Is Pakistan serious about developing bench strength?

[shariqnoor]

I find the comments of a former captain extremely weird when he criticized the board for sending a "weak" team to play the series. His exact words were "A lot of people already predicted a 3-0 result against Pakistan. How can you sideline your main players suddenly? If you want to run cricket like this, then go ahead."

The PCB has to develop a backbone and withstand this unnecessary criticism on their selections elicited on television by former captains and sports journalists.

There was nothing wrong with the selection for the Afghanistan series and infact, the selection committee must be lauded for selecting such a squad.

However, having said that, the selection committee now needs to build upon their selection and show that this wasn't a one-time exercise but there was some method behind sending the squad that they did.

The whole purpose of this series was to build up the bench strength and it can only be built up when you provide multiple chances across multiple series to players to showcase their talents.

The issue in Pakistan has always been the fascination with results. Nobody, right from the PCB down to the ordinary fan on the street is willing to sacrifice current wins in order to gain some potential players for the future. This culture needs to be eradicated. Delayed gratification is almost an unheard concept in Pakistan. Nobody seems to have the patience for it.

There is a high probability that the PCB, due to unnecessary pressure from former players and the media will revert to a full strength lineup against a weakened NZ lineup despite the World Cup being almost a year away.

The problem with that approach is that it would completely negate the progress of the players that were sent to Sharjah. The selection committee needs to realize that players like Saim, Tayyab, Shafique came from tracks where 220 wasn't a winning score to suddenly playing on tracks they haven't played in their lifetime. Compounded by playing against the best spin attack in world T20 cricket on the worst pitches for T20, you have to give a long rope to every batsman. Nobody needs to be considered a failure in this series (except Shadab's captaincy).

Every single player in the Afghanistan series deserves another shot against NZ at home. Make the same pitches as they were in the PSL and judge the young players on that.

Also, coming to Azam Khan, I see a lot of hate coming his way due to his fitness. First of all, if fitness was an issue, then he should not have been vouched for on this forum for selection. He was being hailed by everyone here during the PSL. Nothing has changed on the fitness radar for Azam Khan in two weeks. So to attribute his failure to fitness is disingenuous to say the least. Give him another series against NZ on true pitches and let's work from there. I'm a big fitness fan but you can't play both ways. If fitness is a criteria, then his selection can never be merited. But if you are going to vouch for him during the PSL for selection, then fitness cannot be brought in as an excuse for his failure.

In the end, I would reiterate my point that the selectors and PCB now need to sit down and show everyone whether their selections were a one-off or there was some method to this. If the senior players are recalled for the NZ series just because Pakistan lost a series against Afghanistan, it would signal to me that the PCB isn't serious at all in developing its bench strength.

 

[daytrader]

Bench strength is important however the PCB could've done a better job of balancing experience. What exactly are the youngsters learning if they aren't batting with the best? Also loses will hurt their confidence. More importantly it casts a shade on the quality of the PSL if our top performers can't perform at the international level. Saw lots of memes online making fun of the PSL.

 

[gazza619]

I have no problem whatsoever in building bench strength and resting main players.

But if we are going to select Shan Masood, Naseem Shah and Azam Khan, then sorry I am not interested in this process.

 

[zarak]

I would like to see the same team. Keep the bowling line up new. Rest Naseem, play only one of Rizwan and Babar. Both can be in the squad but only one plays

Babar
Saim
Abdullah
Haris
Iftikhar
Imad
Shadab
Nawaz
Wasim jr
Zaman
Ihsanullah

 

[Energy]

Pakistan is serious. The player's aren't good enough. The last 2-3 PSL did not throw any new noteworthy performers. The tried and tested were persisted with in Ifti, Khushdil, Talat, Asif and none of them made any impact.

In tests, the top performers were selected i.e. Abid, Sajid, Nauman, Tabish, Muhammad Ali, et al but they haven't really clicked. So the issue isn't just with the chances provided, the issue is with the poor performing players.

This year's PSL has shown some new players are able to perform under pressure, so the PCB did the right thing and roped them in for the Afghanistan series. And looks what's happened. But the shining light is that these players will be retained for the NZ series, and hopefully we will see them feature permanently in Pakistan's first team.

 

[Muhammad Saad]

PCB is doing the right thing but sadly the talent is not there in terms of spinners and batsmen , need to hire better coaches and better pay structure at grassroot level in order to encourage more talent, PJL was a correct initiative to attract real talent but sadly it ended up in dustbin

 

[Muhammad Saad]

The prime example being the Tayyab Tahir being specialist against spin bowling and we all know he he looked against Afg spinners, there are no quality spinners in domestic cricket so the batsmen never really learn how to play quality spinners and at the time of Malik and Sarfraz we used to have good spinners in thé domestic cricket hence they are still the best batters against spin bowling in Pak cricket.
It looks like teenagers from poor backgrounds and bad in study and bad in cricket as well choose to become spinners/darters to start their cricket career

 

[davethebrave]

Unfortunately, the bench strength they intend to develop is on the basis of ‘fitness’ not skill. I’m amazed that the following haven’t been given a longer run, earlier in their careers, in various formats:

Sohaib Maqsood (Ruined by fitness obsession and clueless selection)
Shazaib Hasan (Called a hack needlessly even though he was FAR more capable than the current lot)
Sohail Akhtar (Plays the ball late and capable of changing his shot with monstrously powerful wrists at the last moment)
Mukhtar Ahmed (Instinctive, cultured power hitter)
Hammed Azam (Bowled with good pace in U-19s and then had his action destroyed, went hyperskinny, lost his hitting power and confidence)
Haris Sohail (Middle order, not top order)
Fakhar Zaman (Middle order, not opener)
Sharjeel Khan (Brutal and clearly not guilty of what he was accused of in my opinion)
Aamer Yamin (Initially very skilled batsman, ruined by domestic cricket and had his action and natural ability to seam the ball late ruined)
Nasir Jamshed (One of the most gifted ever produced by Pakistan, had a bad run of form, changed his technique and the rest is history)

You clearly would have done better with no coaches at all and left these guys be. All you are now left with is a number of players who are largely interchangeable and you’re still picking the worst of those.

 

[ads101]

You have to develop players in the actual first XI not in the C squad like Afghanistan. Let them bat with the cemented regulars. And give them long runs. Don’t pick 4 youngsters and have them fight amongst themselves for a spot like against Afghanistan. 1 or 2 at a time is fine. They also need to be in a side that’s winning which is why we should have played a stronger team against Afghanistan.

I don’t mind carrying a youngster in the t20 side all the time if we don’t have any capable middle order batsmen.

For example even if Abdullah is unsuited, I wouldn’t mind having him in the side on a permanent basis in t20s to develop his attacking game which could help in ODIs and even tests.

 

[Suleiman]

Unfortunately, the bench strength they intend to develop is on the basis of ‘fitness’ not skill. I’m amazed that the following haven’t been given a longer run, earlier in their careers, in various formats:

Sohaib Maqsood (Ruined by fitness obsession and clueless selection)
Shazaib Hasan (Called a hack needlessly even though he was FAR more capable than the current lot)
Sohail Akhtar (Plays the ball late and capable of changing his shot with monstrously powerful wrists at the last moment)
Mukhtar Ahmed (Instinctive, cultured power hitter)
Hammed Azam (Bowled with good pace in U-19s and then had his action destroyed, went hyperskinny, lost his hitting power and confidence)
Haris Sohail (Middle order, not top order)
Fakhar Zaman (Middle order, not opener)
Sharjeel Khan (Brutal and clearly not guilty of what he was accused of in my opinion)
Aamer Yamin (Initially very skilled batsman, ruined by domestic cricket and had his action and natural ability to seam the ball late ruined)
Nasir Jamshed (One of the most gifted ever produced by Pakistan, had a bad run of form, changed his technique and the rest is history)

You clearly would have done better with no coaches at all and left these guys be. All you are now left with is a number of players who are largely interchangeable and you’re still picking the worst of those.

Agree with most of this.

Fitness is important, but the approach to fitness in Pakistan, in the most popular sport of the country with the highest amount of resources at its disposal is pathetically poor.

Haris Rauf being told to eat 20 eggs or something a day to gain weight.

Poor approach to weight loss with Nasir Jamshed where he lost power with weight (proper weight loss allows you to retain most if not all of your strength once the dieting ends and you go back to a normal routine)

Destruction of Mukhtar Ahmed’s batting technique. Whoever coached him should get at least part of the blame here.

Mismanagement of Haris Sohail’s knee injury.

Mismanagement of Shaheen’s injury last year. If done right he would’ve been fully fit by the t20 WC. And then risking him at the WC. Knee injuries can be career ending if they are aggravated beyond a certain point.

Re the op:

No they are not serious. England backed their now mainstay batsmen for multiple series despite erratic showings over the years. You can see Jos Butler in the team as far back as the LOI leg of the UAE tour Vs Pakistan in 2012.

Remains to be seen if PCB can man up and continue to back the youngsters for another series or two at least.

 

[shamaan]

I would only pick Haris,Saim and Abdullah in the next New Zealand squad the rest of the players such as Tayyab,Azam have shown nothing at all against Afganistan.

Saim (shown promise to adapt to conditions)
Haris (need back up keeper)
Abdullah (need a middle order batter)