stuff and rotate the strike. These things should be ingrained in the minds of our cricketers through hours of practice. Repeatedly getting throw downs and hitting the ball between the fielders, or playing with soft hands so that the ball doesn't even hit the side of the net.

Secondly, each individual player should know how long it takes them to take a run, and how long it takes for the fielder to get the ball back to the wicket keeper and the ball back to the bowling end so they know whether or not they can take the run or not. These things are even taught to club cricketers but either our players aren't practicing like this, or the practice isn't having any effect on them.

To be a good batsman one must have a solid defence off both front and back feet, ability to rotate strike either side of the wicket of the front and back foot. The ability to play the basic shots: drives/pushes off the front and back feet to a good standard. The ability to play the cut. late cut, pull, hook to a good standard.

And two or three "modern" shots which they can use to get a boundary even against good bowling.

Right now our batsmen are just bits and pieces batsmen, while all other teams' top three or four batsmen possess all the abilities listed above.
 
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