"It was difficult to come back in the game after the loss of two early wickets" : Sarfaraz Ahmed

[MenInG]

"It was difficult to come back in the game after the loss of two early wickets" : Sarfaraz Ahmed

Sarfaraz Ahmed, Pakistan captain, speaking after first ODI

"I think the conditions were very tough but I have to give credit to Kane Williamson as he batted really well"

"Yes, if you take catches of main players then it will be good for us but hopefully we will sit together and work on this and do well in next game"

"Losing 2 wickets so early was a great setback for us and it became very difficult to comeback into the game"

 

[Mamoon]

Perhaps he should shed some light on his own performance as well.

An absolutely rubbish player with atrocious fitness, riding on his so-called smart captaincy and the Champions Trophy fluke.

 

[Arham_PakFan]

Williamson should have been out on 26.Sarfraz needs to work on his keeping.

Azhar eating up a review was also a key moment.If he hadn’t Babar could have taken it and survived

On another not,umpiring was atrocious..

 

[jaf348]

He looked like a tailender from the 90s against Ferguson. Only a few years ago people were calling him the best player of spin however he gets out to a rookie leg spinner in his first over

 

[Godhelpma]

An unfair statement . Team had 5 other batsmen too . Score was not 400 plus , very much chasable with 5 batsmen too . But they did not click as a unit . Sarfraz is performing worse than all other players in team barring his captaincy .Hafeez needs to be shown door as soon as possible . Rumman will go for more than 6 per over on these pitches, so this thing must be sorted out too. Malik also needs to be given some overs in the middle phase. Amir is again being a defensive type bowler .They need to sort out things ASAP , otherwise 4-1 would be on cards.

 

[MenInG]

Skipper Sarfraz Ahmed pinpointed tough condition as well as losing both Azhar Ali and Babar Azam in the opening over as the prime reasons for his team's abysmal showing in the opening ODI defeat to New Zealand on Saturday — excuses that didn't sit will with legendary batsman Zaheer Abbas.

Pakistan were outclassed in the opening match, first allowing the Kiwis to post a mammoth 315-run total before being reduced to 166-6 in their run-chase, eventually losing by 66 runs under the Duckworth–Lewis method after rain kept the match from being completed.

"These were tough condition for us, although credit goes to Kane Williamson and his side," said Sarfraz in his post-match interview. "We also lost early wickets and never truly recovered from that setback."

However, the Pakistan captain vowed that the team will discuss its weaknesses and make necessary adjustments to ensure improved performances for the rest of the tour. "Hopefully, we will sit together and things will improve in future."

But legendary batsman Zaheer Abbas told Sarfraz and team to not use difficult conditions as an excuse, saying same is the case for other sides when they visit Pakistan's adopted home of UAE.

"There shouldn't be any excuses because when other sides visit UAE they perform as well as they could in what are difficult conditions for them," the former Test cricketer told Dawn News.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1381176/s...-excuse-after-new-zealand-defeat-zaheer-abbas

 

[The cricket enthusiast]

Perhaps he should shed some light on his own performance as well.

An absolutely rubbish player with atrocious fitness, riding on his so-called smart captaincy and the Champions Trophy fluke.

his batting is soo cringeworthy to watch
but thats apart if winning tournaments are fluke then i will be happy if my team win tournaments instead of these useless bilateral series.

 

[Mamoon]

his batting is soo cringeworthy to watch
but thats apart if winning tournaments are fluke then i will be happy if my team win tournaments instead of these useless bilateral series.

Flukes happen rarely. India fluked the 1983 World Cup but have won other tournaments on merit. Pakistan had to wait for 25 years for another fluke.

 

[Fahdi]

What about the other 3 batsmen that followed including yourself? All that harping about why we need "experience" in the team and the captain doesn't even hold them responsible?

Shadab and Fakhar were able to negotiate the bowling and even kept the asking rate in check while they were at it. They were able to keep us in the game to an extent with 5 wickets down yet the 3 most senior players were couldn't handle it when the team was only 2 wickets down?

 

[prop558]

Muhammad Hafeez & Shoaib Malik got out cheaply. They could have handled the draw-back of early fall of wickets. Muhammad Hafeez can't bowl and playing as a batsman, which is a big stupidity. Hafeez should be replaced with Haris Sohail for the next match.

Sarfraz should bat at upper numbers.

LBW decisions about Babar & Sarfraz were wrong.

They should have sent Fahim Ashraf at no.3 as we were chasing a big total of 300+

Sarfraz himself should bat at No.3 or he should open the innings with Fakhar Zaman. Babar Azam at no.4

 

[Bleedgreen4ever]

Hope this tour ends careers of Malik,Hafeez and Azhar

 

[prop558]

Hope this tour ends careers of Malik,Hafeez and Azhar

Azhar Ali should stay as an opener. He is mature enough, he has good opening combination with Fakhar Zaman. Though he can also be utilized at No.3

Regarding Malik, I think he should continue till 2019 World Cup or even more (if possible). He is a much better Shoaib Malik now, but I personally don't like him about what he did with Pakistan Cricket between 2007 to 2009 by involving so much in team politics, specially against Yousuf Baba & Younis. If you remember those days.

Regarding Hafeez, yes you are 100% right, since he can't bowl, so its useless to include him just as a genuine batsman. He was a good option as an all rounder but as a pure batsman, he doen't deserve any place in the team. Keep in mind that he never performed against any major ICC tournament or major foreign series. Never. How cheaply he got out in 2011 World Cup semi-final when team needed him.

Hafeez can be permanently replaced with Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Saad Ali or Saud Shakeel ... But on this tour, he should be replaced with Haris Sohail.

To make top order stronger, SARFRAZ should at higher numbers Between 1 to 4. Not below than this.

 

[ShahidDar08]

Compulsorily we need to change the playing 11, with this current 11, i sense a whitewash.

Mohammed Hafeez out
Haris sohail in

Ruman Rayees also look ordinary, i have a feeling that pak is lacking a third pacer as Aamir Yamin also won't make any difference.

To be honest Azhar Ali is also not an odi opener but we don't have any other options so should be persisted with in this series. We need to find an another dynamic opener like Fakhar Zaman (only one comes to mind i.e Sharjeel but unfortunately he is serving his ban).
Imam too lack the dynamic approach, could partner Azhar in tests. Shahzad is out of favour so does Sami Aslam.

Time to induct Sahibzada Farhan or Umar Amin to partner Fakhar Zaman.

 

[Shafi]

Hope this tour ends careers of Malik,Hafeez and Azhar

Believe me Inzamam will not drop any of these players and most likely they will play in 2019 World Cup. Seniority and experience are the most important factor in Pakistan regardless we win or loose, players' perform or not

 

[Shafi]

I will be surprised if we win a single match out of of 8 considering Hafeez, Azhar playing in all ODI and Shehzad/Kamran is coming back for T20.

 

[dauntless]

First of all improve your keeping and your batting is not world class either.I would rather drop him and bring umar akmal back as a keeper.

 

[TheInaudibleParadox]

Why does everyone keep on bringing up the CT? Bhai saab let go of your insecurities. That trophy is ours and is there to stay. Bloody hell.

 

[another drop catch]

Hope this tour ends careers of Malik,Hafeez and Azhar

Mian Malik is exceptional why you want to drop him ? ? ?

 

[New Yorker]

Sarfaraz Ahmed, Pakistan captain, speaking after first ODI

"I think the conditions were very tough but I have to give credit to Kane Williamson as he batted really well"

"Yes, if you take catches of main players then it will be good for us but hopefully we will sit together and work on this and do well in next game"

"Losing 2 wickets so early was a great setback for us and it became very difficult to comeback into the game"

It's certainly a great set back if you are playing against Duckworth Lewis. This was a loss, but the rain made it look worse than it was. If we had kept more wickets in hand there was still a game to contest. Hafeez is just wrong coming in so soon; he both eats up dot balls, making us fall behind on the run equation, and then falls cheaply. Either he comes in to smash the ball around after the 40th over or he doesnt come in at all.

 

[pkckt]

How is losing only 1 match in a tournament called a fluke? It's just the first game, relax

 

[Mueez]

I still expect Pakistan to win the series.

 

[asma_cricfan]

Sarfraz should be worried about his own game first.can't keep, can't bat, wth are you doing in team?. Who are you? An akmal?

 

[Syed1]

Why does everyone keep on bringing up the CT? Bhai saab let go of your insecurities. That trophy is ours and is there to stay. Bloody hell.

We beat their team black and blue so they keep bringing it up, but when we do it then they say you are living in the past

 

[Kaka4pope]

Think he should give up the gloves, he remains a good task master and there is a run a ball batsman in there. Think he’s alright as captain, works well with Arthur - just a huge ask to do it across 3 formats and bat and keep, the last being his weakest suit I believe.

 

[Kroll]

If we had a decent enough middle order, then a loss of a couple of early wickets can be compensated. Problem is if Professor is your number 4 batsman, then you're just asking for trouble.

 

[Deewana Mastana]

As hard as it's going to be they need to look at replacements for Azhar, Hafeez and Malik.

 

[Madplayer]

People shouldnt surprised by this performance. What did the warm up game tell us?

The openers played well and then we saw a traditional collapse of the middle order. And then the lower order tried to hold fort. The exact same thing happened today, opener did well and middle order collapsed and lower order performed well.

Only 1 difference was that only 1 of two openers performed and hence the scorecard looked worse.

What Pakistan need to do is to simply swap Hafeez for Haris. As simple as that. He provides a bowling option, he is much more superior against Swing than Hafeez and he can also score at a decent rate. Him along with Babar will lay down the foundation for a bigger final score. It also takes pressure off the openers because they know reliable batsmen are waiting down the order. You will see this fact after a couple of games when openers develop confidence in the middle order.

Shoaib Malik, as much as we question his ability overseas, is a vital player in the middle order because of his ability to score a big 70 or 80 at a 130+ strike rate. As stupid as it sounds, he needs to be protected from the new ball so that his ability could be maximised. Including Haris sohail in the team will do that because we can be almost certain that Haris wont get out to the new ball and malik will only come in when conditions become better. Also , malik is Haris' mentor and they shared a great rapport in Sialkot stallions so they can bat well together if an opportunity arises.

The in form lower order can then do its job. We know that Shadab, Faheem and Hassan Ali have been striking the ball well. So there you go folks, just 1 change is needed for this series in the batting order to make a massive difference.

 

[Savak]

Have patience Hafeez and Malik will come good by the 3rd ODI

 

[msb314]

Still for the life of me do not understand why Haris Sohail is still not playing....

 

[MenInG]

Have patience Hafeez and Malik will come good by the 3rd ODI

or even the 4th.

 

[Hasan123]

His own performances with bat and glove will come under a lot of scrutiny if we are not winning games.

 

[MRSN]

At least make realistic excuses if you want to make one. This is the mentality of the player who is touted to be super fighting captain.

 

[MRSN]

People shouldnt surprised by this performance. What did the warm up game tell us?

The openers played well and then we saw a traditional collapse of the middle order. And then the lower order tried to hold fort. The exact same thing happened today, opener did well and middle order collapsed and lower order performed well.

Only 1 difference was that only 1 of two openers performed and hence the scorecard looked worse.

What Pakistan need to do is to simply swap Hafeez for Haris. As simple as that. He provides a bowling option, he is much more superior against Swing than Hafeez and he can also score at a decent rate. Him along with Babar will lay down the foundation for a bigger final score. It also takes pressure off the openers because they know reliable batsmen are waiting down the order. You will see this fact after a couple of games when openers develop confidence in the middle order.

Shoaib Malik, as much as we question his ability overseas, is a vital player in the middle order because of his ability to score a big 70 or 80 at a 130+ strike rate. As stupid as it sounds, he needs to be protected from the new ball so that his ability could be maximised. Including Haris sohail in the team will do that because we can be almost certain that Haris wont get out to the new ball and malik will only come in when conditions become better. Also , malik is Haris' mentor and they shared a great rapport in Sialkot stallions so they can bat well together if an opportunity arises.

The in form lower order can then do its job. We know that Shadab, Faheem and Hassan Ali have been striking the ball well. So there you go folks, just 1 change is needed for this series in the batting order to make a massive difference.

Well not just the warm up match but the whole CT tournament. If openers flop we do well if they flop our batting card looks embarrassing.

 

[owaistabish]

Sarfraz taking the Williamson catch wouldve made things a bit different. Im surprised he didnt take any responsibility.

 

[Jabo]

We were a batsman short

Only one player should play from Hafeez/Malik too

Sohail should be in the starting xi

 

[Madplayer]

Well not just the warm up match but the whole CT tournament. If openers flop we do well if they flop our batting card looks embarrassing.

Its like we have the openers and Babar followed by nobody in the middle order and then the lower order with shadab, Faheem and hassan etc.

 

[MRSN]

Its like we have the openers and Babar followed by nobody in the middle order and then the lower order with shadab, Faheem and hassan etc.

What's more embarrassing is that this middle order has the most senior players who are supposed to "guide" youngsters.

 

[Justcrazy]

Team selection is not based on merit , Pakistan will continue to suffer because of this.

With new players in , even if you loose , still they gain experience, no point in losing with Azhar and hafeez in the team.

 

[moghul]

Ok, he happened to be the captain of the team which won CT due to wonderful performance by many players but that doesn't mean we need to keep Sarfraz in ODI team for ever. I'm OK to keep him in test team for his batting performance in the past, not for keeping , but his performance and fitness is not good enough for ODI/T20.

 

[Third Man]

People shouldnt surprised by this performance. What did the warm up game tell us?

The openers played well and then we saw a traditional collapse of the middle order. And then the lower order tried to hold fort. The exact same thing happened today, opener did well and middle order collapsed and lower order performed well.

Only 1 difference was that only 1 of two openers performed and hence the scorecard looked worse.

What Pakistan need to do is to simply swap Hafeez for Haris. As simple as that. He provides a bowling option, he is much more superior against Swing than Hafeez and he can also score at a decent rate. Him along with Babar will lay down the foundation for a bigger final score. It also takes pressure off the openers because they know reliable batsmen are waiting down the order. You will see this fact after a couple of games when openers develop confidence in the middle order.

Shoaib Malik, as much as we question his ability overseas, is a vital player in the middle order because of his ability to score a big 70 or 80 at a 130+ strike rate. As stupid as it sounds, he needs to be protected from the new ball so that his ability could be maximised. Including Haris sohail in the team will do that because we can be almost certain that Haris wont get out to the new ball and malik will only come in when conditions become better. Also , malik is Haris' mentor and they shared a great rapport in Sialkot stallions so they can bat well together if an opportunity arises.

The in form lower order can then do its job. We know that Shadab, Faheem and Hassan Ali have been striking the ball well. So there you go folks, just 1 change is needed for this series in the batting order to make a massive difference.

A sensible post. The only question mark is Sarfaraz's performance. He soon has to improve otherwise he's turning into a specialist captain.

 

[GullyCricketFlop]

Sarfraz really needs to work on his fitness and batting.Can never rest on past laurels.His drop of KW was a big reason we lost.

 

[ExplicitAI]

I will say that Sarfraz isn't good enough to be hiding down the order in the sense of him thinking he's MS Dhoni (who's good enough to let others bat above him), he needs to come up and put some performances for the team.

 

[htariq25]

Hell has broken lose on pakpassion by the looks of things. Guys we lost one match and yes he dropped Williamson but that doesn't mean he's an atrocious player and whatever else. He's not performed with the bat for a while because he's batted himself too low so he just hasn't batted much recently. In the next game he needs to bat himself up the order at 4. I agree his keeping needs to improve but there aren't better keeper batsmen that captain in Pakistan. 1 match means nothing anyway. We should reserve our judgements of him and our team in general after the series. We must remember we are playing against a good side in their back yard so we shouldn't have expected to win every match anyway. I still back us to win this series if we make some good decisions in selection like dropping Hafeez for haris.

 

[htariq25]

People shouldnt surprised by this performance. What did the warm up game tell us?

The openers played well and then we saw a traditional collapse of the middle order. And then the lower order tried to hold fort. The exact same thing happened today, opener did well and middle order collapsed and lower order performed well.

Only 1 difference was that only 1 of two openers performed and hence the scorecard looked worse.

What Pakistan need to do is to simply swap Hafeez for Haris. As simple as that. He provides a bowling option, he is much more superior against Swing than Hafeez and he can also score at a decent rate. Him along with Babar will lay down the foundation for a bigger final score. It also takes pressure off the openers because they know reliable batsmen are waiting down the order. You will see this fact after a couple of games when openers develop confidence in the middle order.

Shoaib Malik, as much as we question his ability overseas, is a vital player in the middle order because of his ability to score a big 70 or 80 at a 130+ strike rate. As stupid as it sounds, he needs to be protected from the new ball so that his ability could be maximised. Including Haris sohail in the team will do that because we can be almost certain that Haris wont get out to the new ball and malik will only come in when conditions become better. Also , malik is Haris' mentor and they shared a great rapport in Sialkot stallions so they can bat well together if an opportunity arises.

The in form lower order can then do its job. We know that Shadab, Faheem and Hassan Ali have been striking the ball well. So there you go folks, just 1 change is needed for this series in the batting order to make a massive difference.

Brilliant post amid some poor ones. I agree with everything you have said.

 

[Pete Rose]

The times Malik or Hafeez will come good in this series are
A - helping to get us over the line with attractive 30’s when we are chasing 230 odd
B - scoring a quick fire 30 to 50 type score when the team is already set and scoring at 7 an over
C - Series is lost and careers are on the line and involve situations A or B

 

[CadPakFan]

He looked like a tailender from the 90s against Ferguson. Only a few years ago people were calling him the best player of spin however he gets out to a rookie leg spinner in his first over

Sarfraz has already done what Kohli will be dreaming of doing and that is preforming in England and playing a match winning innings in a chase of 300+ with a high SR. (Pakistan's highest chase outside Asia)