Pakistan's top order will have to do some magic to succeed on this tour!

[MenInG]

 

[MenInG]

Simply not good enough this display and I would like to think that we actually have a plan for batting in NZ!

 

[Chief Destroyer]

No, they just have to replace the two elder statesmen.

 

[indipper]

It was game one. They didnt had taste of track in warm-up. A day was indoored. Relax. They will do better insh'Allah. Yes they lacked a plan because of panic and lack of track knowledge but it should only go better from there.

 

[babajee]

Expecting us to bounce back next game regardless.

One thing for sure is that we aren’t winning anything with Hafeez.

 

[Savak]

Watching the highlights and dismissals, it was a classic case of a team not being properly aclimitized to the conditions.

 

[Syed1]

The people who failed in the warm-up failed in the actual match too.. Azhar just cashed in against the school boys in the warmups but showed his reality when faced with a real opposition.

Pak cricket cannot progress with three passengers in Azhar, Hafeez and Malik hogging important spots.

 

[coy0607]

I have 0 confidence in Azhar - he isn't capable of playing ODI cricket

Hafeez, Malik may do something. Maybe 1-2 decent innings

Babar is the big question mark. He's a run machine against weak oppositions, him and Fakhar will decide how competitive Pak can be in this series

 

[indipper]

Expecting us to bounce back next game regardless.

One thing for sure is that we aren’t winning anything with Hafeez.

CT Final?

 

[Aman]

Fakhar looks good and Babar will be a good accumulator, the rest are pretty ordinary tbh.

 

[Sirris]

Watching the highlights and dismissals, it was a classic case of a team not being properly aclimitized to the conditions.

You can't acclimatize the likes of Hafeez and Malik even if you gave them a whole year. They have been spending their while career getting acclimatized.

 

[Fahdi]

I'd say Hafeez is the biggest liability right now. Babar has performed in NZ and Australia before and we know he is very consistent. Hafeez on the other hand brings nothing to the table, he is a liability in every way. Haris needs to come in and replace Hafeez. Babar's bat will hopefully start flowing soon.

Malik has shown with recent performances that he can provide some good hitting in the last 15 overs. Sarfraz though has been playing as a specialist captain and wicketkeeper for a while. He has lost his bearings as a batsman since becoming captain.

 

[indipper]

I have 0 confidence in Azhar - he isn't capable of playing ODI cricket

Hafeez, Malik may do something. Maybe 1-2 decent innings

Babar is the big question mark. He's a run machine against weak oppositions, him and Fakhar will decide how competitive Pak can be in this series

The only thing I will be concerned about Azhar and Babar is their speed of scoring. They act like Sanga/Shiv/Kallis on flat tracks by playing slow like they're batting on minefield but crumble when there are actual conditions demanding slow innings. Scoring alone is not going to be any issue for them.

 

[MenInG]

Watching the highlights and dismissals, it was a classic case of a team not being properly aclimitized to the conditions.

Mickey Arthur said they were doing very well in those terms!

 

[Mamoon]

Our fans deserve this humiliation, hopefully they will come back to earth now.

Having said that, I suspect an improved showing from our so-called best bowling unit in the world.

 

[MenInG]

Our fans deserve this humiliation, hopefully they will come back to earth now.

Having said that, I suspect an improved showing from our so-called best bowling unit in the world.

Why do you keep on insisting this is a humiliation? Mystery to me.

 

[Mamoon]

Why do you keep on insisting this is a humiliation? Mystery to me.

It was humiliating because our fans got a wake up call. A lot of them exhibited arrogance and delusion, and felt untouchable after the Champions Trophy and the Sri Lankan series. This was a timely wake up call and proof that one-off games aside, we are still a long way away from toppling quality teams.

The batting is simply not good enough to challenge the likes of Australia, England, India, South Africa and New Zealand consistently.

 

[prop558]

Sarfraz should bat at higher numbers. He is doing a big big blunder with his career.

Williamson is a class act. Watching him since long time.

 

[prop558]

It was humiliating because our fans got a wake up call. A lot of them exhibited arrogance and delusion, and felt untouchable after the Champions Trophy and the Sri Lankan series. This was a timely wake up call and proof that one-off games aside, we are still a long way away from toppling quality teams.

The batting is simply not good enough to challenge the likes of Australia, England, India, South Africa and New Zealand consistently.

That's what I used to say, Playing & Winning against weaker / weakest teams like Srilanka, West Indies or Bangladesh, will expose you against much greater teams like Australia India South Africa England & of-course New Zealand.


If a crap player like Akmal brothers, Sami Aslam or Hafeez start scoring runs against rubbish teams then many of us will start praising them.

 

[Madplayer]

Babar's wrong dismissal was critical.

Not because he would have single handedly won the match but because the team has started having faith in him to score tough runs.

 

[Hasan123]

Azhar and Hafeez have to go. Malik should be judged on a series by series basis.

 

[Mamoon]

Pakistan don’t have an able replacement for Malik till the World Cup. He is fit, good strike rotator and our best player of spin. Yes he isn’t great against pace, but that is true for 99% of our batsmen. Besides, Azhar and Chucker need to go immediately, so there is room for Malik.

Haris has to replace Chucker now. Better batsman and a better legal bowler.

As I have said before, I think it is time for Babar to open the innings. He essentially plays the same role as Azhar but better, and considering we don’t have many explosive options to replace Azhar as opener, it makes sense to promote Babar and bring in another middle-order batsman e.g. Amin, Saud or even Umar or Maqsood.

We always have more middle-order batsmen than openers, so in the long run, it will actually make more sense to make Babar open.

 

[prop558]

Babar's wrong dismissal was critical.

Not because he would have single handedly won the match but because the team has started having faith in him to score tough runs.

Muhammad Hafeez & Shoaib Malik got out cheaply. They could have handled the draw-back of early fall of wickets. Muhammad Hafeez can't bowl and playing as a batsman, which is a big stupidity. Hafeez should be replaced with Haris Sohail for the next match.

Sarfraz should bat at upper numbers.

LBW decisions about Babar & Sarfraz were wrong.

They should have sent Fahim Ashraf at no.3 as we were chasing a big total of 300+

Sarfraz himself should bat at No.3 or he should open the innings with Fakhar Zaman. Babar Azam at no.4

 

[ExpressPacer]

This is what happens when you drop your opener who averages 74 and you play a 40 year old over proven TTF over your best batsman.

 

[prop558]

Pakistan don’t have an able replacement for Malik till the World Cup. He is fit, good strike rotator and our best player of spin. Yes he isn’t great against pace, but that is true for 99% of our batsmen. Besides, Azhar and Chucker need to go immediately, so there is room for Malik.

Haris has to replace Chucker now. Better batsman and a better legal bowler.

As I have said before, I think it is time for Babar to open the innings. He essentially plays the same role as Azhar but better, and considering we don’t have many explosive options to replace Azhar as opener, it makes sense to promote Babar and bring in another middle-order batsman e.g. Amin, Saud or even Umar or Maqsood.

We always have more middle-order batsmen than openers, so in the long run, it will actually make more sense to make Babar open.

See If you have watched the captaincy of Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and even a short term of Moin Khan... They (and every successful captain) used to shuffle batting order according to the situation, according to the pitch conditions and according to the venue where you are playing....

My point is, Sarfraz has been proved extremely successful while batting at higher numbers. Then why the hell is batting so down the order where he ultimately will become useless as a batsman. He struggled extremely hard between 2007 to 2015, to make his place in the national team but still he is not exploring himself to his 100% output.

Secondly, the target was 300+ and we all knew that rain can be started anytime. So we need fast innings by keeping an eye on possible D/W Lewis based decision. Therefore, after the early fall of Azhar Ali, he should have sent Fahim Ashraf at no.3 to gain the chasing momentum, if not, then Sarfraz should himslef came up at no.3 to build a partnership.

Hafeez is a crap player, must be replaced with a decent one, there is no other better option available in the bench-strength, other than HARIS SOHAIL... so we may also have RH - LH batting combination in the middle order. Rest of the team, should remain same, until unless any severe injury.

To me, for the rest of the series, SARFRAZ should himself bat at No.3 or at least at No.4... Not below than this.

01 - Azhar Ali
02 - Fakhar Zaman
03 - SARFRAZ AHMED
04 - Babar Azam
05 - Hafeez / Haris Sohail
06 - Shoaib Malik
07 - Shadab Khan
08 - Fahim Ashraf
09 - Hasan Ali
10 - Muhammad Amir
11 - Rumman Raees

--------------------------------------
If batting second, and any one among the openers got out early, just sent FAHIM ASHRAF at No.3. Remaining rest of the order as same as it is.

 

[prop558]

I'd say Hafeez is the biggest liability right now. Babar has performed in NZ and Australia before and we know he is very consistent. Hafeez on the other hand brings nothing to the table, he is a liability in every way. Haris needs to come in and replace Hafeez. Babar's bat will hopefully start flowing soon.

Malik has shown with recent performances that he can provide some good hitting in the last 15 overs. Sarfraz though has been playing as a specialist captain and wicketkeeper for a while. He has lost his bearings as a batsman since becoming captain.

100%

Well SARFRAZ should bat at upper numbers. He can open with Fakhar, he can bat at No.3 or he can bat at No.4 but not below than this. He has already proved himself as an extremely successful batsman at upper numbers.

He got out due to poor umpiring decision. So as Babar Azam.

 

[babajee]

Our fans deserve this humiliation, hopefully they will come back to earth now.

Having said that, I suspect an improved showing from our so-called best bowling unit in the world.

Funny how you only come back when we lose.