People are complaining about the captaincy, the batting is the bigger issue

[Hasan123]

Posters using Sarfaraz absence as a reason for the defeat, I disgaree. Our batting is a real issue. We were in a position to win both games and we messed it up. Asif Ali threw his wicket away in both games. Faheem is shown he is no tailender. Malik exposed against pace again.

I am already on record as saying captaincy won't change our fortunes but if we don't do anything about this batting we won't improve in LO cricket.

We need to select players who can hit pace and spin, and not just select specialist spin bashers or limited players for T20 and ODIs.

The next World T20 is in Australia where grounds will be big and flat pitches will be on offer. Teams will be scoring 200 plus. You will need big hitters not Breeley tactics to chase down scores.

 

[Usman Chadda]

Sarfraz's absence is not a reason for the defeats, but you have to give him credit for the success of this T20 team. He beat good opposition aswell to get to that unbeaten streak. Sarfraz was captaining the same bunch of players, the same batsmen and the same bowlers.

It's a fact that as soon as captaincy has changed hands, we have lost two T20Is to an inexperienced South African team.

As I have argued a million times, changing captaincy won't lead to a change in fortunes. You have seen in the last three games that Malik is not a better captain than Sarfraz and Rizwan is not a better WK/batsman than Sarfraz. So why bring instability to the team right before the World Cup by dismissing the captain that has been in-charge for the past two years, when it's clearly not worth it?

 

[Hasan123]

Sarfraz's absence is not a reason for the defeats, but you have to give him credit for the success of this T20 team. He beat good opposition aswell to get to that unbeaten streak. Sarfraz was captaining the same bunch of players, the same batsmen and the same bowlers.

It's a fact that as soon as captaincy has changed hands, we have lost two T20Is to an inexperienced South African team.

As I have argued a million times, changing captaincy won't lead to a change in fortunes. You have seen in the last three games that Malik is not a better captain than Sarfraz and Rizwan is not a better WK/batsman than Sarfraz. So why bring instability to the team right before the World Cup by dismissing the captain that has been in-charge for the past two years, when it's clearly not worth it?

Put him back as captain. I don't care. I want change in this batting line up. This line up even with Sarfaraz as captain will not win the World T20.

 

[PakPremi]

Pak would not have been chasing 190 odd scored if Sarfraz was captain., most likely.
Secondly it is no hidden secreat pak batting is mindless most of times. Only decent ecpereinced bat Pak have is Babar. Fakhar is good but always gives his wicket away unnecessarily. Hafeez has improved as a batsman. Shoaib has also been ok but each time had too much left to chase. Talat looks promising but has lot to learn about not going for boundary shots all the time. Our lower order does not know how to finish the games off.

 

[dragon751]

Put him back as captain. I don't care. I want change in this batting line up. This line up even with Sarfaraz as captain will not win the World T20.

i agree with your analysis, there are too many bits and pieces guys your team is dependent on, one or the other might come of on an odd day but you do need at least 2 more specialist bats in the line up to handle the pressure situations. imad, faheem, talat,asif etc etc are 2 too many bits and pieces guys . pakistan can still get away sometimes with this in the t20 format given the unpredictable nature of the format ... but this same combo in the odis will give you guys a headache more often than not.
in my opinion, its your coach( who seems to be the guy running things) responsible for this approach more than anyone else. imho, mickey needs to be gotten rid of asap and you guys need a john wright or gary kirsten type of coach to move you forward across formats.

 

[Square Drive]

It's fine.

Fakhar is hit or miss but you obviously can't drop him, especially in this format.

Drop Asif Ali. Need another hitter to emerge from the PSL. Maybe Umar can find some form.

Faheem's batting is another problem.

Apart from that, we're fine.

 

[Usman Chadda]

Put him back as captain. I don't care. I want change in this batting line up. This line up even with Sarfaraz as captain will not win the World T20.

We won't. And that's because our players are mentally weak.

 

[Hasan123]

It's fine.

Fakhar is hit or miss but you obviously can't drop him, especially in this format.

Drop Asif Ali. Need another hitter to emerge from the PSL. Maybe Umar can find some form.

Faheem's batting is another problem.

Apart from that, we're fine.

I don't see Malik and Hafeez scoring in Australia if they play the T20 WC.

 

[Hasan123]

Pak would not have been chasing 190 odd scored if Sarfraz was captain., most likely.
Secondly it is no hidden secreat pak batting is mindless most of times. Only decent ecpereinced bat Pak have is Babar. Fakhar is good but always gives his wicket away unnecessarily. Hafeez has improved as a batsman. Shoaib has also been ok but each time had too much left to chase. Talat looks promising but has lot to learn about not going for boundary shots all the time. Our lower order does not know how to finish the games off.

No one knows what we would have been chasing had Sarfaraz been captain

 

[Hasan123]

i agree with your analysis, there are too many bits and pieces guys your team is dependent on, one or the other might come of on an odd day but you do need at least 2 more specialist bats in the line up to handle the pressure situations. imad, faheem, talat,asif etc etc are 2 too many bits and pieces guys . pakistan can still get away sometimes with this in the t20 format given the unpredictable nature of the format ... but this same combo in the odis will give you guys a headache more often than not.
in my opinion, its your coach( who seems to be the guy running things) responsible for this approach more than anyone else. imho, mickey needs to be gotten rid of asap and you guys need a john wright or gary kirsten type of coach to move you forward across formats.

Faheem and Asif Ali don't seem up to the job. Umar Akmal can do a decent job in T20s.

 

[Green Patriot]

Our batting is bad but our bowling is fast becoming terrible.

 

[Square Drive]

I don't see Malik and Hafeez scoring in Australia if they play the T20 WC.

One of them should play, not both. In ODIs that's tough to do because Haris keeps getting injured and it's too late now, but in T20s, with Talat's emergence, there is no room for both unless Hafeez replaced Asif which will be a bad move.

 

[Pete Rose]

malik as captain and batsman is the cause.
its a team sport so its very rare to pin blame on one person.
but if you have been playing cricket for 20 years....and you cant get your side out of jams like these against inexperienced south african attacks...then what good are you.

 

[mastersaan10]

malik for bowling shinwari when he obviously wasn't in good form at the moment. should have bowled one more over of shadab's.

 

[gazza619]

The main culprit here in Inzi for selecting a poor squad for all the 3 formats.

 

[Chokli]

malik for bowling shinwari when he obviously wasn't in good form at the moment. should have bowled one more over of shadab's.

did we not learn anything by bowling a spinner in ajmal versus hussey in 2010?

 

[Snak3eye5]

Inzamam and Shoaib needs to be sacked ASAP.

 

[Zaz]

These odi and t20 games shouldve been the perfect opportunity for a couple of new batsmem to be tried out Instead we have wastes them playing players that are already going to the world cup or players that we all know arent good enough going forwadd

 

[QuickCrick]

I completely disagree, if our batsmen consistently score 180+ we will win a lot more than we lose so can’t really blame the batters for the defeats. Under Sarfraz we rarely conceded scores of 180 plus. A combination of poor captaincy decisions in the field and average bowlers is the issue - US is not good enough!

 

[Hawkeye]

Batting, bowling and captaincy combined was bad.

It all adds up.

But yes, Sarfraz isn't some magic and he too would've likely lost here.

We need to replace Sarfraz with Umar Akmal as WK/bat, and kick out Malik in place of a youngster who can play pace.

 

[topspin]

Agreed, Sarfraz' wouldn't have prevented Shinwari (who has a habit of bottling it) conceding 60+ in 4 overs and help chase 180+ when he's a mediocre batsman himself. If he actually led by example with the bat and was a tactically astute captain and able to think on his feet (as the shortest format demands) then blaming Malik would be an argument that holds some merit.

It's in the team's best interests going forward that they get rid of Sarfraz for good in T20Is and ODIs with Umar Akmal taking over the gloves. I know this is a risky option as his inept glove work was exposed in the last WC however I feel time is running out to experiment with Rizwan and continuing with a liability in Sarfraz.

As for batting changes remove Shoaib Malik from the team in all LOIs from immediate effect after this series. From what I've seen of him he can't even dominate average spin bowling like he has done in recent years.

Other than Imad, the only other lower order hitter is Asif Ali so we have no choice but to persist with him. At least he has gifted striking ability, just needs to work on strike rotation and grasp the remaining needs of building an innings. If we discard him, he will outperform most if not all players in the PSL and we will be back to square one with a recall. I'm also losing patience in him but we need to think rationally in these times. Dropping him is an emotional, not a logical decision.

 

[gazza619]

Agreed, Sarfraz's tactics wouldn't have prevented Shinwari conceding 60+ in 4 overs and help chase 180+ when he's a mediocre batsman himself. If he led by example with the bat and was tactically astute captain and able to think on his feet (as the shortest format demands) then blaming Malik would be an argument that holds some merit.

It's in the team's best interests going forward that they get rid of Sarfraz for good in T20Is and ODIs with Umar Akmal taking over the gloves. I know this is a risky option as his inept glove work was exposed in the last WC however I feel time is running out to experiment with Rizwan and continuing with a liability in Sarfraz.

As for batting changes remove Shoaib Malik from the team in all LOIs from immediate effect after this series. From what I've seen of him he can't even dominate average spin bowling like he has done in recent years.

Other than Imad, the only other lower order hitter is Asif Ali so we have no choice but to persist with him. At least he has gifted striking ability, just needs to work on strike rotation and grasp the remaining needs of building an innings. If we discard him, he will outperform most if not all players in the PSL and we will be back to square one with a recall. I'm also losing patience in him but we need to think rationally in these times. Dropping him is an emotional, not a logical decision.

Umar Akmal taking the gloves? No thank you.

 

[topspin]

Umar Akmal taking the gloves? No thank you.

It's a calculated risk that I would be willing to take. Rizwan and Sarfraz are proving to be useless with the bat and I don't think either of them will be ready in time to perform in the WC. Replacing them with a lesser wicker keeper but a far more competent bat will also free a slot for a specialist batsman to come in.

Rizwan and Sarfraz are mere specialist wicket keepers extending the tail of this frail batting side.

 

[gazza619]

It's a calculated risk that I would be willing to take. Rizwan and Sarfraz are proving to be useless with the bat and I don't think either of them will be ready in time to perform in the WC. Replacing them with a lesser wicker keeper but a far more competent bat will also free a slot for a specialist batsman to come in.

Rizwan and Sarfraz are mere specialist wicket keepers extending the tail of this frail batting side.

Rizwan is actually a capable batsman provided he bats at 4.

 

[topspin]

Rizwan is actually a capable batsman provided he bats at 4.

I like Rizwan and I do think he is capable if he gets a decent run of games. Just not sure he'll be ready in time for the WC. The problem with having him at no.4 means we won't have the best batsman coming in at 2 down.

 

[QuickCrick]

It's a calculated risk that I would be willing to take. Rizwan and Sarfraz are proving to be useless with the bat and I don't think either of them will be ready in time to perform in the WC. Replacing them with a lesser wicker keeper but a far more competent bat will also free a slot for a specialist batsman to come in.

Rizwan and Sarfraz are mere specialist wicket keepers extending the tail of this frail batting side.

Sarfraz/Rizwan are both good with the gloves and can score a run ball 30-40, problem is they bat too low.

I’m open to UA coming back in but only as a batsmen as he is useless with the gloves.

 

[topspin]

Sarfraz/Rizwan are both good with the gloves and can score a run ball 30-40, problem is they bat too low.

I’m open to UA coming back in but only as a batsmen as he is useless with the gloves.

In the ideal scenario Sarfraz should have been axed from this team for his poor run of performances in ODIs a long time ago. This perhaps would have given Rizwan enough time to hit the ground running.

Just like against SA in the first 3 ODIs, in 2018 Sarfraz also averaged 24-25 at a SR of under 80 in this format. This is the reason why he put himself to bat at 8. Some think he's batting so low down in order to avoid taking responsibility, however this is not the case, it's about acknowledging your level.