Pakistan’s inconsistent/unfair selection criteria

[Rana]

I’m sorry to say, but how did Shadab Khan not survive the chop for the SL game with that horrendous performance on a spinning track, but Fakhar Zaman is the one player who is dropped for scoring 20s regularly instead of a big hundred??

Why is Shadab, Rizwan and Babar consistently allowed to play regardless of form or performance but everyone else can be replaced/dropped in this side??

Any new player coming into this side has to either score a 50/100 every game or take 3-5 wickets, but the golden 4 (Babar, Rizwan, Shadab, Shaheen) can take all the time in the world to find their form and performance through lean patches!

Sick and tired of this injustice. Pakistan have carried Fakhar for 6 years through thick and thin, and they have one player who can match the white ball juggernauts of world cricket…but they drop him on the eve of a World Cup! Why?? Who is Babar and Rizwan accountable to? Rizwan hasn’t scored an ODI ton since 2019, Fakhar has scored plenty since including double tone and 190+ scores! Why the injustice to Fakhar only??!

 

[mominsaigol]

I’m sorry to say, but how did Shadab Khan not survive the chop for the SL game with that horrendous performance on a spinning track, but Fakhar Zaman is the one player who is dropped for scoring 20s regularly instead of a big hundred??

Why is Shadab, Rizwan and Babar consistently allowed to play regardless of form or performance but everyone else can be replaced/dropped in this side??

Any new player coming into this side has to either score a 50/100 every game or take 3-5 wickets, but the golden 4 (Babar, Rizwan, Shadab, Shaheen) can take all the time in the world to find their form and performance through lean patches!

Sick and tired of this injustice. Pakistan have carried Fakhar for 6 years through thick and thin, and they have one player who can match the white ball juggernauts of world cricket…but they drop him on the eve of a World Cup! Why?? Who is Babar and Rizwan accountable to? Rizwan hasn’t scored an ODI ton since 2019, Fakhar has scored plenty since including double tone and 190+ scores! Why the injustice to Fakhar only??!

I'm actually glad someone besides me is making these sorts of posts and actually addressing what is wrong with the team and the management.

I disagree about fakhar. Never rated the guy. Teams just hadn't figured him out, but now even Nepal knows just bowl good length and pitch it away and you're golden. Fakhar did have one quality, if you did bowl leg side or in his pull shot zone, then 150+ score guaranteed, however fakhar should be dropped atm.

What I do agree with however is your stance on our golden boys. Their also limited, in case of rizwan he's far far far more limited then fakhar will ever be and does not have the aptitude to ever do what fakhar did. Same with shadab, shadab is probably among the worst Pseudo allrounders I have ever seen, even nawaz is genuinely superior, and I hate nawaz lol.

Babar and shaheen I somewhat disagree with. Babar is a technically limited player and is atrocious against spin but he's a very good accumulator and a good batsmen overall, he just isn't Mr no 1 like people believe him to be, and unlike imam or rizwan, Babar has actually visibly improved his technique over the years, he foxed his lack of singles and zero 6 hitting shots over the years, so I'm sure he'll iron out his backfoot issues with spin as well as front foot problems against spin. Babar is fine.

Shaheen is a good bowler. My issue is they consider him our front line and have him marketed as our best bowler when in reality both naseem and haris are 10x superior to him. Shaheen is average in middle overs and relies in early swing to hold his hand.

Naseem on the other hand bowls extremely good Glenn mcgrath Level line and length hence why he was the only economical bowler in the nz series despite the game being played on a batting paradise pitch and picked up wickets as well. Haris is a genuine wicket taker due to his insane variation and game awareness of figuring out a batsmen's weakness and playing mind games with the batsmen.

Shaheen ain't on their level, but he's a good bowler, does not deserve to be dropped

Rizwan and shadab yes, these boys need to go.

 

[Sherazkhalid]

Shahdab is going Imad's way, at least he would maybe get a wicket at the start of the game, but then hit one six and get out. It's baffling to understand how with 3 bowlers, 2 bats (Baber and Ifti on some days) we are dreaming of WC. The rest of the team is mediocre at best. I don't know where Imam stands, he is 50-50, Fakhar is done, Rizwan is done, and his keeping is only plus. Shahdab is a "had been" for ages now. I still feel that the lefty guy we took to T20 WC can be more useful, but this close to WC, we will stick with this team and be doomed, and then rinse and repeat forever.

 

[mominsaigol]

Shahdab is going Imad's way, at least he would maybe get a wicket at the start of the game, but then hit one six and get out. It's baffling to understand how with 3 bowlers, 2 bats (Baber and Ifti on some days) we are dreaming of WC. The rest of the team is mediocre at best. I don't know where Imam stands, he is 50-50, Fakhar is done, Rizwan is done, and his keeping is only plus. Shahdab is a "had been" for ages now. I still feel that the lefty guy we took to T20 WC can be more useful, but this close to WC, we will stick with this team and be doomed, and then rinse and repeat forever.

Imad irrespective of people think of him, is 50x the player then shadab ever has or ever will be.

 

[saqib.rai]

Yes these 4 inept players (Babar, Rizwan, Shadab and Shaheen) should be dropped ASAP as we have Viv Richards, Adam Gilchrist, someone like Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath sitting on the bench and waiting for their turn. Why this injustice??????

Have some basic common sense. These 4 have won us multiple matches, their averages suggest that they are CONSISTENT, otherwise on his day Even Wahab Riaz was better than Wasim Akram but his sub-standard average and economy suggested that he was not CONSISTENT.

WHICH THESE FOUR ARE. They might not win you games single-handedly everytime but will also chip in

 

[Sherazkhalid]

Imad irrespective of people think of him, is 50x the player then shadab ever has or ever will be.

Probably but whenever I watched him, his batting was worse than Shahid Afridi.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

Shadab is actually inferior to Imad as a defensive spin-bowling all-rounder. Imad can actually bat and bat at a good strike rate at 7 and had better economy/control and against top 6 sides too.

 

[Rana]

Yes these 4 inept players (Babar, Rizwan, Shadab and Shaheen) should be dropped ASAP as we have Viv Richards, Adam Gilchrist, someone like Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath sitting on the bench and waiting for their turn. Why this injustice??????

Have some basic common sense. These 4 have won us multiple matches, their averages suggest that they are CONSISTENT, otherwise on his day Even Wahab Riaz was better than Wasim Akram but his sub-standard average and economy suggested that he was not CONSISTENT.

WHICH THESE FOUR ARE. They might not win you games single-handedly everytime but will also chip in

What matches has Rizwan won for Pakistan??? Rizwan only?!!

You better hope Pakistan isn’t rained out through nrr tomorrow, otherwise I will unleash the fire of Mordor on Pakistan cricket team tomorrow!

 

[mominsaigol]

Probably but whenever I watched him, his batting was worse than Shahid Afridi.

Imad played against a 1st string England side with bowlers consisting of Plucknett, Archer, wood, woakes, adil rasheed and moeen Ali and was not out for the entire tour on England pitches and scored multiple half centuries.

His stats are bad while bowling in odi because in 2019 he kept playing against 1st string sides and got tonked by England in that iconic 444 score, when in reality all pur bowlers got tonked.

I'm sick of people shoving that average into me to prove nawaz or shadab are superior bowlers when they've been inflating themselves by playing against 2nd string teams.

Imad and shadab both bowled against 2nd string NZ in the t20, Shadab did nothing, Imad murked the entire team in t20.

 

[mominsaigol]

Yes these 4 inept players (Babar, Rizwan, Shadab and Shaheen) should be dropped ASAP as we have Viv Richards, Adam Gilchrist, someone like Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath sitting on the bench and waiting for their turn. Why this injustice??????

Have some basic common sense. These 4 have won us multiple matches, their averages suggest that they are CONSISTENT, otherwise on his day Even Wahab Riaz was better than Wasim Akram but his sub-standard average and economy suggested that he was not CONSISTENT.

WHICH THESE FOUR ARE. They might not win you games single-handedly everytime but will also chip in

Babar and shaheen deserve to play yes.

Shadab is getting nuked now that he is facing 1st string sides. He bats well especially saving the match against afghanistan but even those bowlers were trash, afghanistan is dependant on their spin department and when shadab arrived the spin has finished and dealing with farooqi is easy. Shadab ain't winning any games.

Rizwan is a tail ender at no 4, and hasn't won us any games at no 4. At opening in t20 he's decent. Not the best Opener nor is he the best player and you're forgetting he lost us the Asia cup t20 against Sri lanka, not won. Rizwan is a medciore batz doesn't deserve to play ahead of saud or Abdullah or saim or even haris for that matter as haris can genuinely contribute at no 7 as a finisher.

 

[shamaan]

I think the only reason Shadab didn't get dropped is because hes Vice Captain.

Shaheen tries to get wickets with every ball hence when he gets it wrong it can look really bad.Naseem bowls test match lines in odis and has better defensive skills thats why we won't see him get hit as much.

 

[Mamoon]

I think the only reason Shadab didn't get dropped is because hes Vice Captain.

Shaheen tries to get wickets with every ball hence when he gets it wrong it can look really bad.Naseem bowls test match lines in odis and has better defensive skills thats why we won't see him get hit as much.

The reason Shadab is vice-captain is because they don’t want him dropped.

I think PCB knows he’s rubbish, but he’s also their golden boy and needs protection.

 

[gazza619]

I’m sorry to say, but how did Shadab Khan not survive the chop for the SL game with that horrendous performance on a spinning track, but Fakhar Zaman is the one player who is dropped for scoring 20s regularly instead of a big hundred??

Why is Shadab, Rizwan and Babar consistently allowed to play regardless of form or performance but everyone else can be replaced/dropped in this side??

Any new player coming into this side has to either score a 50/100 every game or take 3-5 wickets, but the golden 4 (Babar, Rizwan, Shadab, Shaheen) can take all the time in the world to find their form and performance through lean patches!

Sick and tired of this injustice. Pakistan have carried Fakhar for 6 years through thick and thin, and they have one player who can match the white ball juggernauts of world cricket…but they drop him on the eve of a World Cup! Why?? Who is Babar and Rizwan accountable to? Rizwan hasn’t scored an ODI ton since 2019, Fakhar has scored plenty since including double tone and 190+ scores! Why the injustice to Fakhar only??!

Panic mode is on.

M Haris is more suited as a late order or middle overs dasher in ODIs, and yet he is to open. Abdullah Shafique is your back up opener and is benched again.

Nawaz is back, only God knows why

 

[mominsaigol]

I think the only reason Shadab didn't get dropped is because hes Vice Captain.

Shaheen tries to get wickets with every ball hence when he gets it wrong it can look really bad.Naseem bowls test match lines in odis and has better defensive skills thats why we won't see him get hit as much.

Naseem, Shaheen and haris are fine, them not doing well against India in one match means nothing. Their all world class. But shaheen shouldn't be considered our mainline bowler, he is world class but is inferior to Rauf and naseem. Still world class though.

 

[mominsaigol]

The reason Shadab is vice-captain is because they don’t want him dropped.

I think PCB knows he’s rubbish, but he’s also their golden boy and needs protection.

I don't think PCB knows he's rubbish unless theirs some nepotism involved and shadab is in the same boat as shan masood.

PCB has always been the slowest board at identifying who's rubbish and who isn't.

 

[ahmadharis1]

Agreed, the selection habits of Pakistan is chaotic and maddening. Players are selected and dropped on a whim; some stay on the team way too long while others play one match and are inexplicably dropped.

 

[hassan918]

There will always be questions on the selection when a player suddenly comes into the national side without too many great performances in domestic cricket. Agha Salman is the recent example and today we saw Zaman Khan in the playing Xi from nowhere. He has only played 7 List A matches and has a bowling average of 55.50.

 

[asfandyar]

Pakistan's selection has been consistently poor, so you are wrong about inconsistency. Some fluke wins in the middle reinforced our delusions. If you keep prioritizing gut feelings over data in cricket, politics and religion, you will sink deeper into this cesspool.

 

[Rana]

Shadab the passenger

 

[shamaan]

Naseem, Shaheen and haris are fine, them not doing well against India in one match means nothing. Their all world class. But shaheen shouldn't be considered our mainline bowler, he is world class but is inferior to Rauf and naseem. Still world class though.

I don't think he is inferior it's just that he tries to get a wicket with every ball whilst Naseem tries to bowl test match lines hence why he won't get hit as much.

 

[mominsaigol]

I don't think he is inferior it's just that he tries to get a wicket with every ball whilst Naseem tries to bowl test match lines hence why he won't get hit as much.

Hence making him inferior.

 

[7sins]

How dumb can selectors can be? Same goes with Mickey Arthur and his company? How can you select Zaman khan for odis based on psl performance. He don't swing the ball all he do is bowl slower ones and Yorkers and even in that his very predictable. Same goes with Nawaz, faheem, fakhar, shadab was bowling great last year and suddenly his all over the place.

 

[mominsaigol]

How dumb can selectors can be? Same goes with Mickey Arthur and his company? How can you select Zaman khan for odis based on psl performance. He don't swing the ball all he do is bowl slower ones and Yorkers and even in that his very predictable. Same goes with Nawaz, faheem, fakhar, shadab was bowling great last year and suddenly his all over the place.

Shadab wasn't bowling great. Even in the NZ series with 2nd string sides usama was clearly out performing him. Its just shadab kept taking wickets despite being expensive because 2nd string sides are weak.

1st string sides are clearly marking shadab as they have been this Asia cup.

 

[Energy]

Shadab has been poor, but Fakhar has been abysmal.

Shadab's issue has been he has fooled the management into thinking he is the premiere spinner. That formula will not work, and hopefully now we will regularly see Usama Mir play with 3 fast bowlers, and Shadab as the support spinner. Yes, he needs a solid reality check but couple of things you can't take away from him - gun fielding, and taking wickets. He does take wickets, and he does generate run-outs. I will have Shadab in my ODI team for sure and the skipper should know how to get the best out of him.

Fakhar on the other side needs to be dropped outright because he will ensure Pakistan are always 1 wicket down inside 5 overs. Besides, he is worse against spin, and I can bet he will get out in the first over if teams start with a spinner on sticky wickets. I'd much rather have Imam and Abdullah accumulate to 40/0 rather than start on the backfoot every match.

Rizwan has justified his selection in every series. Those doubting him are just haters for the sake of it.

Shaheen has been average, but Shaheen is the first name on the Pakistan team sheet. For anyone who has watched cricket enough will know Shaheen is gold. He will learn how to be patient.

Pakistan has a settled enough team going into the World Cup. Just need to get Naseem and Haris back injury-free. And need Chacha to keep his batting form going.

 

[adi_62941]

Despite close loss yesterday and heavy loss against india, pakistan can bring out best in WC as indian pitches favors pakistan. Babar will enjoy on that pitches. Babar, rizwan, saud and chacha should be the middle 4.

 

[mominsaigol]

The world cup dilemma is extremely simple but this won't happen because our pcb management is brain dead. In 2013 for champions trophy India changed their entire squad replacing gautam for shikhar, promoting rohit to open, changing their entire middle order and bowling structure for the tournament.

Pakistan ain't ever doing that.

Saim ayub has been performing well, he's also extremely young and can be groomed ontop of which he doesn't have any technical limitations but he won't make It to the squad.

Saim ayub in place of fakhar and you're golden. Same case with Abdullah in place of imam. Unlike imam, Abdullah has a 4th and 5th gear which is why he plays psl and imam doesn't get selected. Abdullah was slow because he was randomly brought into a pressure situation to play a semi final against bowlers that rattled India with a mindset that he's disposable. Its a miracle he scored a half century under all that drama.

Everyone kept telling me to shut my mouth against spin, I hope you know now why we need saud and Abdullah and saim, Otherwise someone like wallenge or Kuldeep is tearing us alive.

Same case with our middle order. We refuse to play players like tayyab and imad aka genuine middle order and allrounders and instead choose bits and pieces shadab, nawaz and agha who always get exposed against big teams.

It's very simple what Pakistan has to do.

Fakhar, Imam, Agha, Shadab, nawaz, Faheem all out with rizwan and chacha being warned and given one last reality check on being booted out.

Imad waseem, Saim ayub, Abdullah shafiq, Saud shakeel, Tayyab Tahir, Abrar, Usama mir, Ihsanullah, arshad iqbal all in with either sarfraz or Haris being pur backup keepers, one of these 2 are needed to give rizwan his reality check to stop having rizwan being the golden boy.

Other then that, Kuhda kei wastei, Squad rotation seikh lo, like India did today, resting all of their bench strength for a dead game.

If you don't squad rotate, you can't groom new players and you risk having an extremely inexperienced bench strength for big games + making everyone injury prone.

 

[aukhan]

Shadab is actually inferior to Imad as a defensive spin-bowling all-rounder. Imad can actually bat and bat at a good strike rate at 7 and had better economy/control and against top 6 sides too.

But Babar doesn't like him. He was unfairly booted out just because of differences.

 

[hassan918]

Pakistan team selection always have questions and it is the same at the moment. Pakistan badly need a fast bowling all-rounder like Abdul Razzaq and Azhar Mahmood to have a balanced squad. Unfortunately, the best option we have at the moment is Faheem Ashraf who has failed to perform well. Few years back we tried Hussain Talat who also didn't impress much.

 

[mominsaigol]

Shadab is actually inferior to Imad as a defensive spin-bowling all-rounder. Imad can actually bat and bat at a good strike rate at 7 and had better economy/control and against top 6 sides too.

Imad's bowling stats are inflated because he received a thrashing from 1st string 2018/2019 England but all of pur bowlers at that time did. Especially during their 444 score against us.

 

[7sins]

Shadab wasn't bowling great. Even in the NZ series with 2nd string sides usama was clearly out performing him. Its just shadab kept taking wickets despite being expensive because 2nd string sides are weak.

1st string sides are clearly marking shadab as they have been this Asia cup.

Shadab bowled well in t20 world cup last year too but I guess he's just a t20 limited player we should look at some other option after the world cup but hey its babar and pcb we are talking about they won't try anyone else

 

[mominsaigol]

Shadab bowled well in t20 world cup last year too but I guess he's just a t20 limited player we should look at some other option after the world cup but hey its babar and pcb we are talking about they won't try anyone else

He bowled horribly against NZ in that cup. He only had Killer spells on the most spin friendly wickets. He needs pitches to hold his hand. Look how kuldeep was bowling on pitches that didn't offer much turn.

Even on non friendly spin pitches, a quality spin bowler bowls line and length, and still tries various deliveries such as slowing it up a bit etc etc.

Unless the pitch holds shadab's hand he's useless since this guy has zero clue on how to actually bowl line and length, his half trackers are getting smashed by SENA and India.

 

[usman zafar]

This defeat against afghanistan was coming from some time now. But we didn't do anything to prevent it. We have been winning close matches by some miracles. And we were happy with that. We were almost out of the T20 World Cup but somehow made it to the final. If we had not qualified for the final after losing to Zimbabwe, we would have made many changes, but we played the final after a lot of luck and didn't change anything. This was the mistake.

Why do our victories often overshadow our mistakes?

Shadab Khan has been out of form from 2020 in international cricket, but we have been carrying him in the team. He only bowled well in the 2021 World Cup. He was a disaster before and after that World Cup. We kept making him play, and we couldn't groom another spinner.

The same goes for Fakhar . He is arguably the worst player in the Pakistan team. He had so much potential. He has consistently been backed over the last three years, despite his poor T20 records before and after the 2021 World T20. He had one notable performance in that World Cup against Australia. And his recent centuries came against weaker teams. How can we justify giving players three years of chances based on one performance?

Imam didn't make much of an impact in the 2019 World Cup. He scored a century in the last match, which was essentially a dead rubber. He seems to crumble under pressure, playing solely for personal statistics. He might have been dropped after the 2019 World Cup if not for that century saving his career. Why should one innings be enough to secure your place for five years?

Same with nawaz , his innings against india in the asia cup helped him to stay in the team for 3 years

Is the Pakistan team made for experiments? Allowing them to play until they deliver one noteworthy performance and then securing their place for years? Why don't they go back to domestic cricket, perform well, and then return?

This treatment is unfair to domestic performers who consistently deliver, while those in the team stay without performing.

All of this seems to have begun after the Champions Trophy victory. The friendship among players has negatively impacted Pakistan cricket.

Babar is a friend of Imam, Imam is friends with Nawaz, Nawaz is friends with Shadab, Shadab with Hasan, and the list goes on. There are no senior players in the team. Babar seemingly forced everyone to retire, desiring complete control. He was uncomfortable with them and wanted to build his own team.

Social media has also played a significant role. Players become overnight stars with one remarkable performance. This makes them arrogant. They don't know how to behave with fans. They can't take the critics.

PSL has also contributed to the decline in Pakistan cricket. Players are immediately drafted into the national team after one strong PSL performance.

But the main thing is that We don’t have talent . We need to stop with that talent thing .There is no quality fast bowlers a part from naseem . Every country now have bowlers who can bowl 150 . It is not a big thing to bowl Quick . Even srilanka have three fast bowlers who can bowl 150 .

And finally the « QUDRAT KA NIZAM « destroyed us .

 

[Rana]

‘No one cared back then

No one cares now

No one will care going forward’

Pakistan cricket for you