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Saud Shakeel withdrawn from ODI squad for tour of South Africa / Fit for Test series v Zimbabwe

Last Monetarist

Last Monetarist

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Uncapped middle-order batsman Saud Shakeel has been withdrawn from Pakistan’s ODI squad against South Africa after suffering a Grade-1 quadriceps tear in his left leg during Wednesday’s 50-over-a-side practice match in Lahore.

The selection committee, in consultation with the team management, has replaced Saud with Asif Ali, who is already part of the T20I squad for the series in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

As Saud is also part of the two-Test squad against Zimbabwe, he will now stay back at the National High Performance Centre to complete his rehabilitation. If he regains fitness in time, then he will travel to Harare on 12 April along with other 10 members of the Test side.

The 34-member squad, including 13 officials and 21 players, will depart for Johannesburg on a chartered flight on Friday morning. On the South Africa tour, Pakistan will play three ICC ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League matches from 2-7 April and four T20Is from 10-16 April. The side will then depart for Harare for three T20Is and two Tests, before returning home on 12 May.
 
Last Monetarist said:
Uncapped middle-order batsman Saud Shakeel has been withdrawn from Pakistan’s ODI squad against South Africa after suffering a Grade-1 quadriceps tear in his left leg during Wednesday’s 50-over-a-side practice match in Lahore.

The selection committee, in consultation with the team management, has replaced Saud with Asif Ali, who is already part of the T20I squad for the series in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

As Saud is also part of the two-Test squad against Zimbabwe, he will now stay back at the National High Performance Centre to complete his rehabilitation. If he regains fitness in time, then he will travel to Harare on 12 April along with other 10 members of the Test side.

The 34-member squad, including 13 officials and 21 players, will depart for Johannesburg on a chartered flight on Friday morning. On the South Africa tour, Pakistan will play three ICC ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League matches from 2-7 April and four T20Is from 10-16 April. The side will then depart for Harare for three T20Is and two Tests, before returning home on 12 May.
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Sad, sad, sad. I was really looking forward to seeing Saud such a solid batsman, they should've given Kamran Ghulam the nod.
 
Rotten luck for Saud to tear the quadriceps in his left leg ahead of an international tour.

Expect it'll be touch and go for him to be fit for the Zimbabwe tests.
 
Terrible luck. Probably wouldnt played have ODIs with a Top 5 of Fakhar Imam Babar Rizwan Haider..hopefully play tests at 4
 
So Asif Ali is in the ODI squad now replacing Saud? If that's the case, then the XI is most likely gonna be:

1. Fakhar
2. Imam
3. Babar
4. Rizwan
5. Haider
6. Faheem
7. Asif
8. Shadab/Nawaz
9. Hasan
10. Shaheen
11. Qadir/Hasnain

With this injury to Saud, I wouldn't be surprised if Sarfraz Ahmed plays as a pure batsman here to bolster the experience in the batting lineup. If he plays, he'll probably play in place of Asif.
 
Such bad luck for the guy.

Takes a step closer to making his international debut and then that chance slips out of his hand.
 
Disappointing. Hopefully he'll feature vs Zimbabwe though, would be a nice introduction to international cricket.
 
Mohammad Wasim: we picked Saud Shakeel over Haris because Haris has fitness issues.

Saud: hold my beer.

The circus show continues.
 
Mamoon said:
Mohammad Wasim: we picked Saud Shakeel over Haris because Haris has fitness issues.

Saud: hold my beer.

The circus show continues.
Click to expand...

I was just thinking that.

Haris was our best ODI player. He averages 54 against the top 5 sides with a good SR but Mohammad Wasim and PP were predicting him to get unfit and so they backed Saud instead.

I hope Saud recovers soon but this is what you get for making such decisions.
 
Darkrai said:
I was just thinking that.

Haris was our best ODI player. He averages 54 against the top 5 sides with a good SR but Mohammad Wasim and PP were predicting him to get unfit and so they backed Saud instead.

I hope Saud recovers soon but this is what you get for making such decisions.
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And they also dropped him for a 112kg fixer who averages 24 against the top 5 sides.

Amazing.
 
Darkrai said:
I was just thinking that.

Haris was our best ODI player. He averages 54 against the top 5 sides with a good SR but Mohammad Wasim and PP were predicting him to get unfit and so they backed Saud instead.

I hope Saud recovers soon but this is what you get for making such decisions.
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He was struggling against Zimbabwe fitness wise lasting 50 overs isn’t a given going forward while Sharjeel is picked in T20s which is a shorter format and Haris hadn’t performed well enough for selection in T20.
 
Darkrai said:
I was just thinking that.

Haris was our best ODI player. He averages 54 against the top 5 sides with a good SR but Mohammad Wasim and PP were predicting him to get unfit and so they backed Saud instead.

I hope Saud recovers soon but this is what you get for making such decisions.
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When was the last time they played an odi game ?
 
Mamoon said:
Mohammad Wasim: we picked Saud Shakeel over Haris because Haris has fitness issues.

Saud: hold my beer.

The circus show continues.
Click to expand...

I don’t think get a muscular injury like this means you have poor fitness. It’s either unlucky or your body being overworked.
 
Get Harris in and ask ICC to allow a runner with him every time he bats, the guy can hardly run, forget about scoring runs, he hardly troubles the scorer lately.
 
moghul said:
Get Harris in and ask ICC to allow a runner with him every time he bats, the guy can hardly run, forget about scoring runs, he hardly troubles the scorer lately.
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Of course no need to back up your statements with ODI stats because you will be wrong then
 
Mamoon said:
Mohammad Wasim: we picked Saud Shakeel over Haris because Haris has fitness issues.

Saud: hold my beer.

The circus show continues.
Click to expand...

Just shows the strength and conditioning of our players.

Look at these guys legs they are sticks, they have no muscle.

A quad tear usually happens in hyper athletic sports, and cricket is not one of those sports.

Our players dont know how to properly train to achieve a body that benefits the sport they play.
 
Darkrai said:
Haris last played an ODI match against Zimbabwe in which he was the highest scorer for Pakistan.
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Good for him. However he only has himself to blame for his lack of fitness and subsequent humiliation that he suffered in the NZ tests. Not surprised people are fed up and would rather move on from such an unreliable and poor example of a professional.
 
Sir-fraz said:
Just shows the strength and conditioning of our players.

Look at these guys legs they are sticks, they have no muscle.

A quad tear usually happens in hyper athletic sports, and cricket is not one of those sports.

Our players dont know how to properly train to achieve a body that benefits the sport they play.
Click to expand...

Muscle doesn’t prevent a quad tear wth lol. Plenty of people who lift end up with a torn quad, pec, etc. you don’t need a lot of load for these tears in any case.

I do agree with your last sentence. We have the absolute worst conditioning of all teams. Preventable injuries happen to our players far too often.

It sounds like these guys are going through some sort of serious Olympic training with the amount of tears, broken bones etc happening but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Probably they were taking turns carrying Sharjeel and this happened.
 
The idea of Asif Ali even being in the ODI squad is giving me a headache. This guy is not good enough to play anything above PSL.
 
I hope it was not becusee of some weird training regime, like we saw with sharjeel. Was looking forward to see this new talent
 
Asif ali provides nothing to the team, he is not a pure batsman, plus he doesn’t bowl.

His avg in LOIs are not that good to warrant a selection.. he can swing his bat in T20s and get that 20-30 runs quickly, but in ODIs he will struggle to give what’s needed of him. I would prefer Ifthikar Ahmed instead in ODIs tbh.

Anyways he will be down the pecking order I believe behind Sarfraz and Shafique
 
Babar





Said, Haris,Haider

These are the talented batsman I rate and would put tham in and around the same category

Don't know why said doesn't get as much hype as the rest of them
 
Saud Shakeel has confirmed to us that he got injured whilst batting in the 50-over practice match.
 
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Suleiman said:
Muscle doesn’t prevent a quad tear wth lol. Plenty of people who lift end up with a torn quad, pec, etc. you don’t need a lot of load for these tears in any case.

I do agree with your last sentence. We have the absolute worst conditioning of all teams. Preventable injuries happen to our players far too often.

It sounds like these guys are going through some sort of serious Olympic training with the amount of tears, broken bones etc happening but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Probably they were taking turns carrying Sharjeel and this happened.
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When did i say it would prevent it? Im a gym goer have been follow the lifting scene for over 2 years now.

Tears are likely to happen in areas of weaker transitional muscles.. i.e quad, hamsrting, bicep etc..

Im sure these guys warm up properly before going 100%, but its clear as day they have inadequate strength and muscle in those areas.

Having your body in peak condition can definitly prevent these type of injuries. They are not lifters. But they should atleast have a minimum of 15lbs of muscle.

Those are achieveable in one year, its called newbie gains...
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Disappointing to miss out on the ODI series due to injury but wish the rest of the team best of luck &#55358;&#56606; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PAKvSA?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PAKvSA</a></p>— Saud Shakeel (@saudshak) <a href="https://twitter.com/saudshak/status/1375149292852277253?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Sir-fraz said:
When did i say it would prevent it? Im a gym goer have been follow the lifting scene for over 2 years now.

Tears are likely to happen in areas of weaker transitional muscles.. i.e quad, hamsrting, bicep etc..

Im sure these guys warm up properly before going 100%, but its clear as day they have inadequate strength and muscle in those areas.

Having your body in peak condition can definitly prevent these type of injuries. They are not lifters. But they should atleast have a minimum of 15lbs of muscle.

Those are achieveable in one year, its called newbie gains...
Click to expand...


Look at the physiques of the Pakistan teams of 80s-90s. They weren’t muscular in the typical sense nor look like they’ve touched a weight in their life and may have had legs that “look like sticks” but were still fitter than most of the players playing today. Back then lifting weights hadn’t taken off at all in Pakistan yet they were still fit

I know what newbie gains are, you’re overstating the difference it would make. These guys priority is to do lifts and exercises to move and function for cricket, not to put on 15-20 lbs of lean muscle in a year which takes additional time and work on top of their other exercises.

I don’t see Kohli, Dhawan, Pandya, KL Rahul having a physique of a novice lifter either... they may look thin even but reality is they are at low bf % and have great conditioning, even though they do lift but it’s more for performance and power rather than adding muscle to their frame.

My point is peak condition does not necessarily mean adding muscle for a cricketer. They should do lifts and movements to be explosive and generate more power, and if that yields muscle, it’s a great bonus. But muscle shouldn’t be the goal.
 
Suleiman said:
Look at the physiques of the Pakistan teams of 80s-90s. They weren’t muscular in the typical sense nor look like they’ve touched a weight in their life and may have had legs that “look like sticks” but were still fitter than most of the players playing today. Back then lifting weights hadn’t taken off at all in Pakistan yet they were still fit

I know what newbie gains are, you’re overstating the difference it would make. These guys priority is to do lifts and exercises to move and function for cricket, not to put on 15-20 lbs of lean muscle in a year which takes additional time and work on top of their other exercises.

I don’t see Kohli, Dhawan, Pandya, KL Rahul having a physique of a novice lifter either... they may look thin even but reality is they are at low bf % and have great conditioning, even though they do lift but it’s more for performance and power rather than adding muscle to their frame.

My point is peak condition does not necessarily mean adding muscle for a cricketer. They should do lifts and movements to be explosive and generate more power, and if that yields muscle, it’s a great bonus. But muscle shouldn’t be the goal.
Click to expand...

Yeah i agree with what you said i did say in my original post they should achieve a physique that benefits the sports they play.

And you can't compare 80s and 90s physique of players to those of today the game has changed a lot in terms of physical output.

There were anomolies back then for example imran khan who had a very athletic physique compared to his contemporaries.

But the knowledge available today and they still have avg physique is a cause for concern.

Also 10-15lbs of muscle spread over your whole body isnt a lot...
All it takes is literally good nutrition and knowledge of training/lifitng. That kohli right now. He has about 15-20 lbs of lean muscle on his frame.

These guys have the availability of trainers and cooks. They have facilities and the TIME to do this. Its called hunger to be the best.
That what these guys dont have.

You shouldnt be making excuses for their lack of hunger. It takes a solid hour a day for these guys since their career is surrounded around sports..

I can say from personal experiance that i gained about 15 lbs of muscle in a year that too working 6 days a week at 12 hours a day because i am developing my business... not harping about myself... just saying its possible, and not as hard as you make it to be. Their workload revovles around this. Thats just an excuse.

Its just about having the mentality.. which these guys dont.
 
Unlucky but you kind of wonder why Asif Ali was brought into the side instead of Haris Sohail. In ODIs, I don't think Haris Sohail's spot could be challenged.

With the form that Rizwan is in at the moment, he's certain to play at 4, but the lower order remains shaky to say the least.

Is Faheem good enough to bat in the top 6? Personally, I don't think he has reached that level yet.

The next question is about Haider. Would we play him in South Africa, or would we opt for a more experienced Sarfaraz?

In my view, it wouldn't be a bad call to play Sarfaraz, but Haider is equally good enough for that #5 slot. Perhaps give Sarfaraz a go early on to see what he can do to cement the spot, and if he performs, keep Haider there with the team in case there's an injury with the current openers.

6 would have to be someone who can tonk the ball, but we don't have many people like that. Our team is frankly, one-dimensional. We can't hit the ball for our lives, especially when it comes time to deal in sixes. That means two things from my understanding, we either need to have the most explosive opening partnership (similar to Bairstow and Roy), or we need to have a lengthy tail.

Now, in all honesty, we are not a good modern day ODI team. Our batting has been quite one-dimensional, and it wasn't exposed because our bowling used to win us matches. Nowadays, there's barely anything for the bowlers, so if we want to do well, we can either extend our batting, or look to add a few more bowling options.

Fakhar, Imam, Babar, Rizwan, Sarfaraz/Haider, Faheem Ashraf, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Hasnain, Hasan Ali.

The reason why Imad was so useful was because he was at least a reliable batsman and could bowl a few tidy overs as well. Nawaz is the better bowler in my opinion, but an inferior batsman. Shadab is iffy with the bat, and might not perform as we think he would. Faheem is also questionable, especially in white-ball cricket. When you have so much inconsistency at the #6,7,8 positions, you aren't going to get far.

One of these guys needs to take ownership, and it should most likely be Faheem and Nawaz.

We are in dire need of an actual hard hitter before the 2023 World Cup.
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Back to work✌️&#55356;&#57295; <a href="https://t.co/cU7mG2OdnE">pic.twitter.com/cU7mG2OdnE</a></p>— Saud Shakeel (@saudshak) <a href="https://twitter.com/saudshak/status/1379790350122807298?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 7, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
He can be a valuable asset for this team with his solid batting and decent part time spin. I think role of a hitter is overrated. All you need are good batsmen who can play long and accelerate towards the end. Yes a big hitter down the order helps but we shouldn't select player based only on his ability to hit sixes. When you dont have buttlers and stokes go for Shakeels
 
Shoaibbtt said:
inshAllah i don't have a doubt he will be, however i don't see him playing unless management feel we open with Azhar and Imran and slot Saud at 3.
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Lmao, the management would have to be real dummies to keep playing that useless Abid Ali.
 
HappyWarsFan said:
Lmao, the management would have to be real dummies to keep playing that useless Abid Ali.
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Frankly, i would've wanted to trial Abdullah in the SA ODIs but am interested in seeing him in the tests seeing as he didn't get a run yesterday when he should have.

However, if push came to shove i'd be good with Saud at 3 or 4 if Abdullah didn't play and we dropped Abid.
 
Grade 1 tear according to the original report, so chances are he should be good to go for the Test series.
 
HappyWarsFan said:
Lmao, the management would have to be real dummies to keep playing that useless Abid Ali.
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We defonitely need to drop abid and play azhar at the oppening spot with saud at 3.its Zimbabwe we should be trying players like saud,abdullah,zahid and so on
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Saud Shakeel has recovered from a quadriceps tear to his left leg and is fit to travel with other members of the Test squad for the two match series against Zimbabwe starting April 29th <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cricket?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cricket</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ZIMvPAK?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ZIMvPAK</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) <a href="https://twitter.com/Saj_PakPassion/status/1383132652266471431?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 16, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
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With our non existent middle order we need to give him a good run of games. The batting options in the middle order are pretty much non existent also.
 
Azhar should go back to open so Saud gets to play. Abid Ali shouldn't have been picked.
 
MenInG said:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Saud Shakeel has recovered from a quadriceps tear to his left leg and is fit to travel with other members of the Test squad for the two match series against Zimbabwe starting April 29th <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cricket?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cricket</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ZIMvPAK?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ZIMvPAK</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) <a href="https://twitter.com/Saj_PakPassion/status/1383132652266471431?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 16, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Great to see. But knowing Pakistan, I expect similar stupidity in having Azhar bat at 3, Imran/Abid open and Saud sitting on the benches.

If I am Saud, I would just let them know I would be happy to open because this is the best way to get into the Pakistani Test side and easily stay there. The bar for openers is so incredibly low, just a half decent opener is a massive improvement.
 
Nasty Naz said:
Great to see. But knowing Pakistan, I expect similar stupidity in having Azhar bat at 3, Imran/Abid open and Saud sitting on the benches.

If I am Saud, I would just let them know I would be happy to open because this is the best way to get into the Pakistani Test side and easily stay there. The bar for openers is so incredibly low, just a half decent opener is a massive improvement.
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I think he batted at #3 for Sindh in last year’s Quaid e Azam trophy so might not be the worst idea. Anyone would be better than Abid and Imran at this point, but I’d be very surprised if we see any changes to this top 3 in the first match itself.
 
No issues with test side except the openers...why dont they ask Imam to open?
 
Ami said:
No issues with test side except the openers...why dont they ask Imam to open?
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Because he averages 27 in tests and 35 in first class which is a similar record to Imran Butt.

On what basis should Imam be picked??? He’s done nothing significant in tests.
 
Line and Length said:
I think he batted at #3 for Sindh in last year’s Quaid e Azam trophy so might not be the worst idea. Anyone would be better than Abid and Imran at this point, but I’d be very surprised if we see any changes to this top 3 in the first match itself.
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I want Saud to bat at 4 or 5 and get babar to bat at 3 and azhar to open.
 
One of the very few young batsmen if not the only one we have who are not only proper all round batsmen with decent skills rather who have been decently cooked at domestic level.

He is a good stroke maker. Yes his power game isnt the greatest as of now but, can only improve with national team.
 
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