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Misbah-ul-Haq needs to be held accountable for selecting Mohammad Irfan in 2019

This is absurd.

He is down on pace, he is overweight, he is 37 years old and he was finished in 2015. It is embarrassing to watch him bowl.

On what basis was he selected? Does Misbah really think he has anything to offer in the WT20 next year?

He is going to get demolished by the likes of Warner, Finch, Roy, Bairstow, Rohit, De Kock, Guptill etc.

Misbah picked him for his bouncers (that didn’t even work in 2015) and he is either bowling full-tosses or half-volleys.

Appointing Misbah as a selector appears to be a bigger blunder with each passing day. Wasim and Mani have goofed up big time.

Guptill is not demolishing anyone, chill.
 
This is right up there with Mohmand’s selection in 2015 when he couldn’t spot the deliveries bowled by English pacers.

How can you select Irfan after watching him bowl like this in the nets? I highly doubt he was knocking our batsmen down with thunderbolt bouncers.

Babar needs to take a stand and ensure he doesn’t play in this series (or in any future) series again. Misbah is living on cloud cuckoo land if he thinks he is going to make a difference in the WT20.

To be fair, Irfan was bowling really well in the practice match vs ca xi. He bowled a pinpoint yorker uprooting the stumps first ball followed by a few quick short balls. Seemed to be a bit rusty and nervous on his actual international comeback.

But give him the next game, he might do well.
 
Yes, with no consistency at all from him.

Add to this that he's a total liability in the field and with the bat.

But you cant blame Irfan for all of this. When he runs in to bowl you can see the effort it takes him. We all know that his fielding issues and his inability to dive down are to do with his extra tall height and injury issues.

Im convinced that his extraordinarily tall frame makes him biologically slower in reflexes and in agility.

We cant blame him. He has the x factor with the extra bounce and pace.
 
I actually woke up to watch Irfan bowl at 3 am in the morning.

And literally in the third over my jaw dropped.

Everytime we get fooled into believing that we would be intimidate with his height.

Aaron finch went deep in his crease and slogged him off a monster of his no-ball.

Clearly whatever mentally we are bringing looks and feels outdated
 
But you cant blame Irfan for all of this. When he runs in to bowl you can see the effort it takes him. We all know that his fielding issues and his inability to dive down are to do with his extra tall height and injury issues.

Im convinced that his extraordinarily tall frame makes him biologically slower in reflexes and in agility.

We cant blame him. He has the x factor with the extra bounce and pace.

You can't blame anyone except the bowler.

What bravado we were trying to pass off with the intimidation factor was woefully obsolete and disgraceful.

Irfan started off with a couple of beamers was obvious to know he wasn't bending his back and didn't have the rhythm that was needed for a bowler to be in.
 
Felt more like an Imran Khan pick to me.

Its this weird feeling that I have that alot of names that Imran seems to rate highly are getting good contracts and somehow making a comeback in the team.

First Yasir Shah with a Category A contract and return to ODIs.

Then Umar Akmal comes back a player who Imran intrusively backed to play at no. 3 position in the world cup t20s.

Now Irfan that Imran Khan called this era's Joel garner.

Most likely these selections strike off as something that is a letter of law given by the great one himself.
 
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We've only gotten to see Irfan so far, but Wahab and Imran are equally awful selections. No logic in those selections whatsoever

Misbah is stuck in 2012
 
Younger players appear to do well in T20 cricket. No one should be above 31-32 in the team.
 
But you cant blame Irfan for all of this. When he runs in to bowl you can see the effort it takes him. We all know that his fielding issues and his inability to dive down are to do with his extra tall height and injury issues.

Im convinced that his extraordinarily tall frame makes him biologically slower in reflexes and in agility.

We cant blame him. He has the x factor with the extra bounce and pace.

We can't blame a bowler for bowling rubbish?

I think I've been watching the wrong game all my life.
 
But you cant blame Irfan for all of this. When he runs in to bowl you can see the effort it takes him. We all know that his fielding issues and his inability to dive down are to do with his extra tall height and injury issues.

Im convinced that his extraordinarily tall frame makes him biologically slower in reflexes and in agility.

We cant blame him. He has the x factor with the extra bounce and pace.

X factor needs to provide material output as well in terms of taking wickets and turning the match for his team. At 37, just to intimidate the opposition with height will not serve the purpose.

While he shouldnt be judged with 1 poor over but when you are coming on back of 0-3 loss in a T20 series than you cant afford a loose cannon and that too in a 37 years old.
 
He was never unfit for T20 - otherwise he won't have been picked for CPL; get your facts right. He was dropped for his fitness issues when Arthur was new in PAK and tried to establish a fitness regime. Since then, the "accepted standard" has gone quite a bit down with Captain and prime all-rounder ... and the last fielding display against SRL (in both formats), doesn't give much of a high standard either. Irfan is perfectly fit for 4 overs - should they pick an over aged player or not, that could be debated. This was in AUS and they opted to rest Shaheen - Irfan is a decent alternative, and performing.
Yes [MENTION=79064]MMHS[/MENTION] is the only one who continues to harp on about Irfan being fit, when the whole world saw how Irfan was lumbering through his run up. Furthermore, fitness is not just about moving around the field. It's also about having the endurance to think straight when someone like Finch or Warner goes after you, like they did this match. Irfan is not fit for international cricket - it's clear as day. He'll never be a decent alternative at the age of 37 years old, when he was barely fit when he was at his peak.

Also stop bringing in the CPL, PSL etc. This is international cricket, and more importantly, in Australia against the best players of pace bowling. This experiment was bound to fail no matter whichever way you look at it.
 
I was just shocked at the omission of Shahin. This young lad bowled beautifully against us in WC. Is Irfan better than him? No. Irfan's fitness is enough to keep him out of the team though Irfan is not a bad bowler ( shall get a place in our team) .Misbah's regime will be a dark chapter in Pak cricket.
 
I was just shocked at the omission of Shahin. This young lad bowled beautifully against us in WC. Is Irfan better than him? No. Irfan's fitness is enough to keep him out of the team though Irfan is not a bad bowler ( shall get a place in our team) .Misbah's regime will be a dark chapter in Pak cricket.

Shaheen has been rested from T20I to ease him back in after his Dengue Fever.

It makes sense for him to focus on tests.
 
A friend of mine is so annoyed by the 2 selections Irfan & chacha Ifti that he has actually registered a complaint in the citizen’s portal against Misbah & he’s spreading the word too 😂😂😂😂👍🏽 Tbh I am baffled by these selections especially Iftikhar.. that guy , if he stays around the squad for a year or 2 , will turn the likes of Babar & Sohail into tuk tuks
 
Obviously not, but you can make things tougher by landing the ballbin good areas which Irfan just didn't do.

No asian team is going to bounce out the aussies in Australia. They must bowl in tge good areas and vary.

Ofcourse someone in Pakistan team thinks that Irfan can bounce out the aussies. And such a think tank needed the sack.
 
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Yes [MENTION=79064]MMHS[/MENTION] is the only one who continues to harp on about Irfan being fit, when the whole world saw how Irfan was lumbering through his run up. Furthermore, fitness is not just about moving around the field. It's also about having the endurance to think straight when someone like Finch or Warner goes after you, like they did this match. Irfan is not fit for international cricket - it's clear as day. He'll never be a decent alternative at the age of 37 years old, when he was barely fit when he was at his peak.

Also stop bringing in the CPL, PSL etc. This is international cricket, and more importantly, in Australia against the best players of pace bowling. This experiment was bound to fail no matter whichever way you look at it.

Ok, for the last time I am correcting you - the issue is not about how fit is Irfan; in that scale many PAK players wonÂ’t pass. The issue or the part of my post that got under your skin and you are still trying to recover lost ground for that is NOT about how good or fit Irfan is - rather, regarding what are the alternatives. I am the one who had written many epics here regarding the average age of PAK squad or the stamina of their pacers and why PAK should drop players over 35, for pacers even 35 is a stress - therefore stop giving gayaan.

The issue here is that, part of my initial post - “... scratching bottom of the barrel....” hurt your ego because you are still in the delusion of “... Pakistan may talent Bahutu hai..” - get over that, you won’t need to waste my time.

Your CS has played fair amount of cricket and your bowling coach does know a little about pace bowling and fitness associated with it, therefore we should believe that they must have done their calculations before taking a controversial and risky call - this guy Irfan was sent back from UK more than 4 years back when this same CS was Captain the the bowling coach had been just recent head coach. And, they had just seen a domestic tournament, assessed few probables for two days in between a national tournament, flying/driving players from the tournament venue to NCA Lahore - therefore I do believe that there must be something beyond being impressed by the size.... of Irfan.


On selection policy level any one can exclude an over aged pacer. He is officially 37, by the standard of PAK cricket, we can safely say itÂ’s beyond 40 - an age when pacers like MD Marshall or DK Lillee stopped playing even exhibition games and moved into coaching. Still, he was picked for 3 games in the toughest of places - that could be for few reason, like: your CS/Bowling coach are simpleton idiots not to understand what we discuss here every day, or may be corrupt (cutting pie from IrfanÂ’s tour fee), or Irfan might have some compromised photo/clips of any stakeholders in this matter, influential enough ........ or simply that two guys with 35+ years of experience in international cricket including a decade in Counties and more than a decade as PAK Captain, couldnÂ’t find a particular trait that they were looking for, from a base of over 500 FC cricketers, out of 2nd largest cricket playing population in world.

I tend to believe the last one, hence my point was that options were limited - they took a chance, as “scratching bottom of the barrel” isn’t grabbing anything much better. Your point still is “Pakistan may talunt bahut hai”... so on top of 2-3 kids that they already had picked (others were not working to be honest - after 0-3 to SRL reserves, at least PAK’s reputation as former champion demanded some reactions/changes), they could have picked another one as easily as like plucking fruits from tree....and talunt would have tamed Warner, Finch. If so, no issues, you keep your theory & I keep mine, and let’s live in peace.
 
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I don't know what Misbah's supporters will say once we lose in UAE as well. Saviour has too much of workload...
 
We can't blame a bowler for bowling rubbish?

I think I've been watching the wrong game all my life.

To add to your voice. If he is selected in this unfit condition that means Wrong selection. If he could not perform then bad coaching.

I miss Mickey's era. We lost few games we could have won. 2 games in England before WC, 1 against Australia in ODI series, 1 game against SA in ODIs. First test match against SA, 3rd test against NZ, 2nd test against SL, Brisbane test, 2nd NZ test in 2017 we could have gone for draw. We saw lots of fight from our younger players. I think only Asia cup we played badly like recently concluded T20 series...
 
To add to your voice. If he is selected in this unfit condition that means Wrong selection. If he could not perform then bad coaching.

I miss Mickey's era. We lost few games we could have won. 2 games in England before WC, 1 against Australia in ODI series, 1 game against SA in ODIs. First test match against SA, 3rd test against NZ, 2nd test against SL, Brisbane test, 2nd NZ test in 2017 we could have gone for draw. We saw lots of fight from our younger players. I think only Asia cup we played badly like recently concluded T20 series...

Yep. That's what many people fail to see. Mickey had long term plans. He brought in young players who would be groomed and would start bringing in results in a few years. The seniors Misbah has selected are worse than those youngsters and have no future. They are not about to improve, but the likes of Shadab, Imam, Babar, Shaheen (the one Misbah had a huge problem against in the WC) and Hasnain all have time to improve a lot.
 
Ok, for the last time I am correcting you - the issue is not about how fit is Irfan; in that scale many PAK players wonÂ’t pass. The issue or the part of my post that got under your skin and you are still trying to recover lost ground for that is NOT about how good or fit Irfan is - rather, regarding what are the alternatives. I am the one who had written many epics here regarding the average age of PAK squad or the stamina of their pacers and why PAK should drop players over 35, for pacers even 35 is a stress - therefore stop giving gayaan.

The issue here is that, part of my initial post - “... scratching bottom of the barrel....” hurt your ego because you are still in the delusion of “... Pakistan may talent Bahutu hai..” - get over that, you won’t need to waste my time.

Your CS has played fair amount of cricket and your bowling coach does know a little about pace bowling and fitness associated with it, therefore we should believe that they must have done their calculations before taking a controversial and risky call - this guy Irfan was sent back from UK more than 4 years back when this same CS was Captain the the bowling coach had been just recent head coach. And, they had just seen a domestic tournament, assessed few probables for two days in between a national tournament, flying/driving players from the tournament venue to NCA Lahore - therefore I do believe that there must be something beyond being impressed by the size.... of Irfan.


On selection policy level any one can exclude an over aged pacer. He is officially 37, by the standard of PAK cricket, we can safely say itÂ’s beyond 40 - an age when pacers like MD Marshall or DK Lillee stopped playing even exhibition games and moved into coaching. Still, he was picked for 3 games in the toughest of places - that could be for few reason, like: your CS/Bowling coach are simpleton idiots not to understand what we discuss here every day, or may be corrupt (cutting pie from IrfanÂ’s tour fee), or Irfan might have some compromised photo/clips of any stakeholders in this matter, influential enough ........ or simply that two guys with 35+ years of experience in international cricket including a decade in Counties and more than a decade as PAK Captain, couldnÂ’t find a particular trait that they were looking for, from a base of over 500 FC cricketers, out of 2nd largest cricket playing population in world.

I tend to believe the last one, hence my point was that options were limited - they took a chance, as “scratching bottom of the barrel” isn’t grabbing anything much better. Your point still is “Pakistan may talunt bahut hai”... so on top of 2-3 kids that they already had picked (others were not working to be honest - after 0-3 to SRL reserves, at least PAK’s reputation as former champion demanded some reactions/changes), they could have picked another one as easily as like plucking fruits from tree....and talunt would have tamed Warner, Finch. If so, no issues, you keep your theory & I keep mine, and let’s live in peace.
It's you who is consistently trying to pass off rubbish as 'gayaan'. Frankly pretty much 80% of your posts are rubbish anyway, but these last few ones take the cake. Yes I do have an issue with your bitter comments about the state of Pakistan cricket, and anyone with a sane mind will question your drop dead dumb analysis of justifying Irfan's inclusion in 2019.

It's funny you accuse me of covering ground, when it's you who is coming up with nonsense reasons for Irfan to get selected just to prove a non-existent point.

You are giving too much credit to our CS/head coach. He is an ego-driven individual, intent on giving TTFs chances. You are trying to justify the decisions of an individual who has brought back failures like Shehzad, Akmal and Irfan back into the team within a space of four games. I'm starting to think I touched a nerve for you :))
 
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Actually , in media and also in Misbah's mind they do unfair and illogical comparison.

If UA and Ahmed Shehzad for example made debut in 2009, then their performance should be compared with cricketers around the world who debuted in 2009/10/11. So by that logic their performance should be benchmarked against the likes of De Kock, Kohli, Dhawan, (even with Haris Sohail, or Babar Azam) etc. So,if we say they are 50% capable of these players then we consider them, but in reality they are not even 20% of their peers have achieved. This is called as Peer Evaluation.

In reality, what our media and so called TV experts do is, they compare Akmal's performance with 18 year old youngster and conclude, Umar Akmal has rich work experience. That is how they become talented and become very experienced cricketers.. :)
 
I Remember India doing this in tests

Not really. It was the occasional bouncer that surprised the batsman. Bouncing out is what Mitchell Johnson did.

Also Bumrah was bowling 90mph plus and was very accurate. So was Shami.
 
Yep. That's what many people fail to see. Mickey had long term plans. He brought in young players who would be groomed and would start bringing in results in a few years. The seniors Misbah has selected are worse than those youngsters and have no future. They are not about to improve, but the likes of Shadab, Imam, Babar, Shaheen (the one Misbah had a huge problem against in the WC) and Hasnain all have time to improve a lot.

I agree. Despite Mickey's failings, he was building a forward-looking team. Some of his exclusions were arguable but on the whole there was much to look ahead for. Even that 11 ODI losing streak which was a big factor in his ouster, can be looked at more closely. The England series went 4-0 but it showed Pakistan's batting do things it hasn't in a long time, we just didn't have the bowling to back it up. When we did finally in the World Cup, we beat them. The UAE Australia series with a bench squad was a brain fade from Mickey and the PCB as a whole but we still got Rizwan and Abid's performances out of it. The SA ODI series before that was close.

There's literally nothing new to learn from the recent games under Misbah except for what most already expected going into those matches. Babar bats well. TTFs don't work.
 
Shaheen has been rested from T20I to ease him back in after his Dengue Fever.

It makes sense for him to focus on tests.

That's a sensible decision. Shahin is an asset for Pakistan. Needs to groom well and use him sensibly.
 
Misbah has no one to answer so he can do and get away anything he wants.
 
Misbah is so inspired from his own story, he loves picking oldies. I have never forgotten grandpa Tanvir Ahmed bowling 120 kph missiles in South Africa under the captaincy of Misbah
 
A dual coach and selector has to protect two jobs at once. If he goes out of the way to select a player he has to keep playing him to justify his selection, even if he is not performing.
 
A dual coach and selector has to protect two jobs at once. If he goes out of the way to select a player he has to keep playing him to justify his selection, even if he is not performing.
Another master stroke from Wasim Khan sb.
 
Another master stroke from Wasim Khan sb.

A super coach is an excellent idea provided that you appoint the right man for the job. Unfortunately, Misbah is the worst option because he is a terrible selector and coach.
 
A super coach is an excellent idea provided that you appoint the right man for the job. Unfortunately, Misbah is the worst option because he is a terrible selector and coach.

Because he wants to save money for PCB so tried go go cheaper option by copying English system. But even that case he is not successful.
 
Gave away the least number of runs today and picked a wicket

See this is the thing. He may well be serviceable at times but for what? He's 37, unfit and offers nothing in the field or with the bat. Who knows if he even makes it to Australia next year for the WC and what happens if he breaks down or his age really catches upon him. Then Pakistan is probably forced to play an inexperienced player because Irfan was on the side for a series or two.
 
See this is the thing. He may well be serviceable at times but for what? He's 37, unfit and offers nothing in the field or with the bat. Who knows if he even makes it to Australia next year for the WC and what happens if he breaks down or his age really catches upon him. Then Pakistan is probably forced to play an inexperienced player because Irfan was on the side for a series or two.

Not worried about who will replace Irfan if we give him a few games. Shaheen is likely to supersede him anyway and we have Junaid, Shinwari, Hasnain, Faheem plus possibly Musa or Naseem to fill that spot if Irfan flops.
 
Wanted to test if he would be an effective option for T20WC - came back with more questions than answer :misbah
 
Huffed and puffed through 4 overs today as if he had bowled 24 overs.

Seriously, how does he pass the PCB fitness tests.
 
Huffed and puffed through 4 overs today as if he had bowled 24 overs.

Seriously, how does he pass the PCB fitness tests.

Same way Sarfaraz and Haris Sohail did. This Fitness Crusade is a farce and all talk.
 
as crazy as it sounds, Asif Ali may be a worse selection than Irfan!

The guy has somehow played 40+ international matches as a batsmen while averaging 22 in first class and 27 in list A
 
as crazy as it sounds, Asif Ali may be a worse selection than Irfan!

The guy has somehow played 40+ international matches as a batsmen while averaging 22 in first class and 27 in list A

Wait for the 3rd game then, which is at new WACA - if it remains remotely close to what was last year during IND-AUS Test, you'll add few more names with Asif in that list :(
 
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