POTW: Geil

[MenInG]

This week's POTW award goes to [MENTION=144551]Geil[/MENTION] for his excellent post regarding the lack of planning which has lead to our current crisis in terms of bowling.

Congratulations!


http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/s...ain%94-Mohammad-Zahid&p=10858848#post10858848

To be a winning and a successful test team , a team must be a good bowling attack and in terms of international matches experience even including Abbas, this PAK team team is quite inexperience excluding Yasir Shah, who is the only reliable and experienced bowler in the current attack

The blame should not be on young inexperienced bowlers but the think tank who have planned and build the Pak team lineup in the previous and recent years which was Inzimam/Arther/Sarfaraz and now Misbah/Azhar

It is not the players who are to blame but the planning of Pak team which is quite poor especially in building a bowling attack have been historically poor , it is a fact when you see the number of test wickets a Pak bowler has taken in recent years or exactly after the retirements of Wasim/Waqar who were not only Pak greats but also World Cricket greats

If you look at the stats for bowlers after the Wasim/Waqar era you have names like Shoaib Akhtar Umar Gul Mohammad Amir Mohammad Sami Wahab Riaz Junaid Khan Shabbir Ahmed & Asif who were promising but couldn't last longer or lead or build a threatening bowling attack over a long period of time, they came and were hyped and then were blamed and then faded away, this cycle is repeating all over again with Pak since Wasim/Waqar era

IMO all blame should go to the planners like the recent head/bowling coaches like Waqar,Mickey,Intikhab Alam,Miandad,Woolmer,Dav Whatmore,Mahmood and captains like Afridi,Inzy,Misbah and Sarfaraz (these names comes to one"s mind who have had a much longer stint with Pak team as coach or captain),they select and give chances to the bowlers, it is quite clear from the facts that, Pak planning team cant identify more good bowlers and then if they do identify them then, they cant develop them to be world beaters or make them durable who can last longer than at-least 50 tests

the best they can produce is make or degrade a promising bowler to an average and then end their caree but they dont have the ability to do the opposite

To me it looks like to be a successful "Pak" bowler you have to be a special individual who not only have talent but also has the work ethics and discipline like Wasim/Waqar because in Pak team you wont get no coaches/captains who are capable of making an average bowler into a good skillful one

There is absolutely no proof to back that Pak coaches/captains are capable of developing and building a fast bowler, Pakistan is still stuck in old times and are still trying to come out that old times where they still believe a saviour or special individuals like Wasim/Waqar will come and make the team great again who did it all on their own ability really

For all the top teams, Cricket is a team game where you plan/build/develop the team but for Pakistan it looks like, still it is an individual game where you have to learn, survive and develop your own game to be the best because there isn't no one capable of grooming a raw promising bowler into a great or reliable bowler in the current PAK planning team or a matter of fact never have been since the retirement Wasim/Waqar.

 

[Junaids]

Firstly, congratulations to [MENTION=144551]Geil[/MENTION] on this award for a well-written argument.

Secondly, I don't just disagree with the content, I must say that if I was Inzamam-ul-Haq I would sue [MENTION=144551]Geil[/MENTION] for the preposterous accusations in this post. I think the accusations are borderline slanderous.

Let me nail my colours to the mast.

Most of the bowling in an attack needs to be done by men aged 21-30. Under 21, bowlers tend not to know how to get people out - I remember Waqar Younis struggling in Australia in 1989-90 when he was probably 20, and Wasim Akram struggling in England in 1987 when he had all the tools apart from experience.

Overage bowlers are even worse than underage bowlers, as they lose speed (quicks) and variation (spinners, due to overuse injuries).

Mickey Arthur and Inzamam swore to turn the page after the 2016-17 tour of Australia and New Zealand.

Out went Misbah's twin favourites, Sohail Khan and Imran Khan, and also Rahat Ali.

Mohammad Amir remained, and while Yasir Shah was retained, from that point on Shadab Khan was selected in SENA more often than Yasir Shah was.

Mohammad Abbas was called up at 28, after years of being vetoed by Misbah-ul-Haq. Misbah was a lame duck skipper after Australia, and had to accept Abbas and Hasan Ali replacing Imran and Sohail. He refused to have Faheem Ashraf - and as soon as he retired Faheem was called up for overseas tours, and in 4 Tests scored more runs than Azhar Ali (138 runs at 23.00) and also took 11 wickets at 26.09.

By the end of Inzamam's tenure, his first choice attack in South Africa had become:

Mohammad Abbas aged 29
Mohammad Amir aged 27
Shaheen Shah Afridi aged 19
Faheem Ashraf aged 25
Shadab Khan aged 20

Inzamam had agreed with Mickey Arthur's conclusion that Mohammad Amir was an Outside Asia Specialist, and Inzamam and Arthur made a Gentleman's Agreement with Amir that he would only play away Test tours, and would rest during home series (as opposed to playing BBL, etc).

Inzamam and Arthur did not leave an empty cupboard.

They left a bowling unit of:

Mohammad Abbas (29)
Shaheen Shah Afridi (20)
Mohammad Amir (27) - Outside Asia only
Yasir Shah (33) - In Asia only
Faheem Ashraf (25)
Hasan Ali (25)
Shadab Khan (20)

Misbah-ul-Haq is the one who then discarded players in their twenties in favour of Over-30's and Under-21's.

Kashif Bhatti at 34 is preferred to Zafar Gohar, who is 25.
Iftikhar Ahmed who appears to be around 36 is preferred to Sajid Khan, who is 26.
Sohail Khan at 36 is preferred to Ehsan Adil, who is 27.
Imran Khan at 33 is preferred to Faheem Ashraf, who is 26.
Musa Khan at 18 (and 5'7) is preferred to Sameen Gul, who is 21 (and 6'3).

And worst of all, Misbah refuses to negotiate the same sensible arrangement with Amir that Inzamam had.

The bowlers in their twenties exist.

As do the batsmen (Saud Shakeel, Sami Aslam, Imran Butt).

It's just that Misbah doesn't believe in selecting guys in their twenties. He'd rather pick geriatrics and babies.

 

[Geil]

Inzamam and Arthur did not leave an empty cupboard.

They left a bowling unit of:

Mohammad Abbas (29)
Shaheen Shah Afridi (20)
Mohammad Amir (27) - Outside Asia only
Yasir Shah (33) - In Asia only
Faheem Ashraf (25)
Hasan Ali (25)
Shadab Khan (20)

Misbah-ul-Haq is the one who then discarded players in their twenties in favour of Over-30's and Under-21's.

These bowlers are all promising, they are still playing so cant say there careers are over, I think you have kind of answered yourself the point I am trying to make,

MISBAH after taking over from Arther & INZY started making a somewhat new team by discarding players in their twenties in favour of Over-30's and Under-21's, every-time there is change in captain/coach or the planning setup you are suppose to co-ordinate with the previous setup to build and develop the team further.

You are expected to continue with the positives of what the previous setup have left you with,but in PAK case as soon as new setup is appointed it is mostly been a new team being developed since 2000"s which is the cause of instability in the team

Now we can argue whether Arther/Inzy have left a well developed set of pace bowlers or not?

Inzy tenure April 2016- July 2020
Arther May 2016 - Aug 2019

In this tenure the best test bowler for PAK was Amir and other notable regulars were Abbas, Hasan, Riaz , Sohail Khan, Rahat Ali

Now u already made it clear that Sohail Khan Rahat Ali were Misbah's favorites but still I would say it is a collective failure of Misbah/Arther/Inzy to understand which bowlers to invest in.

We can further argue that Misbah was the man calling the shots, but whatever it was to me it looks like a collective co-ordination failure(in the end it is a team game and not captain"s game) between them by not selecting bowlers who would be a part of a developing attack ahead for the coming years (except for Abbas/Yasir Shah as they both were good and reliable)

Selecting Riaz , Sohail Khan, Rahat Ali was failure by them even Amir retiring from test cricket their best bowler in that 2016-19 is their failure as he was already complaining about his workload in their tenure

There is very little planning about how to build and develop the team for the future, changing setup and not learning from previous mistakes all add up to these poor planning

 

[Junaids]

[MENTION=144551]Geil[/MENTION]

I think in Amir, Abbas, Shaheen, Hasan and Faheem a good and youthful attack was bequeathed from Inzamam to Misbah, with Naseem Shah about to break through too.

And Shadab was already beginning to replace Yasir Shah.

We all see that a 3 man pace attack in SENA exhausts and slows down the quicks, and all SENA home teams deployed 4 man pace attacks until Australia could no longer carry Mitch Marsh’s batting. But Misbah’s refusal to play a fourth quick ensures that Amir won’t play for him - I wouldn’t either if I were him.

The problem isn’t that Inzamam left nothing for Misbah. It’s that Misbah has discarded what he was given because he thinks that Sohail Khan and Imran Khan deliver crucial experience, and he sees nothing wrong with taking just 5 quicks to Australia of whom 3 were teenagers.

I agree that teams have to be carefully blended. It’s why I hate having 5 batsmen out of 6 over 30, because it is blocking the progress of young players and ensuring that multiple geriatrics retire or fail at the same time.

How can Shan Masood and Abid Ali open together? Surely Sami Aslam should be opening with one of them to ensure continuity and to minimise the risk of suddenly needing to find two openers at the same time.

 

[King_Kohli]

Congrats [MENTION=144551]Geil[/MENTION] bro, excellent write-up.

 

[Geil]

[MENTION=132916]Junaids[/MENTION]

I agree with you on Sami Aslam, he should have been persisted with like Babar Azam, he showed promise and is quite young and should be given enough chances before he is completely discarded. Sami Aslam is a blunder because in Azhar,Asad and Babar you had the freedom to invest and build young batsman in sami aslam but they seemed to have moved on to others since 2017, again poor planning, the problems of cycle runs round and round with PAK

Also playing 3 man pace attack in SENA is like following old methods, it is the fast bowler who win you test matches especially in SENA and if u look further, PAK doesnt have modern day top bowlers like Anderson/broad, Steyn/Morkel, I Sharma/Z Khan, Boult/Southee, M Johnson/Starc , they have to be ready to implement new methods which other top teams are doing

If another subcontinent team like India can produce recent modern era top fast bowlers like I Sharma and Z Khan and am sure Pak which has the legacy of Wasim & Waqar should be the flag bearers of top subcontinent fast bowling team which PAK isnt.

The only saving grace for Pak in terms of bowling is able produce a good bowler in Yasir Shah other than than they have nothing to show to be compared with the top three teams

 

[JibranAnsari]

verygood post , i was wondering the same other day.