POTW : AlphaFighter

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This week's POTW winner is [MENTION=5942]AlphaFighter[/MENTION] for his constructive look at why Pakistan bowlers are struggling to contain or take wickets against good batting line-ups.

I have always had these views but i just didn't know how to express it but well done to the poster for correctly diagnosing the issue well.

Indian pace bowlers may not be the most talented or gifted world wide although the gap between the Pakistani and Indian pace attack in the last 6-7 years has significantly narrowed and in fact i take no shame in admitting the Indian pace attack as of now is more dependable and reliable compared to the Pakistani pace attack and under Kohli they will operate with the right attitude.

But one massive benefit of the IPL is that the Indian bowlers have learnt how to operate under pressure. When the batsmen are going after them, they don't panic because they know they have the batting strength to chase down any score unlike the Pakistani batting line up. But another thing which impresses me a lot is that if the conditions are absolutely flat with no assistance for the pacers or spinners, they don't blindly follow the Imran Khan doctrine of "Attack and get wickets", they understand that the conditions just does not suit aggressive, attacking bowling. They instead choose to minimize the damage where they resort to a disciplined approach of bowling to a batsman's weakness, bowling to their captain's fields, eliminating the boundaries and being content to give away singles instead. They have also learn't thanks to the ten years of IPL exposure to bowl negative lines i.e. the wide outside the off stump yorker, the slower ball bouncers, the back of the hand slower ball, the finger spin slower ball, understanding the angles in the field and the batsmen's hitting zones and where likely the batsmen are going to hit out.

Apart from the SA match which the poster excellently quoted where Dhoni's masterful defensive tactics ensured a clear shot SA win became a draw. India has done this masterfully many other times as well. If people watch the India-Bangladesh match in the T-20 WC, in the final over Dhoni specifically instructed the bowler to bowl outside the offstump to minimize boundary hitting and to ensure dot balls and the bowler obliged.

Similarly in the T-20 games against Pakistan in the WC in 2014 and 2016, the Pakistani batsmen again followed the 90's philosophy of going slow in the first 10 overs assuming that they will successfully go all guns blazing in the final 10 overs. Guess what, Indian bowlers weren't even striving for wickets, they were content with bowling dot balls after dot balls and the pressure told on the players.

If you contrast this with the Pakistani pace attack, we are still operating like the 80's and 90's where the pacers don't mix things up well, continue to attack and attack and don't have the intelligence to understand that in flat wickets, you can't strive for wickets and you have to instead strive to bowl dot balls, eliminate boundary balls and restrict the opposition to singles. The captain's that we have do not have the creativity, imagination to set run restricting fields neither do they have the discipline to bowl to their fields either.

Just as an example Wahab Riaz's delivery to Steve Smith in the T-20 WC match where he kept on bowling at 145-150 km/hr, he didn't change a single thing, smith exposed his stumps and instead of firing one in on the stumps he followed the batsman.

I don't know how and when our pacers will adapt to modern times. The Pakistani players have definately suffered from being banned from the IPL as they would have been exposed to the very best players, in absolutely flat conditions. BPL, CPL is an inferior league where the top international players dont take part, and when you don't face the top notch players you don't learn from the best. The English T-20 and BBL are in the middle.

Not sure how much the PSL will teach the players, if it continues to be held in UAE, i am not sure it will be that useful because our players will only be continuously be playing on spinning, UAE conditions which are not like high run scoring conditions you find in India and Pakistan.

Once the Australian tour is over, i hope Mickey Arthur will be given a full reign to do what he deems to be the best for the team. Since June the team has been on the run and he hasn't even had time to hold a full fledged off season training camp and proper time to meet the selectors, observe domestic players e.t.c.

 

[Smbhayi]

so something for Indian bowlers . moral victory for us ✌ . congrats [MENTION=5942]AlphaFighter[/MENTION] BTW.

 

[AlphaFighter]

Unexpected but thank you. I wish someone could send this post, message to the Pak coaching staff. Credit the source of the original OP iniqbal223

 

[Abdullah719]

Good post, congrats.

 

[Haroon786]

Good comparison on why Pakistani bowling has been poor in LOIs relatively to Indian bowling in the last few years.

A worthy POTW, congrats [MENTION=5942]AlphaFighter[/MENTION].

 

[The intelligent Supporter]

Good post Alpha

 

[world cup captain]

I don't necessarily agree with the whole post but congrats.

 

[R0H1T]

Unexpected but thank you. I wish someone could send this post, message to the Pak coaching staff. Credit the source of the original OP iniqbal223

Yet people take offence in the fact that Pak still plays cricket as if it were the 90's & tests as in the 80's :hmm:

 

[AlphaFighter]

Yet people take offence in the fact that Pak still plays cricket as if it were the 90's & tests as in the 80's :hmm:

We bat like the 70's and our bowling like the 80's, 90's and early 2000's. Cricket has evolved now, other teams have taken things to the next level with their batting, bowling negatively in a run restricting manner in placid conditions and fitness, fielding.

And guess what, they still go out and have a good time outside Cricket so the solution is not to lock up our players in their hotel rooms either and neither is the solution to continue the same old out dated training, practice sessions routines but to acknowledge that our Cricket is behind other nations by atleast 10 years and then take it from there.

Granted the PCB has suffered due to the abscence of international cricket from Pakistan, bilateral series with India which means that the PCB has been unable to make the necessary investments at the grass roots i.e. academies, club, domestic cricket but hopefully with the advent of the PSL things will pick up.

It will also help to de-misbafy the team and for the batsmen to return to the flair of the batting unit of the 90's and early 2000's.

 

[shaz619]

Good comparison on why Pakistani bowling has been poor in LOIs relatively to Indian bowling in the last few years.

A worthy POTW, congrats [MENTION=5942]AlphaFighter[/MENTION].

True but there were improvements in the final ODI vs England and T20, variations were there, slower balls, variations in length etc so we're certainly capable, hopefully we'll be more consistent moving forward

 

[Napa]

Good post, intelligently argued. Read with pleasure.

 

[Junaids]

Congratulations, but of course this only relates to One Day cricket.

In Test cricket the main problem is that the pace bowlers are all too short. Wahab is narrowly tall enough, but wastes it with a low arm action.