Savak
Test Captain
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2006
- Runs
- 49,680
- Post of the Week
- 3
People here are harping about Pakistan not having a good hitter in the middle to the end to exploit the last 5-6 overs in T-20 games. People in my view are not addressing the right issue. We actually do have players with decent power i.e. Hafeez, Malik, Shadab, Haider Ali, Imad Wasim or even Asif Ali, Iftikhar.
The problem is that our batsmen have very predictable hitting zones and shots to particular deliveries which makes it very easy for both the bowler and an intelligent opposing captain to plan against them. In the death today, i saw that the english bowlers like Jordan, Mehmood, Curran tried to bowl full blooded yorkers in the block hole and our batsmen in comparison were trying to either dig it out for a single on the off or on side. Hafeez tried to be cheeky by trying a sweep but to no effect.
Big 4 players especially because of IPL and BBL exposure have understood how to deal with these deliveries. Dhoni mastered the helicopter shot. I mean just look at this shot by Dhoni against a full blooded Malinga 146 km/hr yorker in the IPL in 2012
Hafeez was at best digging these deliveries out for 1's and 2's. The only time he was able to hit a six against Curran when Curran missed his length and bowled a full toss. Even Shadab was struggling with the full blooded yorkers and he got out caught inside the circle as he just did not know what to do with that length. In contrast the English Batsmen successfully dealt with the full length from Shaheen and Rauf by converting them to full tosses and hitting the ball over the fielders in the circle for boundaries and sixes
Is there anyone in the PCB who is capable of even identifying the root cause of our problems today in ODI and T-20 cricket i.e. our players in general especially the batsmen are a good 10-12 years behind the likes of Australia, England, New Zealand who have perfect the ramp shot shot, the cheeky glide, the helicopter shot, that shot through the offside to the out side the off stump yorker.
Sri Lanka were successful in tying down Kohli, Yuvraj, Dhoni in the 2014 T-20 WC final with the outside the offstump yorker with the offside field jampacked. But Kohli learnt from that experience and in 2016 in the T-20 WC Semi Final when Australia tried the same tactics against him, he knew exactly how to angle his bat and how to find the gaps on the offside to get boundaries, it was clear that he had spent countless hours practicing to counter these tactics
I completely agree with Ramiz Raja that Pakistan needs a separate Test coach and a separate ODI/T-20 coach and a power hitting coach to catch up with the modern sides because the differences in 4's and 6's from our team vs the Big 4 is just too big off a gap now. Power Hitting, Death overs batting is a big science now and we need to embrace it as such.
The problem is that our batsmen have very predictable hitting zones and shots to particular deliveries which makes it very easy for both the bowler and an intelligent opposing captain to plan against them. In the death today, i saw that the english bowlers like Jordan, Mehmood, Curran tried to bowl full blooded yorkers in the block hole and our batsmen in comparison were trying to either dig it out for a single on the off or on side. Hafeez tried to be cheeky by trying a sweep but to no effect.
Big 4 players especially because of IPL and BBL exposure have understood how to deal with these deliveries. Dhoni mastered the helicopter shot. I mean just look at this shot by Dhoni against a full blooded Malinga 146 km/hr yorker in the IPL in 2012
Hafeez was at best digging these deliveries out for 1's and 2's. The only time he was able to hit a six against Curran when Curran missed his length and bowled a full toss. Even Shadab was struggling with the full blooded yorkers and he got out caught inside the circle as he just did not know what to do with that length. In contrast the English Batsmen successfully dealt with the full length from Shaheen and Rauf by converting them to full tosses and hitting the ball over the fielders in the circle for boundaries and sixes
Is there anyone in the PCB who is capable of even identifying the root cause of our problems today in ODI and T-20 cricket i.e. our players in general especially the batsmen are a good 10-12 years behind the likes of Australia, England, New Zealand who have perfect the ramp shot shot, the cheeky glide, the helicopter shot, that shot through the offside to the out side the off stump yorker.
Sri Lanka were successful in tying down Kohli, Yuvraj, Dhoni in the 2014 T-20 WC final with the outside the offstump yorker with the offside field jampacked. But Kohli learnt from that experience and in 2016 in the T-20 WC Semi Final when Australia tried the same tactics against him, he knew exactly how to angle his bat and how to find the gaps on the offside to get boundaries, it was clear that he had spent countless hours practicing to counter these tactics
I completely agree with Ramiz Raja that Pakistan needs a separate Test coach and a separate ODI/T-20 coach and a power hitting coach to catch up with the modern sides because the differences in 4's and 6's from our team vs the Big 4 is just too big off a gap now. Power Hitting, Death overs batting is a big science now and we need to embrace it as such.
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