Mohammad Hasnain's lack of progress is alarming

[Savak]

I believe he has been playing domestic cricket since 2017. He made a powerful impact in the 2019 PSL where he was clocked continuously bowling at 145 km/hr plus and even reached 150 km/hr at the age of 18.

He is much taller compared to regular bowlers and i remember Waqar getting excited upon seeing him because of both his height and pace. He can swing the new ball in both directions and can bowl at 88-90 mph upfront.

He is now 22 years old but every time i see him, i am reminded of Mohd Sami where there is zero consistency in his bowling and that he has to bowl 1-2 bad deliveries every over. His pace has badly regressed from 150 km/hr to 136-140 km/hr. He struggles badly to bowl at the death where he can't even consistently nail the yorker. He doesn't make us of his height.

In this time period, the likes of Shaheen and even Naseem have made good progress and have developed reliable control with the ball.

I think the root cause of his problems is the fact he has played very little domestic 4 day cricket and that he single mindedly just focuses on playing ODI and T-20 Cricket around the world.

In a recent press conference he commented that he would like to play test cricket for Pakistan one day. Then why is he not playing 4 day domestic cricket consistently? The only way will his bowling improve if he plays atleast 2 seasons of 4 day competitions.

 

[Rana]

His progress hit a bulldozer today in Azam Khan

Hasnain was taken to pull shot city!!

 

[Farah Sohail]

Hasnain’s main problem is that he just cant handle pressure.. if hes doing good..he is doing good but as soon as a batsmen starts doing lathi charge..he just seems to lose it all..and starts bowling horribly.. cant handle pressure at all..
overall i think in this psl, his death bowling had improved a lot..but then again..today azam khan started hitting him, and then he forgot even the basics..and bowled horribly

Plus.. his regression of pace is a recent phenomenon… until this psl, last i saw him in international..he was bowling at his good usual pace of late 140s and touching 150s…but in this psl, i am noticing him rarley touching 140s..and this is a worrying sign.. whats the issue? [MENTION=9]Saj[/MENTION] can u ask him..if he is fit..or whatever is the reason of such sharp reduction in pace..on average for him?

 

[gazza619]

He is very weak mentally. The sooner we drop him from team plans, the better.

 

[GLORY OF '92]

He is very weak mentally. The sooner we drop him from team plans, the better.

Reminds me of Sami but less talented. He unfortunately will never succeed in international cricket. We need to look at other options.

 

[shamaan]

Got took to the cleaners today and had no answer.

 

[moghul]

He is making good progress, not everyday someone plays an inning like Azam Khan's today's inning.

 

[Officer Barbrady]

I believe he has been playing domestic cricket since 2017. He made a powerful impact in the 2019 PSL where he was clocked continuously bowling at 145 km/hr plus and even reached 150 km/hr at the age of 18.

He is much taller compared to regular bowlers and i remember Waqar getting excited upon seeing him because of both his height and pace. He can swing the new ball in both directions and can bowl at 88-90 mph upfront.

He is now 22 years old but every time i see him, i am reminded of Mohd Sami where there is zero consistency in his bowling and that he has to bowl 1-2 bad deliveries every over. His pace has badly regressed from 150 km/hr to 136-140 km/hr. He struggles badly to bowl at the death where he can't even consistently nail the yorker. He doesn't make us of his height.

In this time period, the likes of Shaheen and even Naseem have made good progress and have developed reliable control with the ball.

I think the root cause of his problems is the fact he has played very little domestic 4 day cricket and that he single mindedly just focuses on playing ODI and T-20 Cricket around the world.

In a recent press conference he commented that he would like to play test cricket for Pakistan one day. Then why is he not playing 4 day domestic cricket consistently? The only way will his bowling improve if he plays atleast 2 seasons of 4 day competitions.

He doesn’t play FC because he’s always traveling with the Pak limited over squad. That’s one thing he can’t be blamed for!

 

[volcyz]

Worse than Rahat Ali

 

[ArabKnight]

Hasnain isn’t that good of a bowler. Same with Rauf.

I think Hasan Ali is much better than them. More skilled, mature, and efficient.

 

[Marooned]

Asia cup, he was bowling high 140s and cracked 150 multiple times with a highest of 154k.

Why such a huge fluctuation in pace in such short period of time?

 

[MenInG]

Overreaction due to a freak innings by Azam Khan.

Whilst Hasnain is not a world beater, he is not that bad.

My only concern is his action.

 

[kumjsr]

Overreaction due to a freak innings by Azam Khan.

Whilst Hasnain is not a world beater, he is not that bad.

My only concern is his action.

What's the issue with his action?

 

[MenInG]

What's the issue with his action?

I feel there is a slight kink when he is under pressure.

 

[Chip32]

This is his level. He has the mentality of a spinner. It’s a shame because IMO he’s far more skilful than Waseem and Rauf.

 

[kumjsr]

I feel there is a slight kink when he is under pressure.

That should be upto coach to observe and fix early. He is still young.

 

[Maliq_Mudasir]

Forget about Azam Khan's innings, it was an unbelievable knock which Azam Khan wouldn't have thought before the match.

But I have one question, we have players like Hasnain, Naseem, Haris, Musa Khan playing for last 2-3 years. What improvements our coaches has bought in their line & length, variations , handling pressure since their debut ? All of them just run and bowl fast like an newbie bowler who doesn't have any international experience.

Barring Shaheen and to some extent Naseem, we have under utilised other bowlers and thanks to our unprofessional and incompetent coaching staff.

 

[sweep_shot]

Hasnain hasn't made much of an impact yet like Shaheen or Naseem did.

He is a good prospect though. He needs to play more games.

 

[Mirpuri Don]

He's still young though and I believe he was hitting the right lengths in the current PSL, where he's not on the freakish level of Shaheen/Ihsanullah but still the best just after them (ahead of teammate Naseem), and perhaps sacrificing some 5kph in his average speed because of keeping these said lengths.

His real issue remains his death-bowling, where perhaps he's behind all other current international Pak fast-bowling regulars.

When it comes to new ball, apart from Shaheen of course (swing) and even Naseem (seam), it's not as if his rivals are great new ball bowlers either, so that's nearly a no issue for me as I don't expect more in that department from others as well.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

I do agree that he hasn't progressed like his fellow pacers like Shaheen, Haris and Naseem but it's hard to immediately recover from remodelling a bowling action. He's been bowling pretty well this PSL (apart from yesterday). But I do think he has a mental block like Sami and he buckles under pressure. Still better than Musa though.

 

[moghul]

Hasnain isn’t that good of a bowler. Same with Rauf.

I think Hasan Ali is much better than them. More skilled, mature, and efficient.

I would say Hasan Ali is the worst and he has proved himmself in last 2-3 years . Hasan Ali is short and has no pace , easy prey for the batters.

 

[shamaan]

Asia cup, he was bowling high 140s and cracked 150 multiple times with a highest of 154k.

Why such a huge fluctuation in pace in such short period of time?

He's improved his action due to ICC calling him out.

 

[hitthestump]

Don't forget he was a wildcard inclusion in the 2019 world cup.

I think he is Pakistan's Theo Walcott. At one time a promising youngster, he will still occasionally pull out a crazy performance but will ultimately be very inconsistent, prone to problems off the pitch and then start irreversibly fading away by his mid-20's.

 

[KingOfPakBreakfast]

Don't forget he was a wildcard inclusion in the 2019 world cup.

I think he is Pakistan's Theo Walcott. At one time a promising youngster, he will still occasionally pull out a crazy performance but will ultimately be very inconsistent, prone to problems off the pitch and then start irreversibly fading away by his mid-20's.

The problem he has is that he’s never bowled in first class cricket. So he has no idea about how to deal with pressure. I still believe he can do well once he properly develops, but he needs game time in red ball cricket to find himself.

 

[Marooned]

He's improved his action due to ICC calling him out.

No.

Asia cup was AFTER he remodeled his action and he clocked high 140s to 150 regularly there.

 

[Saj]

It's the lack of consistency that is the problem.

One match he looks great, the next as soon as he's put under pressure he crumbles.

He's been around a while, yet he's still not convincing at the highest level.

 

[Grunge101]

A bit of an overreaction after yesterday's match. Azam destroyed him in his last two overs but then Azam destroyed everyone including Naseem.

There are some factors however that the OP has brought up that are valid. I've been a bit supporter from the start and have been following him consistently.

PACE
It does fluctuate. From the start of his career when Watson said he was the fastest 18 year old he'd seen in his life, he was clocking 150 regularly and bowled at 156km/hr twice, once in PSL and once in the Caribbean league.

It then dropped to 135-145 category in the coming 2 years ( international outings and BBL) with the odd couple of matches in between when he touched 145-150 range consistently again. He dipped the most in 2021 when he was mostly in high 130's.

Then came the change of action due to the ban and contrary to expectations, he came back faster. In his spell with the national team prior to the WC, he was bowling rapidly. Every 3rd ball at 148-154 consistently.I believe he had the highest average speed in the Asia cup last year.

And now after a hiatus of sorts, he's back to 135-145 range. Very difficult to understand what exactly is happening with him. A bowlers pace does fluctuate but not as significantly as his has in the last 3 years.

SKILL SET
He has developed as a bowler.
-He has worked on that consistent outwinger with the new ball which gives him wickets in his opening spells time and again.
-His overall control and length are also much better than where he was 2 years ago.
- He bowls a mean short ball around chest height which a lot of good batsmen end up skying up in the air because it gets to them too fast.
-His yorker and slower ball control is nowhere near perfect but it's much better than where it used to be.

Opening vs Death spells
Here in lies the biggest difference. We've seen again and again how good he is with the new ball in limited over cricket and then how clueless he can be at the death. Even yesterday his stats read 11-2 after 2 overs. At the end it was 52/2.

Confidence

This is his biggest Achilles heel. The moment he goes for runs in the first couple of balls of the over, you can see his head dropping, panic appearing in his body language and after that he just loses it.
This is where captaincy can have a big impact on him. We've seen how he seems to be enjoying bowling much more under Sarfaraz and Gul compared to when he's in the national team. And no, I'd otn mean that as a critism on Babar. If Hasnain has confidence issues, it's not really Babar's fault nor can he simply be so devoted to one player out of 11 as to completely change his tactics in his management of Hasnain. But what would be really helpful is having a senior, more experienced authority figure over him who can see why he struggles and then provides the necessary support

Up until the last 2 overs yesterday, Hasnain was actually doing really well since the start of PSL and in the post match interviews he mentioned how important it was to him that the captain told him he was their wicket taker and than he was being brought back in the middle to break partnerships.

SELECTION ISSUES

The nat team managements indecisiveness hasn't helped his cause one bit. He was a regular feature up until the England series before the t20 WC before he missed a match because of fitness. And then Suddenly he was nowhere in the picture. Hrle wasn't dropped because of performance, because he was replaced by Wasim Jr who had been doing much worse than him at that point. After that he was dropped from the squad all together, then given one match against BD and then dropped again.

ACTUAL EXPERIENCE
Whilst it's been 4 years since he debuted for Pakistan (March 2019), the actual cricket he's played had been very limited. In all this time hes played a total of 27 T20Is, 7 ODIs and 26 ListA matches. He's virtually played no long format cricket at all.

My Opinion

I think he's someone who could become very special if he develops optimally and for that to happen, deserves time and investment from the team management who seem to be more inclined towards Wasim Jr who I don't rate much at all.

Hasnain isn't yer run of the mill Pakistani fast bowling talent. He's 6'2" atleast, high-ish arm action, has a natural length which is shorter than what our usual fast bowlers bowl and is capable of bowling 150plus consistently. Hes shown evidence of improvement going from someone who was too erratic to be given the new ball to a bowler now who gets excellent away shape and picks up wickets regularly.

I'm not in the least interested in his T20i skills. He needs to play the longer formats regularly in the domestic circuit to learn the art.

 

[hitthestump]

The problem he has is that he’s never bowled in first class cricket. .

This is indeed a problem which is down to the PCB to address.

We are facilitating too many t20 specialists and despite having an assembly line of 150kmh bowlers, we turn to Mohammad Ali and Mir Hamza in test cricket.

I don't think this issue of picking players before they've played enough domestic cricket is talked about nearly enough.

 

[Saj]

The guy has played 7 first-class matches since September 2018.

He's taken only 12 wickets in first-class cricket at an average of 49.16.

Then we wonder why we are struggling to produce quality bowlers.

 

[shamaan]

No.

Asia cup was AFTER he remodeled his action and he clocked high 140s to 150 regularly there.

Maybe speed guns are faulty ?

 

[ArabKnight]

I would say Hasan Ali is the worst and he has proved himmself in last 2-3 years . Hasan Ali is short and has no pace , easy prey for the batters.

Hasan Ali is a class bowler. He takes wickets when you ask him to. Not a run machine like the others.

 

[D/DAhmed]

I remember someone on Pakpassion once made the comment that he was the slowest 150+ kph bowler they’d ever seen, and that’s a fact. Just on first glance, If you see 150+ deliveries from someone like Ihsanullah, you’ll see the batsman visibly uncomfortable and struggling. Meanwhile with Hasnain batsmen look like they’re playing a 130 kph delivery. Now that he’s actually started bowling in the 130’s, batsmen must be seeing deliveries from him like a beach ball

 

[MenInG]

Not playing today due to pain his ankle - hopefully nothing serious.

 

[Savak]

Another Haris Rauf, the guy has been around for a good 4-5 years now and he is still a brainless scattergun. His pace has declined and he doesn't make use of his height, neither does he swing the ball.

Wasim Akram was livid with him in the Pavilion show, he hasn't impressed anyone in this PSL, he doesn't play any first class cricket and is only interested in playing leagues.

 

[Cricket Warrior]

He has been playing cricket for so many years but there is still no sign of any improvement. It's better to give a chance to any other deserving candidate... Hasanain is just wasting the spot.

 

[Sher Khan]

I remember someone on Pakpassion once made the comment that he was the slowest 150+ kph bowler they’d ever seen, and that’s a fact. Just on first glance, If you see 150+ deliveries from someone like Ihsanullah, you’ll see the batsman visibly uncomfortable and struggling. Meanwhile with Hasnain batsmen look like they’re playing a 130 kph delivery. Now that he’s actually started bowling in the 130’s, batsmen must be seeing deliveries from him like a beach ball

The reason this happens is because of his natural line and length. Hasnains Natural length is back of a length wide of off stump.

That is a very hittable line and length unless their is genuine seam movement happening off the pitch.

 

[BouncerGuy]

I had so much hope for this young lad that he would do well but he faded away. Bowling a line and length that will get smoked everywhere every day. So disappointed to see him failing like this. That guy had potential.

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

He is simply not good. The one weapon he had was his pace. Now with the remodeled action that too has dropped significantly.

Plus, I feel like he reverts back to his old action and chucking on certain deliveries.

 

[AAli98]

Whoever dosnt graft it out in 4 day cricket shouldn’t get to play circus leagues.

How else is Pak going to win a session in Australia.