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It was the fast bouncy wicket against West Indies which smashed Pakistan’s World Cup chances

gazza619

Test Debutant
Joined
Jul 30, 2012
Runs
13,775
I know there is currently a lot of discussions in several threads. To summarise:

1. Sarfaraz was never the right choice as Captain/WK
2. What were the so called back bone Malik and Hafeez doing in the team
3. Why did Haris Sohail not bat at no.4.
4. Imam’s weekly hate threads
5. Fakhar’s hacking days are over
6. Inzi has been brainless
7. Mickey is clueless
8. Hasan Ali’s demise started the day he stupidly did his wicket taking celebration at the Indian border
9. Truth is bitter - Junaid Khan should have been in the team
10. What was the point of picking Hasnain.

The list goes on and on and on, but it seems like we forgot the most important point. Pakistan was undone by a fast bouncy pitch against WI. Now no matter what squad we had selected, Pakistan would have struggled on that pitch. We dont know how to bat or even bowl on such a track.

So my request to our team think tank is to please please please prepare our next batch of players and groom them in a better way. Pakistan is touring down under in a few months, we need to think and act now.

I also hear our under 19 kids have just smashed SA, I hope they are well equipped to play well on pacy pitches.
 
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Pakistan is supposed to be touring Australia soon. They are likely to face bouncy tracks there.

Great opportunity for Pakistan to win a test series in Australia. Australia will probably be battered after Ashes (I expect Aussies to lose Ashes).
 
Solutions:
1. Teach the players to duck or sway out of the way of bouncers, instead of getting scared and using their bat to fend off the ball.
No need to teach them to pull or hook, as these shots are natural shots and can't be taught, or that will happen is the playet will sky the ball and get caught out!
2. Get shan masood and shajeel khan in the team as these are 2 of the only natural pullers of the ball in pakistan!
 
The biggest injustice this WC: Not including Rizwan. Fittest player in the team, 2 centuries against Australia and a much better batsman/wk compared to Sarfraz.


Another useless inclusion was Asif Ali imo. The guy averages 28 in List A and was still included because of his ability to hit sixes. In that case, we should’ve picked Khushdil Shah who averages 41 in List A, can hit sixes and was in a great form in Pakistan Cup 2019.

PCB really works in mysterious ways.
 
I disagree. Their mind was not in the match. Captain Tubby was talking about India instead of focusing on the next game. They took Windies lightly and paid for it.
 
Shah yes, rizwan no!
Rizwan should immediately be selected fot tests and see how he does, but he is too slow for odis, bearing in mind , we have imam, babar and haris all in the team who are slow batters, we can't afford another one!
 
I disagree. Their mind was not in the match. Captain Tubby was talking about India instead of focusing on the next game. They took Windies lightly and paid for it.
Maybe, but i think the englad series just before the wc messed them up!
That series was played on the flattest pancake wickets ever, where par scores were 360 -370 runs!
Pak team expected the same type of pitch against the WI, but were given a bouncy track instead!
 
Solutions:
1. Teach the players to duck or sway out of the way of bouncers, instead of getting scared and using their bat to fend off the ball.
No need to teach them to pull or hook, as these shots are natural shots and can't be taught, or that will happen is the playet will sky the ball and get caught out!
2. Get shan masood and shajeel khan in the team as these are 2 of the only natural pullers of the ball in pakistan!

Only two pullers in whole of Pakistan? I refuse to believe.
 
Mickey seriously is honest about pakistan but the point is he doesnt have eye for talent.
Why would u not pick a geniune spinner?
Why would u pick shoiab malik? Even an blind will tell u haris in his worst days will outperform malik.
Why would u not pick another 2 batsmen in place of malik and asif?
Why would rizwan not be selected because he is wicket keeper if any other batsmen would have scored 2 hundreds in 1 series for instance shan masood saad ali in that aus series he would have been easily picked? Look at eng they even play 3 wicket keepers because they are excellent bats.
For me sarfraz is unfit unworthy captain
Yes as a batsmen he can play but as a captain he cant handle the responsibility.
Mickey thinks our fast bowling will rattle away any lineup thats why he doesnt pick attacking spinners rather he pickes darters and bits and pieces like shadab
For me asghar zafar gohar even hassan khan should have been picked.
Iam happy that we lost because this will enlighten our chances of becoming a better team.
 
The pitch was same for both teams. It's pathetic of our batsmen and coaching staff to not work on this when the same happened against Duanne olivier of south africa in south africa during test series :)
 
my team going forward would not include shadab, haffez,hassan ali

1) Shan Masood
2)Imam-ul-Haq
3)Babar Azam
4)Harris Shoail
5)Khushdil Shah
6)Sarfraz (c)(wk) dont have a better choice, only if PCB had balls to make Harris the captain
7) Imad
8) Wahab(will keep him for a year or so... T20 event shld be his goodbye series)
9) Aamir
10)Harris Rauf / Shaheen
11)Umer Khan/Zafar Gohar

backup
Husnain
Umar Amin
Abid Ali
Rizwan
Shadab

Shadab needs to work on his bowling and turn the ball... he has gone down massively.. i think the tumor that is Hassan Ali has pulled shadab down with him ... sad to see
 
I think Pakistan were simply surprised by the brutal short ball strategy of the windies. Remember, even Australia struggled initially but just about managed to shut down the windies. As the tournament progressed, teams were better prepared for the short stuff and Windies bowling looked toothless .
 
I think Pakistan were simply surprised by the brutal short ball strategy of the windies. Remember, even Australia struggled initially but just about managed to shut down the windies. As the tournament progressed, teams were better prepared for the short stuff and Windies bowling looked toothless .

But better more street wise batsman would have been able to react and deal with it. They couldnt, and they are out.
 
The players who like bouncy tracks were in Pak - Umar, Shaan etc
 
No it wasn't ... It was lack of gameplan throughtout the tournament...
 
It was a bad day in the office. The game against Sri Lanka being washed out sealed our fate
 
I agree with some points but I don't agree with all the points.

A lot of fans here are the king of hindsight. Complaining for the sake of complaining because it suits the narrative that Paksitan would have won the WC if you made some of these changes. Shoaib Malik and Mohammed Hafeez (Hafeez had a wonderful knock in the final) were both in the team during the Champions Trophy in 2017 and no one complained at that time. Had both of them been excluded and Haris Sohail and Hafeez's replacement failed against WI, India and England then there would be a thread about why Malik's and Hafeez's experience didn't merit a spot in the team and how that was a blunder by the team management. Sometimes you have to accept the faults and understand there are other areas which require improvement (i.e., fitness, fielding, etc.)

Some of these points remind of the World T20 SF in which Hussey smahed Saeed Ajmal in the last over for more than 17 runs and got Australia over the line. All the fans on here came out and started calling the move to bowl Ajmal in the 20th over brainless and the sole reason for the loss.

The kicker was that in the previous game, which allowed us to qaulify for the SF, Saeed Ajmal also bowled the 20th over, was economical and allowed us to win the game. No one here complained about that. So my point is when everything is good and we are winning everything is brushed under the carpet but when we lose everything looks like a problem especailly with the power of hindsight.
 
Pakistan batting's weaknesses on Australian, South African, and English wickets have been thoroughly documented since the 80s. Why have 40 years of PCB administrations failed to replicate Australian, South African, and English wickets in Pakistan? Surely 40 years are enough to have soil imported.
 
It was a bad day in the office. The game against Sri Lanka being washed out sealed our fate

The Rain Giveth And The Rain Taketh Away
What rain gave in 1992 rain took away in 2019.
 
Our batting was pathetic on that day. Look at how Australia eventually coped with it. We just needed to see it off as West Indies bowling didn’t have much else. I don’t think any other team other than Afghanistan would have collapsed like we did.
 
Australia match and this match made sure Pakistan don’t proceed to the semis...
 
The Rain Giveth And The Rain Taketh Away
What rain gave in 1992 rain took away in 2019.

Myth. Rain gave us a point and robbed us of a point as well in 1992. There was no effect (at least for Pakistan). Poor Saffers though got robbed of a chance to compete in the semifinal against England.
 
The Rain Giveth And The Rain Taketh Away
What rain gave in 1992 rain took away in 2019.

Heh heh... imitation is the sincerest form of flattery... or maybe just a coincidence :)
 
Myth. Rain gave us a point and robbed us of a point as well in 1992. There was no effect (at least for Pakistan). Poor Saffers though got robbed of a chance to compete in the semifinal against England.

Lots of things happened due to the rain in 1992.

1) India-SL game washed out and India's game against Australia converted from a win to a defeat. India could have qualified for the semis if these hadn't happened as it had one of the highest NRRs.

2) If Pakistan did not get a point from the game where they were 74 all out, Australia would have qualified.

3) Pakistan's game against SA affected, but not as greatly as the Pak-Eng game.

The whole tournament was reduced to a farce due to the rain, with India and Australia being especially hard hit.
 
It was neither fast or bouncy. Some of the bouncers they got out to were clocking at 134 kph. Just effort ball on a flat wicket.
 
WI didn’t even had fast bowlers in their team. Roach is the only guy who can bowl in high 140’s and he didn’t played that match. You make it sound like Pak played on some unplayable pitch. If that was case, than most hyped fast bowling attack of Amir, Hassan, Wahab should have bowled mediocre WI batting lineup for less than 100. How difficult is to admit that Pak were outplayed?. Pak took WI for granted and paid the price. As simple as that. Look at how Aus recovered after early wickets vs WI and gained momentum. That’s how champion teams respond to a difficult situation.
 
Lots of things happened due to the rain in 1992.

1) India-SL game washed out and India's game against Australia converted from a win to a defeat. India could have qualified for the semis if these hadn't happened as it had one of the highest NRRs.

2) If Pakistan did not get a point from the game where they were 74 all out, Australia would have qualified.

3) Pakistan's game against SA affected, but not as greatly as the Pak-Eng game.

The whole tournament was reduced to a farce due to the rain, with India and Australia being especially hard hit.

You say that pakistan's game against SA was not as greatly affected but the result was that we were denied a chance to fight for 2 points. SA can have the same complaint, but it would matter more for Pakistan as we were desperately trying to get back in the running for top 4. Again to reiterate, Pakistan did not especially benefit from the rain, we got 2 points from 4 available points which would have been the likely result had rain not interfered. England were the true beneficiaries as they could thank their lucky stars that they did not have to defend 22 runs against Saffers.

Any team that was denied a point has a right to be upset. If I was a SL fan I would be upset that I was denied the chance to fight for 2 points twice in this tournament. And I agree that rain was farcical in 1992 primarily because of the semifinal, where one team needed 22 from 14 deliveries (very doable, even back then) - but was denied a chance to play it out.
 
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You say that pakistan's game against SA was not as greatly affected but the result was that we were denied a chance to fight for 2 points. SA can have the same complaint, but it would matter more for Pakistan as we were desperately trying to get back in the running for top 4. Again to reiterate, Pakistan did not especially benefit from the rain, we got 2 points from 4 available points which would have been the likely result had rain not interfered. England were the true beneficiaries as they could thank their lucky stars that they did not have to defend 22 runs against Saffers.

Any team that was denied a point has a right to be upset. If I was a SL fan I would be upset that I was denied the chance to fight for 2 points twice in this tournament. And I agree that rain was farcical in 1992 primarily because of the semifinal, where one team needed 22 from 14 deliveries (very doable, even back then) - but was denied a chance to play it out.

If rain was a factor in their final standings, then those teams like Australia and India which did not make it to the semis have a valid argument that they were unlucky. That makes those teams who did make it to the semis lucky.
 
If rain was a factor in their final standings, then those teams like Australia and India which did not make it to the semis have a valid argument that they were unlucky. That makes those teams who did make it to the semis lucky.

No problem with the statement. I only have a problem if someone says that Pakistan benefited or was affected more than others.
 
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