Pakistan must have an all-rounder at number 8 in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024

salman24

First Class Captain
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Sep 4, 2005
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I believe Pakistan must have an all-rounder at number 8 in this World Cup. Whenever we have been successful in ICC tournaments we have batted deep.

1992 World Cup: Ijaz Ahmed at 8 and Moin Khan at 9
2009 T20 World Cup: Fawad Alam at number 8
2017 Champions Trophy: Shadab at number 8

I see a lot of people posting teams with 4 specialist bowlers. This will not work for Pakistan. We have Ifti and Saim who can bowl some over so we don't need that many bowlers.

I think no matter what Imad should be at 8 and then bowlers like Shaheen etc. can come after him. Even if the number 8 doesn't bat all the time it frees up players on top knowing there are other batters after them.
 
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A bowling lineup of Shaheen, Amir, Rauf, Shadab, Imad, Ifti and Saim can easily bowl 20 overs. If you want another bowler to play like Naseem or Abrar they would have to replace one of the 3 fast bowlers to not ruin the balance of the team. It doesn't make sense to make an already weak batting lineup even weaker.
 
Ijaz Ahmed wasn't an all-rounder. He was basically a batter who occasionally bowls. He took only 7 international wickets (2 in test matches and 5 in ODIs).
 
Ijaz Ahmed wasn't an all-rounder. He was basically a batter who occasionally bowls. He took only 7 international wickets (2 in test matches and 5 in ODIs).
Yes he was a batter . The point is to bat deep.
 
Yes he was a batter . The point is to bat deep.
If we go with 4 fast bowlers, our number 8 batter would be either Shaheen or Naseem. I don't think you need 8 batters in a T20 match.
 
Imad should bat at 7 followed by the 4 pacers in the US
When has Pakistan been successful with such a long tail. It doesn’t work for us.

If we play for example Shaheen, Amir, Rauf , Shadab, Imad, Ifti and Saim, we have 7 guys who can bowl. Why would we weaken our batting to play another bowler who may or may not bowl well?”
 
If we go with 4 fast bowlers, our number 8 batter would be either Shaheen or Naseem. I don't think you need 8 batters in a T20 match.
We can’t afford such a long tail. We need to bat as deep as possible. Others team like England bat deep too. I just pointed out the only 3 times we have succeeded in ICC tournaments where we had a batter at number 8 or below.

When have we been successful with 7 batters? Even in the 1999 World Cup we had Ashar Mahmood at 8 and Wasim Akram at 9.
 
Most teams would make some compromise on few positions. No.8 is one. One of the reason is if a team goes bang bang bang 3 wickets in no time suddenly you are looking at your no.7 upwards having to see off 5 or 6 overs. This is one of the reason why India despite having good team they don't win. No.8, no.7 are not proper players. If you lose 2 or 3 up the order. SUddenly middle order will buckle down and play slowly as they know the tail is long which is what happened for India in the final.
 

4 overs of ifti and saim. No way.
Unfortunately shadab is in horrible form.
Only way this would have worked if we had salman agha or Aamer Jamal.
For now we have to stick with 4 pacers in NY and abrar in Dallas / Carrebean
 
Abbas should come in for Naseem for the first game at least. In USA, you need to go with 4 pacers and 2 spin option. Naseem can come in for India game but for USA, we should play Abrar and Abbas ahead of Shadab and Naseem.
 
I agree with this strategy. We should go batting heavy and ask Iftikhar for the 5th bowler duties. He will do the same job as Shadab on any wicket. If it's turning, he will get wickets. If you just need to contain, he is more accurate.

Imad at 8, and then three quicks.
 
This is exactly how I wanted Pakistan to setup, but there are two problems to this setup.

1. babar doesn't consider Saim and Iftikhar worthy of bowling
2. Shadab has been terrible with the bat and is history with the ball

This makes life even tougher because of the captain himself.
 
Most teams would make some compromise on few positions. No.8 is one. One of the reason is if a team goes bang bang bang 3 wickets in no time suddenly you are looking at your no.7 upwards having to see off 5 or 6 overs. This is one of the reason why India despite having good team they don't win. No.8, no.7 are not proper players. If you lose 2 or 3 up the order. SUddenly middle order will buckle down and play slowly as they know the tail is long which is what happened for India in the final.
Agreed. A long tail is a handicap
 
This is exactly how I wanted Pakistan to setup, but there are two problems to this setup.

1. babar doesn't consider Saim and Iftikhar worthy of bowling
2. Shadab has been terrible with the bat and is history with the ball

This makes life even tougher because of the captain himself.
Yes I don’t get Babar’s reluctance to bowl Ifti and Saim. He used Saim well in the PSL and Ifti has always been decent.
 
How many more all rounders you need? We have all rounder from 5 onwards

Pakistan need a proper batsmen at 5 6 and maybe 7
 
How many more all rounders you need? We have all rounder from 5 onwards

Pakistan need a proper batsmen at 5 6 and maybe 7
We should replace Azam with Saim so we have a proper batter down the order who can hit sixes as well because saim is not going to play as an opener again any time soon and we know it so try to play him in place of azam who is a failure so far.

replace Abrar with Shdab for a specialist spin option.
 
How many more all rounders you need? We have all rounder from 5 onwards

Pakistan need a proper batsmen at 5 6 and maybe 7
Totally man, batting is crumbling after three down, the current middle and lower order is mentally weak. Shadab and Iftimania are frauds and less said about AK the better.
 
1. Usman
2. Rizwan
3. Baber
4. Fakhar
5. Iftikhar
6. Azam (no choice)
7. Shadab
8. Imad
9. Naseem
10. Shaheen
11. Harris
 
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Yes I don’t get Babar’s reluctance to bowl Ifti and Saim. He used Saim well in the PSL and Ifti has always been decent.
This is where the management needs to put their foot down and tell him to utilise Saim and Iftikhar.

This kind of captain needs all the planning to come from the management.

Kind of like what Sammy was doing in the PSL.
 
Totally man, batting is crumbling after three down, the current middle and lower order is mentally weak. Shadab and Iftimania are frauds and less said about AK the better.


The selectors have packed this squad with 5 batsmen, 3 all-rounders, and 6 bowlers. I have no idea what they were thinking when selecting 6 bowlers, especially with Shadab bowling full overs and Imad bowling his partial overs as well.

Out of the 6 batsmen, 2 are a complete waste (Azam Khan and Saim), leaving us with only 4 batsmen. The best option is to risk playing Saim at number 5 instead of Azam Khan or Shadab, and have Imad at number 6 since he can bat a bit. You can't have both Iftikhar and Shadab in the team; instead, use Abrar as a proper spinner, will be a tough decision for babar to make to which friend he has to drop

Here’s the lineup:

  1. Babar
  2. Fakhar
  3. Rizwan
  4. Usman
  5. Saim
  6. Imad
  7. Iftikhar/Chacha or Shadab
  8. Amir
  9. Shaheen
  10. Naseem/Rauf
  11. Abrar
 
The selectors have packed this squad with 5 batsmen, 3 all-rounders, and 6 bowlers. I have no idea what they were thinking when selecting 6 bowlers, especially with Shadab bowling full overs and Imad bowling his partial overs as well.

Out of the 6 batsmen, 2 are a complete waste (Azam Khan and Saim), leaving us with only 4 batsmen. The best option is to risk playing Saim at number 5 instead of Azam Khan or Shadab, and have Imad at number 6 since he can bat a bit. You can't have both Iftikhar and Shadab in the team; instead, use Abrar as a proper spinner, will be a tough decision for babar to make to which friend he has to drop

Here’s the lineup:

  1. Babar
  2. Fakhar
  3. Rizwan
  4. Usman
  5. Saim
  6. Imad
  7. Iftikhar/Chacha or Shadab
  8. Amir
  9. Shaheen
  10. Naseem/Rauf
  11. Abrar
If I'm being honest, I think we're screwed, we haven't got much room for manoeuvre due to the lack of batting options. I'm hoping for some good luck, we're gonna need it.
 
If you had Aamer Jamal or if Hasan Ali had worked on his batting more, then it could have been possible.

However the best Pakistan can do is play Imad at No.8. But with the bowling attack that Pakistan has, Imad will have to come at No.7 with the bowling attack to follow.

We forget, M.Amir is more than capable to bat at No.8. He is very handy with the bat.

7. Imad Wasim
8. Mohammad Amir
9. Naseem Shah
10. Abrar Ahmed
11. Shaheen Shah Afridi
 
Well you can never get a proper all rounder at 8 i believe, because if he would be a good batter than along side would be an average bowler
In the OP I just pointed out 3 occassions where we were successful and had proper allrounders or batters at number 8 or beyond. Even in 1999 we had Wasim Akram and Azhar Mahmood at 8 and 9.

Saqlain and Shoaib were the specilaist bowlers in the XI
 
I believe Pakistan must have an all-rounder at number 8 in this World Cup. Whenever we have been successful in ICC tournaments we have batted deep.

1992 World Cup: Ijaz Ahmed at 8 and Moin Khan at 9
2009 T20 World Cup: Fawad Alam at number 8
2017 Champions Trophy: Shadab at number 8

I see a lot of people posting teams with 4 specialist bowlers. This will not work for Pakistan. We have Ifti and Saim who can bowl some over so we don't need that many bowlers.

I think no matter what Imad should be at 8 and then bowlers like Shaheen etc. can come after him. Even if the number 8 doesn't bat all the time it frees up players on top knowing there are other batters after them.
Shaheen did better job, what supposed to be the job of Imad, Shadab.
Batted well, bowled well.
 
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