Judging fast bowlers' performances at the Champions Trophy 2017

[Mobashir]

I wanted to create this thread a little before but I preferred to wait that every team has played 2 matches.

So Amir has 0 wickets after two matches and he is heavily criticized by almost every non pakistani and also a lot of pakistanis. Some people even want him out of the team.

It's a shame that on such a cricket forum people can't just analyse cricket a little better.
We have 300+ pitches in almost every match and batting teams have decided to not give wickets away to the opposition's premier fast bowlers. And on this track it's hard, very hard to take wickets with batsmen not playing you.

So lets look how many wickets other "attacking" bowlers are tacking from each country.

Pakistan: Amir - 0 wicket
India: Bumrah - 0 wicket
Bangladesh: Mustafizur - 0 wicket
South Africa: Rabada- 1 wicket : Wicket of Lasith Malinga, 9th wicket of an already won match.
England: Wood - 1 wicket
Sri Lanka: Malinga - 2 wickets : Both batsmen trying to hit sixes.
New Zealand: Boult - 2 wickets
Australia: Starc - 4 wickets : Wicketless for 94 overs. Took the whole Bengali Tail.

So do you think every team should drop their so called strike bowlers?

Look at the actual match situations, how the bowler is bowling, how the batsmen are playing them. Stop just hating Amir or even Bumrah or anyone else just because you hate them.
How the games are played in the trophy, lesser bowlers, that batsmen want to go after have far more chances to pick up wickets.

 

[Adijazz1706]

Compare the economy rates so that we get a better picture, Amir has a very good ER IIRC

 

[IMMY69]

Largely due to brilliant batting surfaces.

Amir has been excellent so far.

 

[bujhee kom]

Pure hype. Nothing more. Was gifted many years ago but he loved taka too much!

 

[Mobashir]

Compare the economy rates so that we get a better picture, Amir has a very good ER IIRC

I am not even comparing the bowlers it's just to educate the posters here.

 

[kingusama92]

Good post and agree.

Most of the pacers have been like this. Shows the quality of Hasan Ali's performance too.

 

[Mobashir]

The only one wicket that deserves praise from all 8 bowlers is the one of Mark Wood of Williamson.

 

[Mobashir]

Good post and agree.

Most of the pacers have been like this. Shows the quality of Hasan Ali's performance too.

That was one hell of a brilliant performance. Batsmen not going after him, in the midle overs. The best performance so far in the CT.

 

[Savak]

Our fast bowling Zulfiqar Babar

 

[Mobashir]

Our fast bowling Zulfiqar Babar

Rabada is South Africa's fast bowling Paul Harris?

 

[ToeCrusher2]

His odi bowling average is also approaching 30 just like his test average, only a matter of time before the few supporters he has left will also see the light

 

[Mobashir]

His odi bowling average is also approaching 30 just like his test average, only a matter of time before the few supporters he has left will also see the light

He is performing well, and as shown in the opening post every leading fast bowler is struggling to take wickets.

 

[Cricfan4eva]

Excellent point made in the OP.

IMO the current ODI rules have made bowlers almost useless.

If the pitches are flat, your ace bowler will be negotiated for a good ol 10 overs none for 50 and then batsman will capitalise against the lesser men. However on an off day the lesser guy might chip in with 5 or 6 wickets.

Hazelwood got a 6-fer vs NZ, but that was one of the most useless performance he could have come up with tbh and wouldn't have come up if NZ hadn't shown urgency in the last few overs. He's not a poor bowler, but he's not got a patch on Starc in ODI's.

 

[Rayyman]

Very good analysis

Hopefully in next WC, there will be a better balance so we can see more performances from bowlers

Well done @OP

 

[Titan24]

Excellent point made in the OP.

IMO the current ODI rules have made bowlers almost useless.

If the pitches are flat, your ace bowler will be negotiated for a good ol 10 overs none for 50 and then batsman will capitalise against the lesser men. However on an off day the lesser guy might chip in with 5 or 6 wickets.

Hazelwood got a 6-fer vs NZ, but that was one of the most useless performance he could have come up with tbh and wouldn't have come up if NZ hadn't shown urgency in the last few overs. He's not a poor bowler, but he's not got a patch on Starc in ODI's.

Yes two new balls rule has pretty much eliminated reverse swing from the game. Pitches are as flat as road.

Further they are using kookubura ball in England rather than dukes.

In 90's or even early 2000's we just had Michael bevan averaging in 50's. Now we have a whole bunch of player averaging 50 and going fast towards it and batsman scoring double hundreds.

 

[mak36]

Yes two new balls rule has pretty much eliminated reverse swing from the game. Pitches are as flat as road.

Further they are using kookubura ball in England rather than dukes.

In 90's or even early 2000's we just had Michael bevan averaging in 50's. Now we have a whole bunch of player averaging 50 and going fast towards it and batsman scoring double hundreds.

Good post. Flat pitches. No reverse swing. Small boundaries. Who would want to be an ODI bowler these days?

 

[Rinnegan Sasuke]

Excellent point made in the OP.

IMO the current ODI rules have made bowlers almost useless.

If the pitches are flat, your ace bowler will be negotiated for a good ol 10 overs none for 50 and then batsman will capitalise against the lesser men. However on an off day the lesser guy might chip in with 5 or 6 wickets.

Hazelwood got a 6-fer vs NZ, but that was one of the most useless performance he could have come up with tbh and wouldn't have come up if NZ hadn't shown urgency in the last few overs. He's not a poor bowler, but he's not got a patch on Starc in ODI's.

The two-ball rule is the most damaging, takes reverse swing completely out. I don't understand though, who doesn't enjoy some good reverse swinging yorkers, should re-introduce it.

 

[Syed1]

Excellent analysis some of the "Hall of Famers" need to have a look at the OP

 

[JaDed]

Wood has made a superb comeback,in terms of wickets.

 

[idrizzy]

Wood has made a superb comeback,in terms of wickets.

I think one game can change stats considerably, espcially in a tournament where you will play a max of 5 games.

 

[DRsohail]

mark wood is leading follwed by josh and hassan ali..mustafiz being average...

 

[JaDed]

I think one game can change stats considerably, espcially in a tournament where you will play a max of 5 games.

Yes but he bowled well in other matches as well.

 

[The_Odd_One]

But wait, only Aamir can't pick wickets.....

 

[Mamoon]

Good effort by the OP, but Amir deserves the criticism for not taking a single wicket so far. He does not deserve any special treatment or any special protection. Hasan Ali has taken wickets in the same conditions against the same opposition, and I am not interested in the "but he is taking wickets because of the pressure Amir has built" nonsense.

Hasan is taking wickets because he is bowling with intensity. He is pitching the ball up and forcing the batsmen to make mistakes. Amir has not come close to the type of magic Hasan has produced, for example the Parnell delivery. He is not taking wickets because he is going through the motions and not pitching the ball up. He angles the ball across the right-handers with the new ball which does not fool most good batsmen, and he doesn't look threatening enough. It is pretty obvious that he has had no impact on the proceedings so far unlike Hasan.

However, it is standard procedure for PPers to be overly defensive when it comes to Amir. They have invested in his hype so much that they cannot come to terms with the fact that he is nowhere close to the bowler they thought he will be. Had he bowled that delivery to Parnell, PPers would be falling over themselves and there would be 10 threads in his honour. Similarly, if he takes a couple of wickets vs SL, it would suddenly become the best spell of the tournament.

The fact is that Amir has been below par so far and his defensive bowling has failed to fool the batsmen, that's all.