A bit of an overreaction after yesterday's match. Azam destroyed him in his last two overs but then Azam destroyed everyone including Naseem.
There are some factors however that the OP has brought up that are valid. I've been a bit supporter from the start and have been following him consistently.
PACE
It does fluctuate. From the start of his career when Watson said he was the fastest 18 year old he'd seen in his life, he was clocking 150 regularly and bowled at 156km/hr twice, once in PSL and once in the Caribbean league.
It then dropped to 135-145 category in the coming 2 years ( international outings and BBL) with the odd couple of matches in between when he touched 145-150 range consistently again. He dipped the most in 2021 when he was mostly in high 130's.
Then came the change of action due to the ban and contrary to expectations, he came back faster. In his spell with the national team prior to the WC, he was bowling rapidly. Every 3rd ball at 148-154 consistently.I believe he had the highest average speed in the Asia cup last year.
And now after a hiatus of sorts, he's back to 135-145 range. Very difficult to understand what exactly is happening with him. A bowlers pace does fluctuate but not as significantly as his has in the last 3 years.
SKILL SET
He has developed as a bowler.
-He has worked on that consistent outwinger with the new ball which gives him wickets in his opening spells time and again.
-His overall control and length are also much better than where he was 2 years ago.
- He bowls a mean short ball around chest height which a lot of good batsmen end up skying up in the air because it gets to them too fast.
-His yorker and slower ball control is nowhere near perfect but it's much better than where it used to be.
Opening vs Death spells
Here in lies the biggest difference. We've seen again and again how good he is with the new ball in limited over cricket and then how clueless he can be at the death. Even yesterday his stats read 11-2 after 2 overs. At the end it was 52/2.
Confidence
This is his biggest Achilles heel. The moment he goes for runs in the first couple of balls of the over, you can see his head dropping, panic appearing in his body language and after that he just loses it.
This is where captaincy can have a big impact on him. We've seen how he seems to be enjoying bowling much more under Sarfaraz and Gul compared to when he's in the national team. And no, I'd otn mean that as a critism on Babar. If Hasnain has confidence issues, it's not really Babar's fault nor can he simply be so devoted to one player out of 11 as to completely change his tactics in his management of Hasnain. But what would be really helpful is having a senior, more experienced authority figure over him who can see why he struggles and then provides the necessary support
Up until the last 2 overs yesterday, Hasnain was actually doing really well since the start of PSL and in the post match interviews he mentioned how important it was to him that the captain told him he was their wicket taker and than he was being brought back in the middle to break partnerships.
SELECTION ISSUES
The nat team managements indecisiveness hasn't helped his cause one bit. He was a regular feature up until the England series before the t20 WC before he missed a match because of fitness. And then Suddenly he was nowhere in the picture. Hrle wasn't dropped because of performance, because he was replaced by Wasim Jr who had been doing much worse than him at that point. After that he was dropped from the squad all together, then given one match against BD and then dropped again.
ACTUAL EXPERIENCE
Whilst it's been 4 years since he debuted for Pakistan (March 2019), the actual cricket he's played had been very limited. In all this time hes played a total of 27 T20Is, 7 ODIs and 26 ListA matches. He's virtually played no long format cricket at all.
My Opinion
I think he's someone who could become very special if he develops optimally and for that to happen, deserves time and investment from the team management who seem to be more inclined towards Wasim Jr who I don't rate much at all.
Hasnain isn't yer run of the mill Pakistani fast bowling talent. He's 6'2" atleast, high-ish arm action, has a natural length which is shorter than what our usual fast bowlers bowl and is capable of bowling 150plus consistently. Hes shown evidence of improvement going from someone who was too erratic to be given the new ball to a bowler now who gets excellent away shape and picks up wickets regularly.
I'm not in the least interested in his T20i skills. He needs to play the longer formats regularly in the domestic circuit to learn the art.
