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Think he has done well in South Africa but not taken the tons of wickets that we expected- the shoulder injury is an issue.
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He has been found out. New Zealand learned how to not give him wickets, while South Africa have not only negated him but they have also taken him to the cleaners.
He can hide behind the injury excuse for now, but it won’t work in the future. I don’t see him making much of an impact against the top flight teams in the future.
Another minnow-basher in the making.
As I said it’s only matter before you attack him so basically no cricketer can have an off series coming off an injury,he has taken wickets vs Eng and Aus so he ain’t no minnow basher.He has been found out. New Zealand learned how to not give him wickets, while South Africa have not only negated him but they have also taken him to the cleaners.
He can hide behind the injury excuse for now, but it won’t work in the future. I don’t see him making much of an impact against the top flight teams in the future.
Another minnow-basher in the making.
As I said it’s only matter before you attack him so basically no cricketer can have an off series coming off an injury,he has taken wickets vs Eng and Aus so he ain’t no minnow basher.
He is accurate so if you play recklessly against him he will get you out. At that time, he was a nobody so teams didn’t show him any respect.
Now that he has made a name for himself, teams like New Zealand were cautious against him and he failed to penetrate their defenses.
However, it is quite worrying how South Africa have not only succeeded in not giving him wickets, they have also milked him like a spring goat.
We can run with the injury excuse for now, but let’s see how long that sticks.
Moral of the story - Abbas is not a strike bowler by design, he’s a stock bowler who can keep things tight and contribute with 2fers and 3fers on a consistent basis. You need to find a pace bowler even if he is raw who can give you something different, and be able to bowl short and sharp spells only interested in attacking and taking wickets, what used to be called a strike bowler in the olden days - which you use as a weapon.
The problem here is this attack is all bowling with the same style , keep it tight and wait for the batsman to make mistakes — if that approach was that effective in all conditions then England pacers of the 80s and 90s would have won them test matches all over the world.
Agreed we need a world class 90 mph to complete this atttack the likes of Abbas would feed off on such a bowler Amir should have been that guy but alas he will never be maybe Shaheen will be the one to do it in futureMoral of the story - Abbas is not a strike bowler by design, he’s a stock bowler who can keep things tight and contribute with 2fers and 3fers on a consistent basis. You need to find a pace bowler even if he is raw who can give you something different, and be able to bowl short and sharp spells only interested in attacking and taking wickets, what used to be called a strike bowler in the olden days - which you use as a weapon.
The problem here is this attack is all bowling with the same style , keep it tight and wait for the batsman to make mistakes — if that approach was that effective in all conditions then England pacers of the 80s and 90s would have won them test matches all over the world.
One area he has to improve is taking the ball away from the RHB. Once teams negate his offcutter it makes him much easier to face
That's what teams have been doing as well.
And at that slow pace he's easy to counter without an outswinger.
Poor guy looks worn out and gone.
In this situation, the team management are risking the player making his injury worse and being out for a long time.
Well I agree that if he has 6-8 Tests in which he averages 35-40 his average might worsen. No sense in arguing with tautology. But it rather depends on on how much he averages in the other series too. He just came out one in the UAE in which he averaged 9. So you have to explain why we should assume that he will do so poorly overall in the future, when he has already played on the worst pitches in the world. Again, I do think it is likely that he will do worse, but I also feel there is a good chance he keeps himself below 20. And that his average goes down even more after the SAF series before it goes up.
Playing his third match of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy this season, has just 3 wickets so far. Averaging 70ish. Not ideal preparation for the Australia Tests.
He struggled at Leicestershire this season and was nowhere near the bowler he was in the previous season.
He's had some personal problems with the illness of his brother and on top of that some injury concerns.
We sure do like our hype trains.
Abbas has seen a phenomenal entry into Test cricket, but so far his performances have been either against minnows, or depleted low morale lineup of Australia. That too not in Australia.
His England tour was good, but those were ideal seaming conditions and NOVELTY was also a factor - opposition did not know how to counter him, had not watched or studied him.
So, before we start claiming Abbas is better than Rabada, Steyn, Asif, et. al. , calm down and get a reality check.
He can do good, and nobody says after 20-30 Tests he cannot become a good to great bowler.
But he cannot be compared to greats at this stage. Has a lot to prove, now that opposition will study him. Will either fade away or come out on top.
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He struggled?
He averaged a shade over 25 with 29 wickets in 9 games. Of those who averaged better, only 16 had more wickets and all but two of them played more games. Almost all of them were slow bowlers of some sort and not medium/fast or fast/medium.
This wasn't Abbas the UAE wrecker but it was still a very good performer, who is struggling against injury, not against taking wickets and giving away very few runs. It also didn't help that Leicestershire were probably the weakest side across all the county divisions.
So yeah, not exactly struggling to an objective observer.
I knew Muhammad Abbas wont last long. He may have perfomred brilliantly last year but he wont last long and his performance in this years QeA, SA tour show he is startung to decline. He doesn't get a lot swing (its only england where he gets a lot of swing as seen in the last england tour) and he is way too slow, he will get very few wickets in most countries. Honestly, Pakistan should move on from Muhammad Abbas, Mohammad Amir, Wahab Riaz (and others liek Hasan Ali and also should stop bringing other seniors liek imran khan sr, mohammad irfan etc.) and focus on Shaheen, Musa Khan, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Muhammad Hasnain, Sameen Gul (and there are more potentials like Ahmed Bashir, Khurram Shezad)
I almost agree, but Adelaide will be a pink ball greentop and he might do well there.Abbas benefited greatly from the previous green-tops in F/C cricket. However, the pitches have been mostly flat this season and he hasn’t looked very threatening at all. The Australian series is coming a terrible time for him because there is no way someone like him is going to do well in those conditions.
I almost agree, but Adelaide will be a pink ball greentop and he might do well there.
He will be massacred at Brisbane though.
He had more favourable conditions in County and South Africa but he failed there. I don't see him doing well in Adelaide either.
he was a beast in the county scene
when you bowl under 130 k, no matter how good you are no one will take you seriously. This guy being regarded as the second coming of asif is a joke and an insult to asif.A support bowler at best. It was hilarious how some on PP were calling him the best test bowler in the world after 1/2 good series. If you want some comedy, go and read the thread about the test bowler in the world. Abbas was far in front on the poll, even Amir was getting votes LOL.
We are the kings of of overhyping and than destroying our own players.
he was a beast in the county scene
Also do not forget how NZ worked him out batting outside the crease. Sarfraz needs to help him out by standing up to the stumps.
England did the same against Asif in 2010. He wasn't as effective afterwards. People here talk as if Asif was the greatest gift to mankind. We forget that Asif was largely innocuous throughout the series after England started to play against him outside the crease. We also lost 3-1.
Also do not forget how NZ worked him out batting outside the crease. Sarfraz needs to help him out by standing up to the stumps.
Compared to the previous season, he was nowhere near as good.
29 wickets in 9 games is hardly earth-shattering form.
I did not say it was "earth shattering" but it is a universe away from struggling. The guy picked wickets, barely gave any wickets while having to bowl returning from injury.
We should be fair in detailing that.
29 wickets in 9 four-day matches in a pretty weak 2nd Division of the County Championship is below-par for a bowler of his standard.
So if you believe his standard is 50 wickets at an average 10 then that is you and you are being unrealistic.
Abbas had an exceptional first season in the international game but not many can or have maintained that in any form of cricket. He then had to come back from injury, to do that in a very weak team and be one of their better players, in a foreign land is very good.
Again, you're original post was that he struggled, he did not by any metric. I can't say more on it.
So if you believe his standard is 50 wickets at an average 10 then that is you and you are being unrealistic.
Abbas had an exceptional first season in the international game but not many can or have maintained that in any form of cricket. He then had to come back from injury, to do that in a very weak team and be one of their better players, in a foreign land is very good.
Again, you're original post was that he struggled, he did not by any metric. I can't say more on it.
Have you even seen the batting standards in county grade 2. Half the batsmen are 2 levels below international standard. He should be averaging a maximum of 22 over there.
If he’s Supposedly Pakistan’s best test bowler, then we should really be worried for the Aus and England series.
Not to mention that unlike Australia, the conditions in England are tailor-made to his style of bowling
Exactly. We saw how Abbas failed in South Africa. His style of bowling will fail in Australia, he won't get any movement.
He was coming back from injury and wasn't fit.
Last week there was over action for not selecting him.
Now bashing started for bowler
What a thread by [MENTION=134608]Hawkeye[/MENTION]
Considering the timing of this thread when Abbas was actually looking like a world beater is particularly impressive.

