Pakistan's aging spinners - are they getting better with age?

[Corridor of Uncertainty]

Do spinners really age well?

Here are some stats.

Career Average/Strike Rates
Full test career vs last 3 years

Kumble: Full career 30/66 Last 3 years 33/66. Retired at 38
Muralidaran: Full career 23/55 Last 3 years 33/67. Retired at 38
Vettori: Full career 34/80 Last 3 years 59/153. Retired at 35
Warne: Full career 25/57 Last 3 years 25/50. Retired at 37

Kaneria: Full career 35/68 Last 3 years 42/74. Retired at 29. He is 41 now! Sure.

While these stats show how much of a freak Warne was, they also show spinners lose what they have as they age.

Officially Yasir Shah is 36. Nauman is almost 36. Sajid Khan, Agha Salman and Nawaz are 29 or thereabouts.

Unofficially, knowing Pakistan's record, you can add 3-4 years to that number.

That means the youngest spinner is 32. This is the age when decline sets in. 40 is when decline is firmly established.

Worse, we see from stats that the best spinners, like all sportspeople (except Warne of course!) decline significantly with age.

The evidence is clear from last few series where Pakistan spinners' shoulders and wrists refuse to spin the ball, no matter how hard they try.

It's time the next crop of spin bowlers is given a try. They can't do worse than what Pakistani spinners have done on both flat and spinning pitches.

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Nauman Ali who scored 1 run and had match figures of 2-118 had not played a First-class match for nearly 4 months before playing in the current series in Sri Lanka <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cricket?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cricket</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SLvPAK?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SLvPAK</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@SajSadiqCricket) <a href="https://twitter.com/SajSadiqCricket/status/1552701689215475714?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 28, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Marooned]

Great thread.

It's pretty obvious Nouman and Yasir are in age related decline. Yasir was one of the biggest culprits in our defeat. Our answer simply cannot be to keep playing them till eternity.

Nawaz, who is not thought of as a frontline spinner did better than both. We need to look ahead now. There's no security provided by the oldies as it is.

 

[Saj]

Fitness is the key and that plays a huge part in a spinner's ability to bowl long spells too.

I look at Nauman and Yasir and sadly they are 2 of the most unfit cricketers currently playing international cricket.

 

[shujaatraza]

Spinners like Zafar Gauhar, Usama Mir, Asghar Ali have been in the system now for 7-10 years and yet our oldies Yasir, Nauman and Sajid Khan are the best spinners around. Can’t fault selectors when they want to pick the best spinners for test team.

 

[Corridor of Uncertainty]

Pakistan is a poor spinners nation. That's the truth.

A bit like England.

In Pakistan's case, something to do with completely flat or unbelievably seaming wickets through history, love of fast bowling, poor fitness which I believe is very important for Spinners or whatever.

Pakistan has never had a spinner with more than 261 wickets - Kaneria. Most top test playing teams, even NZ, have had spinners beating 300 mark comfortably.

Yes, Pakistan plays fewer tests - but so do West Indies, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. India, Australia and Sri Lanka have multiple spinners beating 300 mark.

Even the best of Pakistani spinners - Mushtaq, Saqlain, Qadir, Iqbal Qasim, Intikhab, Kaneria - have been in and out of team for form and other issues.

Now the cupboard appears to be bare. I can only imagine it is time to invest in young spinners, and work on some of the leading Pakistani pitches to support spin from day 2. This should also be an advantage in home tests against poor spin playing teams - something India, Sri Lanka and BD exploit heavily.

 

[todfod 11]

Nauman looks like he is 42.

 

[mazkhan]

Nauman looks like he is 42.

I wouldn't be surprised if this guy is nearing 50 , but either way his body has aged rapidly he looks a middle aged uncle and you simply can't look like that and play sports at a high level it's time to retire.

 

[ElRaja]

yes spinners are poor, but i think if u take a deeper dive, captaincy at all levels is very important for spin development, hardly any spinner has developed without a captain who is willing to run them through often some very long bad spells.

in my memory the only captain who backed a spinner was wasim with saqlain in the late 90s, to the detriment of mushy, whos career fell off a cliff as soon as saqlain started to perform. and to some extent inzi with danish, and misbah with yasir.

babar, at the moment is a fidgety captain, and that nervousness in commiting to a plan transfers down to the spinners, who need to know they are gonna be able to bowl long spells, not worry about being rotated in and out with 4 other spinners.

the last point is match experience, apart from nauman a few years ago, none of the spinners playing against sri lanka had successful long full season stints at domestic in recent memory despite not really playing for pak much in the meantime.

unfortunately this problem wont be resolved soon, mubasir khan who was player of the tournament in qae last year looks quite far from test standard at the moment.

 

[adzzy786]

Fitness is the key and that plays a huge part in a spinner's ability to bowl long spells too.

I look at Nauman and Yasir and sadly they are 2 of the most unfit cricketers currently playing international cricket.

Very true. However there is one man’s fitness no one can beat. Luckily he’s a batsman and not a bowler. Ladies and gentlemen please welcome Azam Khan

 

[Saj]

Nauman looks like he is 42.

Well add to that the fact that he hadn't played any first-class cricket for nearly 4 months ahead of the Sri Lanka tour.

 

[Cric1234]

Well add to that the fact that he hadn't played any first-class cricket for nearly 4 months ahead of the Sri Lanka tour.

He has enough experience to overcome this unfortunately he doesn’t turn the ball and this won’t help no matter how much practise he has before a match the selectors should at least know you can’t ball straight and be a success in international cricket.

 

[Barragan]

Sajid Khan would have a much better return than all the current spinners in SL right now.

Dropping him because he didn't perform on those awful pitches was absolutely an awful decision.

Yasir and Nauman are way past it.

Agha isn't a spinner, just a batsman who can bowl well.

As for Nawaz, not a front line spinner, but is an excellent A/R option.

 

[Saj]

He has enough experience to overcome this unfortunately he doesn’t turn the ball and this won’t help no matter how much practise he has before a match the selectors should at least know you can’t ball straight and be a success in international cricket.

I keep hearing the word experience, but with most of our spinners experience means poor fitness and being at a stage of their career where they are far from their best.

 

[MenInG]

Some like M Irfan (Jailer) doing outstandingly well in UK league cricket also!

 

[RyanRyan10]

Why do spinners get better with age?

Keep hearing this from commentators and analysts
So want to know if it's true or just a myth. And if it's true then why does it happen?

 

[JattMaula]

Keep hearing this from commentators and analysts
So want to know if it's true or just a myth. And if it's true then why does it happen?

More accurate statement would be that spinners mature later than other disciplines in men's cricket.

Pacers and batters reach near their skill peak pretty quickly in sufficiently competitive environment but spinner nead additional mental toughness to survive. That comes to some with age as men reach mental maturity quite late.

 

[sweep_shot]

Doesn't seem like they are getting better.

Test format needs better spinners. Only Abrar seems good.

LOI spinners are doing fine though. Nawaz and Shadab are good for LOI.

 

[Bewal Express]

Find the guy that spins the ball the biggest- not difficult to do, and invest in him.