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In Tests, Pakistan should respect New Zealand, but not fear them

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Junaids

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I have been a little surprised by the number of "36 all out comments" that are doing the rounds currently.

I used to live in New Zealand, I still have a Kiwi passport and I have been there at least once every year since 1994.

And I can tell you: New Zealand's cricket team should be respected, but it should not be feared.

New Zealand has one world class talent: Kane Williamson. And he is a batsman whom any team can prepare bowling plans for in Tests, because he plays with hard hands and leaves too few balls outside off-stump. He is a 8/10 test player.

After that there is not exactly a glut of talent. Tom Latham is a 7/10 Test player, while Ross Taylor used to be a 8/10 but now is in cricketing old age and is a 5/10.

And that, frankly, is that in terms of batsmen. Tom Blundell is 30 years old and has 453 Test runs in his life. Henry Nicholls is a deeply flawed 29 year old with less than 2000 Test runs.

New Zealand has lost the balance that Colin De Grandhomme gave them as a swing bowling all-rounder. His place at Number 6 has now gone to Daryl Mitchell, who is 30 next birthday and has 124 Test runs in his life, a First Class batting average of 37, and 80 First Class wickets in 76 matches. He makes Hammad Azam look like Andrew Flintoff.

BJ Watling has been an excellent batsman-wicketkeeper, who was previously in the same class as Mohammad Rizwan, but age has caught up with him and in Australia last year he looked far, far inferior to Rizwan with both bat and gloves.

Mitchell Santner is the spinner - and he has 39 Test wickets at 45 and 741 test runs at 25. He makes Shadab Khan look like Shakib-al-Hasan.

And so all that is left is the pace bowlers, and they need to be respected. Boult and Southee are ageing medium pacers who are terrific in favourable conditions, while Wagner is simply a guy who roughs up men with no batting technique. Kyle Jamieson probably offers more than any of them now - he is developing into a McGrath or Hazlewood clone.

This is a competitive team in home conditions. But in the likes of Mitchell, Santner, Blundell and Nicholls there are weak links dotted throughout this team.
 
This is the best NZ side since late 70's and 80's (post Hadlee era). Pakistan have got little chance against them without Babar.
 
Heisenberg111 said:
This is the best NZ side since late 70's and 80's (post Hadlee era). Pakistan have got little chance against them without Babar.
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It depends upon Pakistan’s planning and preparation.

I have ZERO confidence that Waqar and Misbah have different bowling plans for the different batsmen.

I have ZERO confidence in a batting line-up in which the ENTIRE Top Five is aged over 30 - yet only one of them has even 2,000 Test runs.

The frustrating thing is that this New Zealand team is weaker than England, but Pakistan seem not to have done any proper preparation.
 
Lol at Nichols as a weak link. He has 1 thing that most Pakistan batters don't have, which is character. Hence why he is starting to succeed at test level.

You can find every weaknesses in New Zealand but can't see how weak Pakistan are .
 
Junaids said:
It depends upon Pakistan’s planning and preparation.

I have ZERO confidence that Waqar and Misbah have different bowling plans for the different batsmen.

I have ZERO confidence in a batting line-up in which the ENTIRE Top Five is aged over 30 - yet only one of them has even 2,000 Test runs.

The frustrating thing is that this New Zealand team is weaker than England, but Pakistan seem not to have done any proper preparation.
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I wouldn't say they are weaker than England. In their last 15 test series at home since 2013, NZL have won 13 series only lost 2 (one each to Aus and SA). England in comparison since 2013 have lost to SL at home in 2014 and drew multiple series with Pak(twice), Aus(once) and NZ(once).
 
First of all dude Nichols is far from a mediocre player his contribution in the last match helped them dominate the WI.

I completely agree that respect them but don't fear them. I reckon the best thing you can do as batters is to make the seamers toil, play out the ball and force them to play a part timer or Santner. The main arsenal is the seamers for them, but remember the Kookaburra ball is easier to play once you get your eye in and the ball is older. My thoughts are that bat first regardless of the conditions, nobody wants to bat on the 4th or last day.
 
NZ are gunning for a spot in the world championship. They are at home. They have had a "tune up" series vs the WI already. They have the greatest all round seam attack in their history + one of their strongest batting lineups.

I guess Pakistan shouldn't go in afraid- because you need to attack them & upset their smooth operating machine, otherwise you lose if they are able to just play how they want.

Given that Pakistan does not have one of their strongest teams at the moment & also missing their one world class batsman, I don't see an upset on the cards.
 
I don't think Pakistani batsmen can handle NZ's bowling attack in these conditions. Babar is the only one and he likely won't be 100% during the Test series even when he returns.
 
“Kane Williamson is a batsman whom any team can prepare bowling plans for in Tests, because he plays with hard hands and leaves too few balls outside off-stump.”

What?
 
When was the last time Pak won Vs NZ? I guess it's been a while.

This is NZ's greatest team of all-time depending on whether Ross Taylor and BJ Watling are still in form or past their prime and only a matter of time before calling it off a day.
 
Certainly have high expectations from this Pak test team. Lets see what they can do. New Zealand conditions will help our bowlers perform at their best. Just need some good scores and a couple good tosses here. Go Pakistan!
 
Pakistan is gonna get wrecked lol. I'd be happy if we come close, tis the season of moral victories. :afridi
 
Junaids said:
I have been a little surprised by the number of "36 all out comments" that are doing the rounds currently.

I used to live in New Zealand, I still have a Kiwi passport and I have been there at least once every year since 1994.

And I can tell you: New Zealand's cricket team should be respected, but it should not be feared.

New Zealand has one world class talent: Kane Williamson. And he is a batsman whom any team can prepare bowling plans for in Tests, because he plays with hard hands and leaves too few balls outside off-stump. He is a 8/10 test player.

After that there is not exactly a glut of talent. Tom Latham is a 7/10 Test player, while Ross Taylor used to be a 8/10 but now is in cricketing old age and is a 5/10.

And that, frankly, is that in terms of batsmen. Tom Blundell is 30 years old and has 453 Test runs in his life. Henry Nicholls is a deeply flawed 29 year old with less than 2000 Test runs.

New Zealand has lost the balance that Colin De Grandhomme gave them as a swing bowling all-rounder. His place at Number 6 has now gone to Daryl Mitchell, who is 30 next birthday and has 124 Test runs in his life, a First Class batting average of 37, and 80 First Class wickets in 76 matches. He makes Hammad Azam look like Andrew Flintoff.

BJ Watling has been an excellent batsman-wicketkeeper, who was previously in the same class as Mohammad Rizwan, but age has caught up with him and in Australia last year he looked far, far inferior to Rizwan with both bat and gloves.

Mitchell Santner is the spinner - and he has 39 Test wickets at 45 and 741 test runs at 25. He makes Shadab Khan look like Shakib-al-Hasan.

And so all that is left is the pace bowlers, and they need to be respected. Boult and Southee are ageing medium pacers who are terrific in favourable conditions, while Wagner is simply a guy who roughs up men with no batting technique. Kyle Jamieson probably offers more than any of them now - he is developing into a McGrath or Hazlewood clone.

This is a competitive team in home conditions. But in the likes of Mitchell, Santner, Blundell and Nicholls there are weak links dotted throughout this team.
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In terms of giving confidence, team encouragement and supporting our boys, I 100% agree with you.
This is how a good coach should address the boys in the dressing room, and instill confidence in them by presenting good valid and intelligently put points, explained in a convincing tone! Absolutely spot on.


For the sake of our discussion on the forum and being away from the team, there are couple of points that could actually spice things up a little.

First, Pakistani team’s inherent ability or generosity (whichever term you wanna use) where we turn zeros into heroes ........... in the opposition team, that is.

So there is a good probability that at least one of those “non-Kane Williamson” negligible or little known player will, to put it in desi terms, “gallay parr jaeyga”

And then obviously we are at a huge disadvantage of missing Baber in the first test.

The reality check doesn’t seem too promising but IMO our best bet is the “unpredictability factor” of our team.

With theory, skill and planning, I think we have lesser of a chance to win, but with our trademark panic and chaos, hopefully in the right direction, we might surprise them. Crazy, aren’t we? :)
 
Among current players , KW plays with the softest hands. Not sure if [MENTION=132916]Junaids[/MENTION] really follows the Black Caps after all.
 
No, we need to put them in their place. Misbah has once again corrupted the team with nice guy syndrome after Sarfraz instilled in them heart of a lion and eye of the tiger.

Their bowlers are inexperienced and we need to show them who we are.
 
Junaids said:
It depends upon Pakistan’s planning and preparation.

I have ZERO confidence that Waqar and Misbah have different bowling plans for the different batsmen.

I have ZERO confidence in a batting line-up in which the ENTIRE Top Five is aged over 30 - yet only one of them has even 2,000 Test runs.

The frustrating thing is that this New Zealand team is weaker than England, but Pakistan seem not to have done any proper preparation.
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Our management is incompetent, they still haven't learned how to utilize Naseem Shah in SENA conditions. On Asian wickets, your quickest bowler should bowl line/length because short balls are virtually ineffective. In SENA, he should be barraging short deliveries to the batsmen, but they have him bowling line and length like he's Colin De Grandhomme.

It all depends on how Pakistan bowls up front, if we can take out Latham and Blundell, we can carve a hole through the batting lineup of New Zealand. If we cannot do that, they will punish us with all of their might.

Plan would be to get Shaheen on Blundell and Abbas on Latham, because Abbas can jag the ball away from Latham's outside edge. Shaheen can bring the pads of Blundell into the equation. Fielding must be very tight, no easy singles for either of the openers. Blundell is far more likely to chase a wide one than Latham, though Latham has made a mockery of himself a few times by leaving the ball on the wrong length. Top of off should be the target, and hopefully, we can knock the openers back early because unlike Williamson, Ross Taylor at 4 is far more unlikely to know how to last the new ball.
 
For someone that writes long articles on pp all the time and has millions of posts doesn't know that Kane's success is playing with soft hands. I've seen many commentator analysing how he plays late and with soft hands.
 
Rana said:
Agreed man. The posters here are really building him up as the new Steve Harmison or something.
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He is currently nzs most effective test bowler. As I said,
He has made the nz attack much more lethal
 
The only way to win the Test series against NZ is to bat in an ODI mode, otherwise it will be tough.
 
Thunderbolt14 said:
Why? Does he remind you too much of Josh Hazlewood? :p
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No. He just has that novelty factor. I don't rate players who don't Perform in India/Pakistan and to a lesser extent Lanka. Lanka is now sort of in a rebuilding phase so they don't count at this point.

Joshy is Mediocre in Asia (India).
I am 100% Kyle's aukat will be brought back to earth and he will be sent back to Christchurch very quickly once he tours India away.

New Zealand were incredibly lucky to face and beat a weakened Pakistan side last time. Biggfets fluke ever. Pakistan were going through a bad patch and were rebuilding.

If they tour now I have no doubt it would be a carnage.
 
Out of New Zealand's fast bowling attack, I'd say Southee is the dangerman. He's consistent and he swings the ball both ways. Boult is also going to be tough for the likes of Abid Ali, who have a tendency to chase everything on 5th stump line.

Jamieson is a mixed bag, it depends on how we play him. We've faced Archer and frankly dominated him, so I'd our batsmen to do something similar against Jamieson.

Neil Wagner appears to be fast and furious, but he bowls 130kph bouncers. He's not a nightmare, but our batsmen need to be aware of the field setting New Zealand set for him, with a leg gully for the pull shot.

I doubt Santner will bowl more than 5 overs, or even if he will play, but he's not a dangerman. If anything, we should target the part timers if needed. Contrary to what others think, in my mind, the best way to beat New Zealand in their own conditions is to hunker down for the first two sessions. Don't take risks and don't play dumb shots. Most importantly, don't lose early wickets. Just focus on the rotation of strike and the odd boundary and that should be good.

If our openers can get a solid partnership up front, it will allow them to understand and read the conditions well, and devise a batting plan for the middle order. We need to just block everything for the first sessions, because when the ball goes old, New Zealand will most likely operate with Wagner-Jamieson, where Pakistan have the best chance to score runs.

We need to also make a good team selection, meaning that we need as much bowling and batting as possible.

Shan Masood
Abid Ali
Imran Butt
Azhar Ali
Fawad Alam
Haris Sohail
Mohammad Rizwan
Faheem Ashraf
Amad Butt
Shaheen Shah
Mohammad Abbas

That would be a solid team in my opinion, but what I fear is that the management will play Yasir and Shadab again, which would drastically weaken our batting.

It will be a difficult first game, but if we bat first and make around 400 runs, we can really put New Zealand on the back foot and take the game away if we bowl them out for 250-300.
 
I say we come out swinging and say bismillah. The rest is in Allahs hands anyways
 
tyron_woodley said:
No. He just has that novelty factor. I don't rate players who don't Perform in India/Pakistan and to a lesser extent Lanka. Lanka is now sort of in a rebuilding phase so they don't count at this point.

Joshy is Mediocre in Asia (India).
I am 100% Kyle's aukat will be brought back to earth and he will be sent back to Christchurch very quickly once he tours India away.

New Zealand were incredibly lucky to face and beat a weakened Pakistan side last time. Biggfets fluke ever. Pakistan were going through a bad patch and were rebuilding.

If they tour now I have no doubt it would be a carnage.
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Then you don't rate any non Indian seamer. I think it's ridiculous to set that as a standard. Umesh has a better record in india than abroad. Performing in india is not a guarantee the seamer is the best .
Fun fact : southee has a 7 Fer in nagpur

And I think Jamiesons bounce will be handy in india
 
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sindhiboy said:
Then you don't rate any non Indian seamer. I think it's ridiculous to set that as a standard. Umesh has a better record in india than abroad. Performing in india is not a guarantee the seamer is the best .
Fun fact : southee has a 7 Fer in nagpur

And I think Jamiesons bounce will be handy in india
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Jamieson won't do anything in India.


Sena countries are luky Lanka is weak now.

And Bangla is well Bangladesh at the moment but they did draw vs Australia when Aussies had Smith and Warner where their bowlers were rendered ineffective.
 
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ShoaibM said:
Certainly have high expectations from this Pak test team. Lets see what they can do. New Zealand conditions will help our bowlers perform at their best. Just need some good scores and a couple good tosses here. Go Pakistan!
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Pakistan must win the toss and bowl first and play 4 fast bowlers
 
UzmanBeast said:
Out of New Zealand's fast bowling attack, I'd say Southee is the dangerman. He's consistent and he swings the ball both ways. Boult is also going to be tough for the likes of Abid Ali, who have a tendency to chase everything on 5th stump line.

Jamieson is a mixed bag, it depends on how we play him. We've faced Archer and frankly dominated him, so I'd our batsmen to do something similar against Jamieson.

Neil Wagner appears to be fast and furious, but he bowls 130kph bouncers. He's not a nightmare, but our batsmen need to be aware of the field setting New Zealand set for him, with a leg gully for the pull shot.

I doubt Santner will bowl more than 5 overs, or even if he will play, but he's not a dangerman. If anything, we should target the part timers if needed. Contrary to what others think, in my mind, the best way to beat New Zealand in their own conditions is to hunker down for the first two sessions. Don't take risks and don't play dumb shots. Most importantly, don't lose early wickets. Just focus on the rotation of strike and the odd boundary and that should be good.

If our openers can get a solid partnership up front, it will allow them to understand and read the conditions well, and devise a batting plan for the middle order. We need to just block everything for the first sessions, because when the ball goes old, New Zealand will most likely operate with Wagner-Jamieson, where Pakistan have the best chance to score runs.

We need to also make a good team selection, meaning that we need as much bowling and batting as possible.

Shan Masood
Abid Ali
Imran Butt
Azhar Ali
Fawad Alam
Haris Sohail
Mohammad Rizwan
Faheem Ashraf
Amad Butt
Shaheen Shah
Mohammad Abbas

That would be a solid team in my opinion, but what I fear is that the management will play Yasir and Shadab again, which would drastically weaken our batting.

It will be a difficult first game, but if we bat first and make around 400 runs, we can really put New Zealand on the back foot and take the game away if we bowl them out for 250-300.
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Overall good line up i have i cluded naseem over butt.shadab is injuired so he wont play. Good high hopes but only chance is for Pakistan to bowl first.
 
If we played the right balling attack we would gave them a good match
We will miss hasan ali alot

Our batting if we lost the toss Could be 50/5 on new zealand wickets with a mountain to climb for our tailenders
Our only hope is shan masood if he gets dropped at least twice and fawad Alam if he can last 100 balls before getting going
 
shamaan said:
Overall good line up i have i cluded naseem over butt.shadab is injuired so he wont play. Good high hopes but only chance is for Pakistan to bowl first.
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Naseem hasn't done anything spectacular in the short-lived career he has had so far, and Butt looked far more threatening in the Shaheens vs NZ A game. I think it's an unexplored option playing both Faheem and Butt, because it's not like Naseem bowls more than 15 overs an innings. We'd get more overs, but I don't know if Faheem/Butt can swing the ball, that is yet to be seen.

We need a bowler who can genuinely swing the ball, that's what's missing from our attack. Shaheen has the left-arm angle, Abbas gets the ball to nip around and keeps it on off stump. Naseem has raw pace, but we need a bowler who can swing it. Extreme pace is pretty much useless in tests nowadays if there are no other skills to back up the pace, look at New Zealand. They don't have bowlers who consistently clock 140 kph but their bowlers have swing and can threaten oppositions. In SENA conditions, being able to swing the ball is much better than bowling 90 mph, because a 90 mph straight delivery is fairly easy to negotiate, but even an 81 mph ball that swings can be lethal.

These are the skills which we are missing in test matches overseas, and we need someone to fill in this role ASAP.
 
To the OP... bhai, Williamson is possibly the only batsman in the world who plays it extremely late and with soft hands.

If you mean setting fields to crowd out the short third-man, gully and third slip region for his staple dabs to third man, then sure. But that is one area where the ball needs to beat the field by a foot on either side and that’s that. Anyway, still pretty hard to dismiss him there unless you get surprise bounce or something.

On the point about playing it late, would love to see how his contact point in terms of distance from wicket/crease compares to that of MoYo’s silken touch. Love both batsmen.
 
UzmanBeast said:
Naseem hasn't done anything spectacular in the short-lived career he has had so far, and Butt looked far more threatening in the Shaheens vs NZ A game. I think it's an unexplored option playing both Faheem and Butt, because it's not like Naseem bowls more than 15 overs an innings. We'd get more overs, but I don't know if Faheem/Butt can swing the ball, that is yet to be seen.

We need a bowler who can genuinely swing the ball, that's what's missing from our attack. Shaheen has the left-arm angle, Abbas gets the ball to nip around and keeps it on off stump. Naseem has raw pace, but we need a bowler who can swing it. Extreme pace is pretty much useless in tests nowadays if there are no other skills to back up the pace, look at New Zealand. They don't have bowlers who consistently clock 140 kph but their bowlers have swing and can threaten oppositions. In SENA conditions, being able to swing the ball is much better than bowling 90 mph, because a 90 mph straight delivery is fairly easy to negotiate, but even an 81 mph ball that swings can be lethal.

These are the skills which we are missing in test matches overseas, and we need someone to fill in this role ASAP.
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Agreed he hasnt done much baring a few excellent dismals.butt is in the shaheens i think so he wont play.that gives a similar attack with butt and fahim.

I disagree with your assumpton regarding naseem he does swing the ball but he cant put the ball in one place consistantly thats his problem he also bowl above 86 mph.so i would pick naseem for the first test and the second test but he must perform he has had enough opportunity to perform.
The attack should be shaheen,abbas,naseem,fahim
 
shamaan said:
Agreed he hasnt done much baring a few excellent dismals.butt is in the shaheens i think so he wont play.that gives a similar attack with butt and fahim.

I disagree with your assumpton regarding naseem he does swing the ball but he cant put the ball in one place consistantly thats his problem he also bowl above 86 mph.so i would pick naseem for the first test and the second test but he must perform he has had enough opportunity to perform.
The attack should be shaheen,abbas,naseem,fahim
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The only way to become consistent in line/length is to bowl overs in domestic cricket, which is something both Naseem and Shaheen need to do, though Shaheen is a more refined bowler.
 
UzmanBeast said:
The only way to become consistent in line/length is to bowl overs in domestic cricket, which is something both Naseem and Shaheen need to do, though Shaheen is a more refined bowler.
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controlling a ball that hardly swings is easier controlling a ball that swings is alot harder
 
shamaan said:
controlling a ball that hardly swings is easier controlling a ball that swings is alot harder
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The problem is that Naseem can neither control the ball that doesn't swing, and he doesn't have the ability to control the ball that will swing.
 
Mamoon said:
“Kane Williamson is a batsman whom any team can prepare bowling plans for in Tests, because he plays with hard hands and leaves too few balls outside off-stump.”

What?
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The answer can be either one -
1. He doesn’t know what is soft/hard hand
2. He doesn’t think posters here don’t know what is soft/hard hand, so took a chance with a “technical” term ....
 
MMHS said:
The answer can be either one -
1. He doesn’t know what is soft/hard hand
2. He doesn’t think posters here don’t know what is soft/hard hand, so took a chance with a “technical” term ....
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He doesn't rate batsman who can't counterattack.
I have seen this pattern, he rates Viv, abd, Kohli, Crowe highly. While kane, root, pujara are just ok batsman for him who work hard or should i say journeyman.
 
jeeteshssaxena said:
He doesn't rate batsman who can't counterattack.
I have seen this pattern, he rates Viv, abd, Kohli, Crowe highly. While kane, root, pujara are just ok batsman for him who work hard or should i say journeyman.
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If he thinks that Williamson can’t counter attack .... that’s even bigger foolishness!!!!
 
MMHS said:
The answer can be either one -
1. He doesn’t know what is soft/hard hand
2. He doesn’t think posters here don’t know what is soft/hard hand, so took a chance with a “technical” term ....
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How often has Williamson been out caught in the slips? And he has been dropped twice here.

The real issue today is that Pakistan dropped the wrong senior batsman, and got rid of the one who can catch in the slips.

Pakistan’s bowling has been fine today - the two problems are slip catching and 3 quicks out of 4 being too short for this wicket.
 
Junaids said:
How often has Williamson been out caught in the slips? And he has been dropped twice here.

The real issue today is that Pakistan dropped the wrong senior batsman, and got rid of the one who can catch in the slips.

Pakistan’s bowling has been fine today - the two problems are slip catching and 3 quicks out of 4 being too short for this wicket.
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Instead of plucking theory out of thin air, put an analysis on how many time Will has been out at slips and same for players like Greg Chappel, Mark Waugh or David Gower ... then come up with logic.

Your height theory is as rubbish as the twilight theory - not interested to discuss any more.
 
Williamson playing with hard hands is a hilarious assessment. Taylor is a better batter than you are making out and Nichols is a top class player.

Pathetic analysis.
 
Every single test Williamson plays the commentary teams make a specific point of showing analysis of how late and softly he plays the ball. It is one of the things he is most famous for. That said, like almost all batsmen he can sometimes play at stuff outside off. Not everyone is Alistair Cook levels of patient.
 
Junaids said:
How often has Williamson been out caught in the slips? And he has been dropped twice here.

The real issue today is that Pakistan dropped the wrong senior batsman, and got rid of the one who can catch in the slips.

Pakistan’s bowling has been fine today - the two problems are slip catching and 3 quicks out of 4 being too short for this wicket.
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Last year England played an opening bowling pair of Broad and Archer at Mount Maunganui whi are both around 6'5" and they had combined figures of 1/171 while NZ scored 615. 5'9" Sam Curran had figures of 3/119. That too after batting first and putting on 353. Guess the height theory doesnt apply to English seamers then ? :)
 
What happened to age catching up with Watling?
What happened to Williamson playing with hard hands?
What happened to Nichols not being good enough?
What happened to Taylor being past it?

I swear Junaids doesn't rate any modern players that aren't from Pakistan.
 
Hasan123 said:
What happened to age catching up with Watling?
What happened to Williamson playing with hard hands?
What happened to Nichols not being good enough?
What happened to Taylor being past it?

I swear Junaids doesn't rate any modern players that aren't from Pakistan.
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They had dropped catches in their favor
 
Junaids said:
I have been a little surprised by the number of "36 all out comments" that are doing the rounds currently.

I used to live in New Zealand, I still have a Kiwi passport and I have been there at least once every year since 1994.

And I can tell you: New Zealand's cricket team should be respected, but it should not be feared.

New Zealand has one world class talent: Kane Williamson. And he is a batsman whom any team can prepare bowling plans for in Tests, because he plays with hard hands and leaves too few balls outside off-stump. He is a 8/10 test player.

After that there is not exactly a glut of talent. Tom Latham is a 7/10 Test player, while Ross Taylor used to be a 8/10 but now is in cricketing old age and is a 5/10.

And that, frankly, is that in terms of batsmen. Tom Blundell is 30 years old and has 453 Test runs in his life. Henry Nicholls is a deeply flawed 29 year old with less than 2000 Test runs.

New Zealand has lost the balance that Colin De Grandhomme gave them as a swing bowling all-rounder. His place at Number 6 has now gone to Daryl Mitchell, who is 30 next birthday and has 124 Test runs in his life, a First Class batting average of 37, and 80 First Class wickets in 76 matches. He makes Hammad Azam look like Andrew Flintoff.

BJ Watling has been an excellent batsman-wicketkeeper, who was previously in the same class as Mohammad Rizwan, but age has caught up with him and in Australia last year he looked far, far inferior to Rizwan with both bat and gloves.

Mitchell Santner is the spinner - and he has 39 Test wickets at 45 and 741 test runs at 25. He makes Shadab Khan look like Shakib-al-Hasan.

And so all that is left is the pace bowlers, and they need to be respected. Boult and Southee are ageing medium pacers who are terrific in favourable conditions, while Wagner is simply a guy who roughs up men with no batting technique. Kyle Jamieson probably offers more than any of them now - he is developing into a McGrath or Hazlewood clone.

This is a competitive team in home conditions. But in the likes of Mitchell, Santner, Blundell and Nicholls there are weak links dotted throughout this team.
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Hard hands by Williamson today. It was like watching a woodcutter chop a tree with axe.....
 
Williamson looks all set for a double century in this inning. What a fantastic player, any team would love to have him.
 
Mamoon said:
Hard hands by Williamson today. It was like watching a woodcutter chop a tree with axe.....
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I did actually write that he was their one world class talent!

This is clearly a 450 track, making Pakistan’s useless geriatric batsmen look even worse than they already did!
 
Junaids said:
I did actually write that he was their one world class talent!

This is clearly a 450 track, making Pakistan’s useless geriatric batsmen look even worse than they already did!
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And how many "world class talent" does Pakistan have? IIRC you mentioned some 4-5 including Naseem. So you're not being generous calling Williamson world class, when that bucket includes Rizwan, Naseem, etc. who have played less than 20 games. Seriously Junaids, Pakistanis like you make lives of other genuine Pakistani fans difficult.
 
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Junaids said:
I have been a little surprised by the number of "36 all out comments" that are doing the rounds currently.

I used to live in New Zealand, I still have a Kiwi passport and I have been there at least once every year since 1994.

And I can tell you: New Zealand's cricket team should be respected, but it should not be feared.

New Zealand has one world class talent: Kane Williamson. And he is a batsman whom any team can prepare bowling plans for in Tests, because he plays with hard hands and leaves too few balls outside off-stump. He is a 8/10 test player.

After that there is not exactly a glut of talent. Tom Latham is a 7/10 Test player, while Ross Taylor used to be a 8/10 but now is in cricketing old age and is a 5/10.

And that, frankly, is that in terms of batsmen. Tom Blundell is 30 years old and has 453 Test runs in his life. Henry Nicholls is a deeply flawed 29 year old with less than 2000 Test runs.

New Zealand has lost the balance that Colin De Grandhomme gave them as a swing bowling all-rounder. His place at Number 6 has now gone to Daryl Mitchell, who is 30 next birthday and has 124 Test runs in his life, a First Class batting average of 37, and 80 First Class wickets in 76 matches. He makes Hammad Azam look like Andrew Flintoff.

BJ Watling has been an excellent batsman-wicketkeeper, who was previously in the same class as Mohammad Rizwan, but age has caught up with him and in Australia last year he looked far, far inferior to Rizwan with both bat and gloves.

Mitchell Santner is the spinner - and he has 39 Test wickets at 45 and 741 test runs at 25. He makes Shadab Khan look like Shakib-al-Hasan.

And so all that is left is the pace bowlers, and they need to be respected. Boult and Southee are ageing medium pacers who are terrific in favourable conditions, while Wagner is simply a guy who roughs up men with no batting technique. Kyle Jamieson probably offers more than any of them now - he is developing into a McGrath or Hazlewood clone.

This is a competitive team in home conditions. But in the likes of Mitchell, Santner, Blundell and Nicholls there are weak links dotted throughout this team.
Click to expand...

One honest question - did you ever see Andrew Flintoff play? Obviously you have seen Hammad Azam lot ....
 
MMHS said:
One honest question - did you ever see Andrew Flintoff play? Obviously you have seen Hammad Azam lot ....
Click to expand...

He is always trying to play with the emotions of his countrymen. I wonder what he gets from this.
 
BreadPakoda said:
He is always trying to play with the emotions of his countrymen. I wonder what he gets from this.
Click to expand...

It sells better in PP, there is a fine line between praising and trolling....... but you have to be smart enough to differentiate that.
 
BreadPakoda said:
He is always trying to play with the emotions of his countrymen. I wonder what he gets from this.
Click to expand...

He’s not Pakistani though. But he still plays with our emotions :sree

The lens he sees team Pakistan through, nobody else including Pak fans have those type of lens.
 
Daryl “poor man’s Hammad Azam” Mitchell appears to be on his way to adding 100 runs to his 124 runs FC tally.
 
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