Pakistan's bowling attack for the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia

[Kianig89]

Quite surprising in a couple of months time from pop gun to gun barrel to a lethal attack we have become let's hope we adjust to Aus wickets quickly otherwise we might be in for a long haul nvir

 

[Grunge101]

Grunge I agree bowling strategies should account for ground dimensions. However I feel sometimes cricket pundits and statisticians can overdo this argument. For example, England played South Africa in a T20 in Bristol this summer.

The short straight boundary meant SAF were so frightened of bowling full, they bowled predictably short and got hammered. A well executed yorker is still a great option regardless of ground size.

If the batsmen can easily anticipate the length, they can quickly set themselves and take the ground dimensions out of the equation. Variety is still king.

So it's vital our guys keep the batsmen guessing and don't overdo the short stuff vs Ind who play the short ball better than our batsmen.

It's great Shaun Tait is bowling coach so he'll be ideally placed to advise the boys with his experience of Australian conditions.

I agree with the overall gist of your post completely. Stats and patterns are only one component of the overall preparation plan and it shouldnt override everything else. Eg If there is a bowler whos confident of his yorker like Rauf, then there is no reason not to go for it no matter what ground your playing on. Similarly if a batsman feels the pull/hook shot is his strength like Mitch Marsh, then they shouldnt hesitate pulling the trigger.

That said, stats cant be completely ignored.

-We know T20s played in Australia tend to exhibit a much lower boundary percentage in the total score ( 45% IIRC) than anywhere else.

-For the same reason, Teams cant expect to accelerate the way they usually can in the last 5 overs thus dictating you maintain a healthier SR from the start (good luck Pakistan). -

Similarly Short balls tend to get better strike rates in Australia than other places simply because 70m sixes on other grounds will be caught 20m inside the rope in Melbourne.

Keeping the last stat in mind, i think we should look at our bowling choices and one of the factors that we need to consider ( not the only factor ofcourse) is their ability to bowl both a rapid as well as a slower short ball.

 

[mon858]

Pakistan must go with 4 fast bowlers in Australia

1. We cannot drop Shadab and Nawaz, due to their batting first and foremost, but Nawaz hardly bowling to lefties and in Australian grounds spinners are not as effective as in Asian conditions.
2. Fast bowling is our strength and with Shaheen back we have dilemma of who to drop. Shaheen and Rauf and in for sure. if we only play 3 then Wasim may edge in due to his recent form/yorkers/death bowling and some batting ability. However, Nasim can be very good upfront.
3. Middle order is useless and with 2 proper all rounders, 2 solid openers, there is more than enough depth that you dont need batting till 8 for 20 over game.

My recommendation:
Play 4 pacers:
Shaheen (opening 2 overs, try and get 1-2 wickets)
Nasim (open 2 overs, try and get a wicket)
Wasim/Rauf to round out power play
Shadab from one end
Rauf/Nasim from other end to continue to attack
couple overs from Nawaz/Ifti depending on batsmen at crease
Rauf/Wasim/Shaheen come back to do overs 15-20.

Drop one middle order player (could be Shan or Asif. Iftikhar has edge of off-spin, but can also be considered given we will have 6 bowlers anyway). Whatever contribution those players are making Wasim can make on his day (or better).

We know how our power hitting his, especially considering large Australia ground, we are unlikely to hit many sixes, so biggest change of winning is getting opposition wickets and keeping them under 170. We can't expect to score/chase 200s there.

Suggested XI:
Rizwan
Babar (because management wont change opening pair, too late)
Haider
Nawaz
Shadab
Iftikhar
Asif (either he continues to fail, we can replace with Fakhar at top, or even Shan as opener like in warm up)
Wasim
Rauf
Shaheen
Nasim

 

[jnaveen1980]

This is a lightweight batting unit with 4 seamers , 2 spinning all rounders. Vast majority of the time one bowler will bowl only one over.

 

[Arsalan Pro]

This is a lightweight batting unit with 4 seamers , 2 spinning all rounders. Vast majority of the time one bowler will bowl only one over.

Nawaz and Shadab are better than all of our batsmen barring Babar and Rizwan, so they can basically play as batsman.

Still, we can't rely on 5 bowlers here. Need a genuine sixth bowling option. Also, it's unfair to drop any of Naseem or Wasim. One excellent with the new ball and one brilliant at the death.

My XI would be:

Mohammed Rizwan
Babar Azam
Fakhar Zaman
Mohammed Nawaz
Shadab Khan
Haider Ali
Asif Ali/Ithikhar Ahmed
Mohammed Wasim
Shaheen Afridi
Haris Rauf
Naseem Shah

 

[Grunge101]

Shadab and Nawaz as spinners. If either of them misfires in their opening overs, Iftikhar can chip in.
Shaheen, Rauf, Naseem and Hasnain as the fast bowlers.
-Opening spells by the two Shahs And Hasnain.
-Death spells by Shaheen and Rauf.

 

[Savak]

Nawaz has been in poor bowling form for a while. He doesn't seem to have the answer on non-subcontinent wickets and if he keeps conceeding 12 runs per over, he is going to be a liability for Pakistan.

 

[Duckworth Lewis]

Wasin Jnr should play in Ifthikar's place. He won't bat worse than Ifthikar and will be an additional pacer as well ideal for Australian conditions.

 

[daytrader]

The guys that will deliver the knockout punches!!

 

[Coolcapri]

The guys that will deliver the knockout punches!!

View attachment 117452

InshaAllah, Nice pic.

 

[Corridor of Uncertainty]

Only one game - but looks like spinners will need to adjust their lengths quickly.

Not many Pakistani spinners have excelled in Australia over the years.

They may have to lean on foreign spinners who had success in Australia for tips - or someone like Stuart McGill. From Pakistan, the only spinner with success I recall is Mushy - way back.

 

[Savak]

Pak pacers guilty of over thinking in Australia

Wasim and Waqar have talked about this on the Pavilion show that the Pakistani pace attack which is good on paper and was expected to do well in Australia for some strange reason made some poor decisions while bowling on supportive Australian bowling pitches

- Haris Rauf in that Indian game in Melbourne was troubling Kohli and Pandya with the aggressive, full paced short pitched deliveries which they could not get bat on and he inexcusably for no reasons decides to bowl two slower ball change up's to Kohli in the final two balls which goes for six and brings India right back in the match

- Shaheen and Naseem Shah blowing full and straight against Zimbabwe in the first 3-4 overs where Zimbabwe take full advantage and score 40 runs in 4 overs which ends up being a decisive factor in the loss. You are playing on one of the fastest bounciest wickets in the world and you guys bowl at 140 km/hr plus, go out there and attack the ribs of the batsmen and exploit these conditions

I fully agree and understand their frustrations. Shaun Tait was brought in primarily to help Pakistani pacers on how to bowl in Australia and he has been in the job for a year. He's been a huge dissapointment and the decision to hire him has badly backfired.

 

[GreenBee]

See these as hindsight analysis tbh. Had Rauf bowled same pace to be hit for sixes, critics would bash him for being predictable against an ATG like Kohli.

And fuller length initially is better than short pitched garbage specially when you are talking about the likes of Shaheen.

 

[TheSultan]

Alarm bells started ringing for me when Shaheen in his pre-match interview said you've got to assess the pitch / conditions and he feels in these conditions you have to bowl fuller.

I mean seriously?

I thought ok maybe it's lost in translation.

Then he came on to bowl and he did exactly that - bowl full. It's incredible - do the team management do any planning? What are Shaun Tait and Hayden telling them? In fact, forget them - anyone with any interest of cricket, even kids, can tell you to use the pitch in these conditions.

Shaheen, even operating in the 133-135 range with his height can be deadly if he uses the perth pitch properly.

 

[Corridor of Uncertainty]

Zimbabwe barely scrapped to 129. India huffed and puffed to 160 on a reasonable batting pitch.

Bowlers adjust lengths if initial theories don't work out. That is exactly what Shaheen did.

If we are focused on bowling, we are on to the wrong cause here for our defeat, personally speaking.

 

[ElRaja]

pak pacers didnt lose this tournament, for years team has been relying on bowlers to get them out of jail. the first six off of haris was a master stroke, no one expected that off of that ball, the follow up delivery was really poor with fine leg up, but u cannot pin this tournament loss on one bad haris rauf ball, thats crazy.

pak keep dropping sitters, pak take no intitiative with the bat, bowlers should be left to their own devices, in the hierarcy of things to fix they are at the bottom.

agree re shaun tait tho, he had no top level coaching experience and was significantly poorer than philander. whilst pak how bowled decently, i dont see what value he has added.

 

[shaz619]

The bowlers haven’t had a howler, sure there are things to improve on but they have largely done their job. In the grand scheme this is nitpicking of the highest order when the Batsman have not shown up.

 

[Jazx]

Shaheen actually not looking fit to bowl right now, nothing related thinking or experimentations. Haris as usuall tried unnecessary variations instead of keeping full and staright with pace. Naseem is hopeless as he knows only one thing to bowl as fast as he can. And his short height is also a negative factor in Australian conditions.

 

[Usman Chadda]

Once again, our fans are going after the bowing which has done a tremendous job in the two T20Is on absolute belters.

No wonder our batsmen get a hard pass and proceed to perform like clowns in every tournament.

 

[TheSultan]

Once again, our fans are going after the bowing which has done a tremendous job in the two T20Is on absolute belters.

No wonder our batsmen get a hard pass and proceed to perform like clowns in every tournament.

I have praised the bowling in many threads - and they have done well. I would go as far as to say we should be proud of our bowling attack - as not only they have to bowl, sometimes they have to perform some late order hitting to make our score competitive. However, we needlessly gave away 25 runs due to misreading of the conditions in the first 2 overs. We lost by ONE run.

Yes we bowled them out for 130 which is considered a low score, but it is quite normal to bowl out minnows for 100 or less. Why can't we aspire to be better than we are?

If we don't pinpoint the errors, this makes us no different to the people who forbade criticising Babar and Rizwan - "it's the ONE thing that's working"

 

[zaidihusain]

Overall Pak bowlers did decent job in both WC matches. Yes, there are some issues, but opposition batsman will certainly take their chances. It is Pakistan's batting which failed miserably in both WC matches. Pak managed to get 159 against India because of few hits from Shaheen & Harris. Even the openers of ZIM & IRE have shown better intent in powerplay in comparison to top ranked openers of Pak.

 

[Mp812]

If a teams strength is bowling, go on that strength next games as all future games for Pakistan in this WC are do or die games.
Get Shaheen, Rauf, Husnain, Naseem and Wasim Jr all in the team. Ask them all to bowl as fast as they can and go for wickets every ball.
What's worse than can happen?
They will get hit for 200 .
However if all fast bowlers click, maybe other team will get out for 70 or 80 or max 120.
Then Babar, Rizwan, Shan, Ifitkar, Shadab, Nawaz can bat at their preferred rate of 6 runs per over and chase down the score with ease
Call it cornered tigers strategy if one may.

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Pakistan's bowling unit has been outstanding in this tournament:<br><br>India 160/6 in 20 overs<br>Zimbabwe 130/8 in 20 overs<br>Netherlands 91/9 in 20 overs<br>South Africa 108/9 in 14 overs<br>Bangladesh 127/8 in 20 overs<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/T20WorldCup?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#T20WorldCup</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@SajSadiqCricket) <a href="https://twitter.com/SajSadiqCricket/status/1589133247971106816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 6, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Bilal7]

Shaheen
Rauf
Naseem
Hasnain
Wasim/Dahani

This will be the best pace attack at the World Cup.



He is just starting out; those stats do not matter when he is so new and a benchwarmer. It does however, put fear in the opposition's hearts when they hear that a guy who bowls at 150 kph is a sub.

Called it. Our bowlers have been amazing, MashaAllah. Except for Kohli, no one has come close to looking comfortable against our pace battery.

 

[Kianig89]

Bowling is outstanding so far though Rauf at death is a bit vulnerable , going forward Babar should have a margin for pace quartet and not to be predictable, sneak in an over or two from Ifti/Nawaz to have breathing space for phaast bowlers

 

[shamaan]

Wasim Jnr has been outstanding at the death and exactly like I thought that he would be playing ahead of Dahani and Hasnain.

 

[shamaan]

Pakistan pace attack should be
Shaheen
Naseem
Rauf

If one of these get injured then I would pick the following players in this order.
Wasim Jnr
Dahani
Hasnain.

So I guessed right in terms of order of bowling.

 

[SpiritOf1903]

If a teams strength is bowling, go on that strength next games as all future games for Pakistan in this WC are do or die games.
Get Shaheen, Rauf, Husnain, Naseem and Wasim Jr all in the team. Ask them all to bowl as fast as they can and go for wickets every ball.
What's worse than can happen?
They will get hit for 200 .
However if all fast bowlers click, maybe other team will get out for 70 or 80 or max 120.
Then Babar, Rizwan, Shan, Ifitkar, Shadab, Nawaz can bat at their preferred rate of 6 runs per over and chase down the score with ease
Call it cornered tigers strategy if one may.

Imagine New Zealand 80 all out. Epic