How to improve our engine room?

[Flat_Track_Bully]

I heard the term "engine room" quite a few times by the pundits in the BT Sports coverage.

So engine room consists of batting positions 5,6,7,8. This determines if a team can make 300+ or be subdued to a 250-260 score.

So what is our engine room right now?

Malik
Umar Akmal
Rizwan/Sarfraz
Imad

Do we have any batters in domestics that can strike cleaning at 90+ SR? How do we produce a Maxwell or a Dhoni? Have we been putting too much emphasis on the top order and ignored this section of the batting unit?

 

[silent ischemia]

Sarfraz, Saad Ali, Saud Shakeel, Kamran Ghulam and Aamir yameen
This is the best we have that I can think of and apart from Sarfraz the rest are ordinary.
Psl may help

 

[Syed1]

Let me break it down a bit in terms of what we have at the moment:

Malik - can only milk the spinners and medium pacers, sharp decline in SR as soon as fast bowlers come on.

Umar Akmal - the less said the better. This guy is fat, has zero temperament and frankly speaking I'm beginning to think this "potential" business is just a massive con played by his fan. There is no potential. He is a TTF. Drop him ASAP.

Sarfaraz - see Malik

Imad - see Malik, but has slightly better SR against pacers. Not good enough to strike at 120-150. Also has snobby attitude despite zero performance to date.

 

[Slog]

Sarfraz, Saad Ali, Saud Shakeel, Kamran Ghulam and Aamir yameen
This is the best we have that I can think of and apart from Sarfraz the rest are ordinary.
Psl may help

dont know about the other youngsters youve named aside from Saud

But Saud is a 90s odi cricketer.

 

[Syed1]

Sarfraz, Saad Ali, Saud Shakeel, Kamran Ghulam and Aamir yameen
This is the best we have that I can think of and apart from Sarfraz the rest are ordinary.
Psl may help

None of those youngsters have been selected in PSL (apart from Yamin) so no PSL will not help

 

[silent ischemia]

I meant to say that psl may unearth a hitter for us like Ipl unearthed jadhav and kl Rahul. Or psl may help guys like Haris and Babar in improving power hitting as I play did for sharma

 

[Syed1]

I meant to say that psl may unearth a hitter for us like Ipl unearthed jadhav and kl Rahul. Or psl may help guys like Haris and Babar in improving power hitting as I play did for sharma

When you have 42 year old Misbah playing and captaining a T20 side when he has no future in the sport you know the PSL is not going to find any talent. You may find some hidden gem like Hassan, but there is very tiny chance of that.

 

[Slog]

I meant to say that psl may unearth a hitter for us like Ipl unearthed jadhav and kl Rahul. Or psl may help guys like Haris and Babar in improving power hitting as I play did for sharma

the problem is PSL only has about 35 Pakistanis playing (7 local players per side for 5 teams)

And about 25 of those 35 are probably alreayd internationals so we know about them

Its not really throwing any 'new' talent per se because not many new players are playing

Last season arguably only Nawaz was a real find and its not like he is some world beater

 

[Justcrazy]

To be honest , Pakistan will have to make long term plans , maybe that way you will get results after 3 - 5 years. There is no short fixes.

The fitness , hunger , determination , power hitting, mind set etc all has to be changed.

India were 24 - 3 , the batsmen following did not get bog down , they knew it was a 350 runs pitch , they got 380 .

Pakistan under similar situation would have been happy to get 250 . That is the change they have to bring.

 

[Haleem-ul-Hassan]

When you have Malik, Asad Shafiq, Rizwan, Umar Akmal, Imad Wasim playing in your 'engine room' , what do you expect? Literally when I see the team they select to represent Pakistan, in my heart I know we dont deserve to win. How can we? With a selection like that, with players like that.....Just compare each and every one of these players objectively, to the engine room of India, England, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. What is on paper, is what we are seeing on screen as a result. Absolutely no mystery to it. A team rightly sitting at number 8 (or is it 9) in the rankings, with no intention or action to by anyone in the management to even try to improve it. We dont deserve to win a single game against a quality side, and if we do, consider that as a blessing from God, that He has pity on these bunch of losers and grants them an odd win here or there.

 

[Chief Destroyer]

Other than Shahzaib, I don't see anyone else in domestic with calculated shots. I've heard of Kamran Ghulam but I haven't seen much of him.

 

[Madplayer]

Guys like amir yamim, saud shakeel should be a permanent fixture of the LOI side. Instead we have shafiq , rahat, nawaz and co

 

[Mamoon]

We can't, we simply have been left behind and we can't bridge the gap. It will take a decade of hard work and proper planning, which we are not capable of.

 

[Slog]

Guys like amir yamim, saud shakeel should be a permanent fixture of the LOI side. Instead we have shafiq , rahat, nawaz and co

you are only naming amir yamin and saud shakeel because they arent in the squad

if they had been in the squad you would have been asking for shafiq and nawaz

 

[Madplayer]

you are only naming amir yamin and saud shakeel because they arent in the squad

if they had been in the squad you would have been asking for shafiq and nawaz

Thats an insult to my intelligence I would never ask for shafiq to be included.

Amir yamin will actually be a good addition to LOI team. Trust me on this. Refer back to me whenever he is given an opportunity and tell me if i was wrong.

And saud shakeel is the next big thing for Pakistan after babar azam. Can vouch for him.

 

[Square Drive]

Sarfraz, Hafeez, Yamin, Imad.

That's probably the best we can get.

 

[Hasan123]

We may have to take a risk on Maqsood, Latif or someone like that. Honestly there aren't many opitions.

 

[Syed1]

you are only naming amir yamin and saud shakeel because they arent in the squad

if they had been in the squad you would have been asking for shafiq and nawaz

Our only 'hope' left is with PSL throwing up a couple of names. Other than that we are stuck with this present lot.

 

[Haleem-ul-Hassan]

Maqsood is a tried and tested failure Hasan, how can you take a risk on him? He couldnt perform in internationals, then he couldnt perform in domestic, and then oddly enough he was made captain of pakistan A and failed there as well. As for Latif, he has ZERO ability to rotate strike, and will struggle immensely against pace and the moving ball. We can come to the point where our bar has been brought down so low that we, including many posters here on this website are looking for heroes in completely ordinary and limited cricketers (Latif, Nawaz, Rizwan, Shafiq, Hafeez etc). Sorry of state of affairs. I just hope some new fresh talent is accidently given a chance to play for Pakistan and he proves his worth and actually plays FOR the team, rather than FROM the team. Huge difference.

 

[MMHS]

Actually power hitting doesn't come from size. It's a coordination of fast reflex, good jeduement to get under the length, high back-lift, fast bat speed, full bat swing, shift of body weight, balance, strong & steady head & feet etc.

Take this guy Kedar Yadav - 5'5", may 5'6"; stockily built on solid pair of legs. His bat speed is like windmill & bat swing almost like golf tea shots. He was waiting for Pom pacers to bowl him short & he belted them in crowd like a samurai. Even our Momin is 5'2", 120lbs .... he has over 50% runs in boundaries.

I think, free swing has gone out of PAK batting - most are Fawad Alam - Zero back lift, deflection players. This power hitting practice actually doesn't work much - hitting in nets is good for muscles, which I think there is enough - need application. SCG is the smallest Aussie ground now by playing surface - has anyone noticed; yesterday Aussie spinners got about 5 wickets - all skiers, trying to slog sweep. When Zampa was bowling with mid on & off inside - not a single dancing down the wicket shot. People say, I exaggerate olden cricketers - may be, but Shane won't have got way with that field against Zaheer, Mazid, Javed or Asif or even Imran; may be Zampa was too good.

Bottom line is, apart from YK, more or less I can name half a dozen BD batsmen (& half a dozen from each major Ranji side) that actually lofts spinners better than anyone in PAK team, barring Malik may be. And Misbah style slog hoik is almost dinosaurs these days...

The wickets has to change in domestics - those who plays tennis would know what it's like to play forehand on clay court & hard court.

 

[ask_analyse_act]

PSL will not help now but in the future, PSL is yet to be played as a youngster tournament... afridi and misbah are still playing, in that way i appreciate MYK for staying away from it... Misbah and Afridi has developed a virus being as captain which is having their friends in the 11 or atleast in the squad not matter how bad they perform, this is now taken and followed by Azhar and sarfraz the LOI captains in all the teams that they are captains.. having said this PSL has given Sharjeel and hasan ali for LOIs

 

[Markhor]

We need better domestic pitches. How will you encourage strokeplayers and power hitters on damp, slow low wickets ?

These wickets do nothing but encourage survival.

Also PCB should think out of the box. England hired a hitting coach in Julian Wood, who has a background in baseball and has helped England players adopt baseball style techniques that help with power hitting.

 

[Ellipsism]

Sarfraz, Saad Ali, Saud Shakeel, Kamran Ghulam and Aamir yameen
This is the best we have that I can think of and apart from Sarfraz the rest are ordinary.
Psl may help

Only Kamran Ghulam and Amir Yamin to an extent have the capability to hit the big shots.

Saad Ali, Saud Shakeel and Sarfaraz are all accumulators.

 

[Hawkeye]

Only Kamran Ghulam and Amir Yamin to an extent have the capability to hit the big shots.

Saad Ali, Saud Shakeel and Sarfaraz are all accumulators.

Saud is better than the likes of Malik/Sarfraz/Rizwan/Shafiq.

He's more in the mould of Babar, but yes, he's not someone who can go after the ball and take on bowlers on a regular basis.

A good stroke player though. Can only be included if others are not accumulators around him.

 

[Saj]

The car has no wheels. Having an engine will not make any difference at all.

 

[Seamer]

We need to be brave and introduce new players in the odi team, I would pick this team for WI tour:

1. Sharjeel Khan
2. Imam ul Haq
3. Babar Azam
4. Saud Shakeel
5. Sarfaraz (c)
6. Maqsood
7. Aamer Yamin
8. Imad Wasim
9. Amir
10. Hassan Ali
11. Junaid Khan

 

[Flat_Track_Bully]

The car has no wheels. Having an engine will not make any difference at all.

Little bit harsh Saj don't you think. We have got good starts. In the last 2 matches top order did a decent job. The issue is what our batters are doing after the 30th over. Just unable to accelerate.

 

[adzzy786]

I tell what they need to do is start eating properly get in the gym and put on some muscle so they have some power to clear the ropes!

 

[Hawkeye]

We need to be brave and introduce new players in the odi team, I would pick this team for WI tour:

1. Sharjeel Khan
2. Imam ul Haq
3. Babar Azam
4. Saud Shakeel
5. Sarfaraz (c)
6. Maqsood
7. Aamer Yamin
8. Imad Wasim
9. Amir
10. Hassan Ali
11. Junaid Khan

It's a very decent team, much better than the current one. However, still lacks firepower.

I'd put in Haris Sohail in place of Sarfraz, and include Umar Akmal as well as one of Shahzaib or Latif in there somehow.

1. Sharjeel
2. Shahzaib/Khalid
3. Babar Azam
4. Haris Sohail
5. Saud Shakeel/Imam ul Haq (similar type players)
6. Umar Akmal (wk)
7. Maqsood/Shadab
8. Yamin/Imad
9. Hasan Ali
10. Amir (c)
11. Asghar/Sohail Khan

If Haris is injured, then both Saud and Imam can play.