Steven Smith - Great Captaincy

[sa]

Many ppl in thread are cussing Pakistani players , however not where credit is due. After so many losses in Smith's captaincy this year . He made a very calculated and bold move to put a reasonable target on the board for test 1 and 2 against Pakistan.

No matter who becomes a Pakistani captain next. The problem will still remain the same because we are looking for a one man Messiah like Amir, Afridi, Asif, Butt. Next year we will ask the Sami Aslam to retire and the future Captain . The cycle will keep continuing.

In conclusion, we should also commend Misbah for his service from 2010 after the spot fixing fiasco and not be able to play at home. His team have work tremendously hard to bring the team to No.1 .
However, the concept of making captain like Azhar or Sarfraz because they have been scoring, are senior or showed a fight receipe for the same result.

 

[Buffet]

Smith was not captaining great by any stretch of imagination.

 

[Mamoon]

Great, great player. Outstanding batsman and a serviceable captain.

 

[Pete Rose]

You cannot argue with success, but I would back most top tier test teams not to collapse like Pakistan did today. They have a few mental issues to address. Denial wont make it go away.

 

[Belawal2014]

Average captain playing against a captain who has already mentally checked out.

 

[Chief Destroyer]

He's not tactically inept like Misbah just a bit gutless at times.

 

[Ashraful_Rox]

Smith is one of the best batsman no doubt, as a captain he looks stupid, nowhere near Clarke. He lost to South Africa and in the Aussie forum he was getting bashed, Warner is a better candidate to captain Australia. Smith is blank and lacks imagination

 

[Abdullah719]

Any captain would have declared in that position, they were in a perfect position to go for a win without being worried about a loss.

His bowling changes were a bit weird, taking off Lyon after Tea, right after he had run through our middle order and was getting just enough purchase.

 

[Chief Destroyer]

Smith is one of the best batsman no doubt, as a captain he looks stupid, nowhere near Clarke. He lost to South Africa and in the Aussie forum he was getting bashed, Warner is a better candidate to captain Australia. Smith is blank and lacks imagination

Clarke was a tactical genius. There are very few comparable to him in history let alone the current captains.

 

[Sanzcool]

Mediocre batting than great captaincy

 

[omer28]

well its not a surprise ? pakistan have capitulated in the past under pressure whats new ? whats so great about smiths captaincy ? any captain would have attacked with a lead of 180 plus with 60 overs to go and an innings left . smith batted really well he averages 60 and is one of the best of this era . I believe that for once we lost this game due to our bowling and not our batting

1) our team is not well balanced , we are playing 80s cricket , we are super defensive , all our 7 batsmen play the same brand of cricket , there is no variation . In todays cricket you need a few attacking and aggressive batsmen in the team to counter the bowlers and spoil their line and length and you have to be prepared to give a wicket away in doing that , need better planning , by attacking doesnt mean sloggers , stroke makers who take calculated risks

2) we desperately need an allrounder ( bowler) even a stock bowler will do the trick if he can only contain batsmen so that our unfit pacers can get some time to rest in between . well if you go into stats pakistani pacers have done miserably in their home conditions in uae as well . they couldnt swing the ball in new zealand as well . dont have pace , cant bowl after the first spell , can not swings, can not reverse swing ? check their averages ? this is one of the worst pace bowling attack we have ever had ?

3) misbah was trying to use yasir shah as a stock bowler ? yasir shah has never been good at containment , he is always an attacking option . it woks well in the uae because we almost always win the toss in uae , bat for ages at 2 to 2.5 runs an over .. wear down our opponents pacers by playing in the tuk tuk mode and capitalize on their spinners to make a living and post big scores ..yasir shah usually bowls with a sizeable lead so he can afford to be aggressive and he enjoys those picthes with low uneven bounce and his variations work there . over here he is useless because there is bounce and he is never a big turner of the ball ... mushtaq ahmed and danish kaneria were much better overseas bowlers

 

[Hasan123]

He was always going to come good as a captain, people are too quick to write players off.

 

[Sin Nombre]

Smith was poor as a captain yesterday.

Kept bowling Starc when the ball was doing nothing for him after his first 3 overs.

Took and kept Lyon out when he was bowling well.

Pakistan are capable of collapsing despite poor captaincy.

 

[sa]

Smith was poor as a captain yesterday.

Kept bowling Starc when the ball was doing nothing for him after his first 3 overs.

Took and kept Lyon out when he was bowling well.

Pakistan are capable of collapsing despite poor captaincy.

if Pakistan is capable of "collapsing" then Australia is capable of "demolishing" and taking 20 opponents wicket . The collapse doesn't happen without opposing doing nothing.

I'm not talking about Smith's overall captaincy but captaincy in the 2nd Test or comparing him with other great captains. He had many options, to let him and Starc score double century and century. He could've waited for the next test to beat Pakistan . Australia were over 4 runs an over almost the whole innings and drained Pakistan. Last day when they saw Pakistan players were so lazy and pretty much incapacitated, he went for the kill.

This was a tactical strategy more than anything.

 

[sa]

Mediocre batting than great captaincy

What does he average in his batting? Mind you he came to the team as a bowler

 

[Chrish]

Will suddenly become poor captain in India..