Tactics, players, the approach - what's wrong with the Pakistan ODI team?

[Saj]

Come on folks what do you reckon? Where is it going wrong for the Pakistan ODI team?

Players not good enough?
Outdated tactics?
Poor coaching?
The approach of the players?
Something else?

 

[marlonbrowndo]

Biggest reason is the atrocious captaincy. Too many passengers. How can any modern ODI team have Azhar ali opening for it? It's baffling. Umar is coming in when the game is lost. He isn't a finisher and should be opening. 2 out of our top 4 are rubbish (Azhar and Hafeez.) Umar should open with Sharjeel and Haris should bat at 4 when he returns. We also need to find a lower middle order batsman and shahzaib should be tried there. Don't expect inzi to think like this though. He's gonna keep selecting the likes of Azhar and Asad

 

[Nil Dhumrojal]

Self belief. And lack of patriotism.

 

[Syed1]

A bit of every thing:

Players not good enough?
Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Muhammad Nawaz, Muhammad Rizwan, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Rahat Ali and Muhammad Hafeez are just not good enough for this level anymore (or in some cases they never were).

Outdated tactics?
The team employs outdated tactics of relying on one batsman to go big (Sharjeel) while the others would anchor the innings. This style of cricket was outdated back in the 90s and you would fail everytime if you try to employ it here. The need of the hour is to look for a single off every single ball and then the boundaries bring up your run rate to sixes and sevens.

Poor coaching?
The coaching staff also take some of the blame for the poor tactics and constant repititation of the same mistakes. Besides Steve Rixon as fielding coach and Azhar Mahmood as bowling coach should seriously be looking over their shoulder right about now.

The approach of the players?
All of the above points apply here.

 

[mz123]

Look sir, it is simple, there are too many passengers in this team....

Since 2016, Azhar Ali has an average of 27 and a strike rate of 72

How is he still in the side ?????

I have said this many times.....Azhar is the alastair cook of pakistan, he has the ability to become an ATG in tests, but should stay away from the ODI format!!!!

 

[Black Zero]

mix of all.

however we should know that Aus is #1 team and kind of unbeatable in home.

winning one match and scoring ~300 in two matches is satisfactory for a #8 team

 

[wasimjunior]

First of all, this is a huge overreaction. If anyone thought we could go beat Aus in Aus then people on here are clueless if not deluded. I actually think we were pretty good and showed some serious fight.

There is also dedication and spirit in this team which I like.

Im not really sure why everyone is on Azhar Ali's back.
He is tactically not the best we have, Hafeez is far far better as the games he was in charge showed- however Hafeez arguably doesn't make it into our team anymore.

We were as bad with Misbah in charge, and worse with Afridi, so changing Azhar Ali has no meaning for me.

The biggest problem is that the game has changed. 270 has become 320 and 300 has become 340. Had this been India or England chasing 360 today Aus might have lost. Pitches are far too easy to bat on and the 2 ball rule on these dead pitches means the 50 over game is now just a slog fest. Personally its rubbish, if I want to see a ball get thwacked around Ill flick on baseball but thats a different debate.

The issue is that because the game has changed in that way- Pakistan have far too many 270 era players playing. Hafeez, Malik, Azhar,Shafiq, Rizwan may all have space (well not Rizwan imo) in our batting line up, but play three of them and suddenly you are in heaps of pressure.

Compare this to Australia, where even when they are 4 down, someone like Maxwell comes in and carts the ball around. We just dont have those players unfortunately and I think people need to accept we cannot compete in Odis for the time being unless the pitches are going to be slow/low.

England are doing the same with guys like Roy and Hales (another talentless slogger who is getting by on these pitches) at the top, and guys lke Buttler and Ali coming in lower down.

At number 3/4 you can accommodate your 270 era player who will average 45 at 80 strike rate and give you some dependability in the middle overs. We have that in Babar and can afford one more out of the names abve but not all of them.

This is also why Pakistan need Umar Akmal to lose his weight and turn it around- he has shown enough glimpses on this tour that he is capable of hitting boundaries at will (unlike Shoaib Malik who cost us the third odi when we could have chased successfully). If you are to compete, you need a top three of Sharjeel, Umar and Babar who can put the opponent on the backfoot and score at 6 an over with ease.

You then also need a number 6 who can hit big. I cant see anyone in our cricket who is capable. Mickey has chosen Umar Akmal for this role and unfortunately I think he is far too good for that. Sarfraz was missed but also doesnt play that role.

A peak Afridi/Razzaq player has to be found asap.


The other major issue I have noticed is that the bowlers seem clueless. There is no plan and they run in and just bowl. There is a huge huge downfall since Azhar Mahmood took over and I think he needs to be thrown out. I've never seen these same bowlers bowl as poorly as they have done for a while and I think that needs to be changed asap.

 

[Pete Rose]

The aura of lesser players playing as seniors. Has a corrosive affect on the mentality of younger players. When they see our 'best' (Hafeez 20 MOMs, Malik) being bossed around in the game, they must think that if our senior players cants handle the heat what chance do I have

 

[Abdullah]

for too long we have been fielding an inadequate eleven in terms of players.
we need to understand that we r on a journey where we need to show signs off progression.
no point pointing out what is wrong after every series because more than likely it will be the same thing every series.
rather we need to understand how far behind we r n put together a side that can challenge.
we had only 3 to 4 pieces of the odi jigsaw before the series but now that is up to 5.

1Sharjeel
2
3 Babar
4
5 Sarfaraz
6
7
8
9 Amir
10 Hasan
11

sharjeel and babar were the main reason that in a lot of the games ensured we had a decent score at the 40 over mark.
we know finishing and second opener are problem position. oh n fielding.
dont think bowling is too far off. imagine our bowlers had aussies fielding for them!!

 

[Markhor]

There's many aspects to it but one is our dot ball percentage. Arthur has been emphasising this a lot in press conferences. Nowadays your SR needs to be as close to run a ball as possible.

Our neighbours are way ahead of us in their ability to find the gaps, run hard between the wickets and put the fielders under pressure. Part of that is because some of our batsmen have a limited range of shots, I remember Sami Aslam slogging just to get off strike during the England ODIs. Poor fitness is another cause.

Another issue is our lack of power hitters especially down the order. In this era you've got to have explosive batsmen who can clear the ropes. You saw how in Perth we were unable to capitalise on a good platform.

 

[Boi]

Lack of fitness and athleticism in the field and power when it comes to batting. Our fielding was beyond pathetic this series and we are light years behind other teams in terms of the general fitness of our players. Until that doesn't improve we wont be able to keep up with the best in LOIs.

 

[waqar goraya]

Even if all of these batsmen give their best we can't chase anything around 300 on a road. Good thing is that we have found a very good limited over player in Sharjeel. I think due to scarcity of talent we need to utilize and maximize the limited talent of people like Umar Akmal and Sarfraz. I think both of them should bat at 4 or 5 and not lower than that. 4 of these Sharjeel, Babar, Umar and Sarfraz will make a very decent top 5. This is the least we can do until we find better talent.
Hafeez needs to do more with the ball to cement his place. There is certainly lack of resources as we don't have lower order hitting power either, There is also no genuine spinner we always used to have.

With the available resources i don't think we can win against consistently against top sides.

And talking about captaincy. I think Azhar has proved atrocious so far. Conceding a huge total has become a usual thing for him. He is way too boring and unimaginative.
Coaches have a very limited role at this level of the game. That's why good captaincy is essential.

 

[yasir]

There are some serious external factors, our guys cannot play IPL, not just IPL but no NATWest and BBL, we are out of all big franchises cricket, not to mention not playing at home... those two factors are showing up in a nasty way in national team performance. Our players are way under cook. We are becoming North Korea of Cricket, cut off from rest of the world and too far behind. We are struggling to compete with bottom of the table teams. Franchise cricket is future, Without serious participation in franchise cricket Pakistan will do down even more sharply in next decade. It's hard to develop product without in contact with market place.

 

[Rayyman]

Outdated tactics, poor coaching and the approach of the players.

 

[Nasty Naz]

I think its mostly the players simply not being good enough. It's not because they're not trying hard or anything but there is a lack of talent there. You look at teams like England/Australia/India/South Africa and it is loaded with guys with good averages and SR that are mostly 90+ and Pakistan simply doesn't have enough of those guys. Instead its a bunch of 30+ year old who have been playing International cricket for a long time and have poor averages in the low to mid 30's with SR around 75-80 (a pace of 225-240 runs at that rate).

They need to invest in guys with high SR in domestic cricket and see if it can translate into International cricket. Re-trying proven mediocre players like Hafeez/Malik/Akmal/Shehzad/Maqsood/Shafiq etc... isn't going to change anything. If a player has more played 50-100 games with SR of 75-80, you can't suddenly expect a player who has performed historically slow to suddenly start matching the modern game of going 90-100+ SR.

More than the batting, I think the bigger issue is the bowling. Maybe its a result of poor captaincy and the fields that have been set but man, not only are they giving up huge amount of runs but they are not getting wickets either. Pakistan batting was always a problem but their bowling has usually been the reason they would win and well, the bowling has been awful. Even just as recently under Misbah, at least those teams restricted teams and that hasn't been happening the past year or so. Ever since the loss of Ajmal, I think Pakistan has been lacking that elite spinner in LOI and it has led to a serious decline in the bowling side. Those batting lineups under Misbah were just awful and when they won under him, it was because of their spinners and I think Pakistan needs to go back to that. Imad has been good but they need an elite spinner to get this bowling attack back to respectability.

 

[Al-Canon]

We need to clean slate. Get rid of Hafeez, Malik, Riaz, Rizwan, Nawaz and Akmal. My playing XI for the Champions Trophy would be... ( Sharjeel, Shazaib, Babar, Haris, Saud, Sarfraz, Imad(needs to work on his hitting), Ahmad Butt, Amir, Asghar, Hasan, Mohammad Irfan Jr or any young fast bowler who performs in PSL. This team needs to be persisted with and with experience in England before the tournament has no reason to not be able to reach at least the semi finals of the tournament. The reason I would prefer Irfan Jr is because of his bounce due to his height which is essential once the ball becomes old on FLAT English pitches which will be prepared for the tournament.

 

[mango_bite77]

Lack of professionalism in the team. No planning whatsoever how to handle chase or how to project a target. We all saw how pathetic our players were during the chase of 270 in 1st odi. 270 was much easy to chase but everyone came and started to hit every ball out of ground. It clearly becomes the testimony of the fact we lack proper planning how to handle the game. Instead of a appointing high profile batting or bowling coach our team should look for psychiatrist who can motivate our players and show a path how to handle pressure at different level.

Second thing which i observed about our team is lack of practice . They don't practice much in those aspects of the game where they should. Giving all your preference to fitness like working out in gym all the time will not make you good player, however that is also an integral part of game but players shouldn't ignore core motive which is improving their techniques of batting , bowling and fielding by having abundant practice session in each aspect of the game.

There is only one short cut to achieve success and it is PRACTICE.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

There's many aspects to it but one is our dot ball percentage. Arthur has been emphasising this a lot in press conferences. Nowadays your SR needs to be as close to run a ball as possible.

Our neighbours are way ahead of us in their ability to find the gaps, run hard between the wickets and put the fielders under pressure. Part of that is because some of our batsmen have a limited range of shots, I remember Sami Aslam slogging just to get off strike during the England ODIs. Poor fitness is another cause.

Another issue is our lack of power hitters especially down the order. In this era you've got to have explosive batsmen who can clear the ropes. You saw how in Perth we were unable to capitalise on a good platform.

Therein lies part of the reason right there. Absolutely mind boggling that a player like Sami Aslam should be playing limited overs cricket in the first place. The Pakistan mindset when it comes to batting has been very conservative for decades now.

I know there are issues with lots of other areas of Pakistan cricket like domestic structure and nepotism, but the glaring weakness has been the negative mindset for me. Pakistan has probably the most defensive mindset in world cricket these days, and no one has addressed it to this point.

 

[JaDed]

Atleast the future doesn't look hopeless like it did after 2015 WC and 2016 Asia-T20 cups.Think they can turn it around if they improve on their catching and fielding.

 

[Stumper]

Pakistan was always a bowling powerhouse with good bowlers, at the moment no one gives you that confidence in the team, so i think more then batting its bowling that is letting down pakistan on most occasions

 

[Madplayer]

The aura of lesser players playing as seniors. Has a corrosive affect on the mentality of younger players. When they see our 'best' (Hafeez 20 MOMs, Malik) being bossed around in the game, they must think that if our senior players cants handle the heat what chance do I have

I keep thinking about the same thing. There was a time when wasim, waqar, anwar, Inzi, yousuf, akhtar etc used to be the seniors in the team. They inspired confidence and youngsters looked up to them. Who are the seniors in the team now??? Hafeez, malik and now azhar and asad also. Completely uninspiring guys who haven't acheived much in their careers.

 

[Sherlock]

I remember back when Hafeez made his debut. Miandad once called him the best player in our domestic circuit. This is Hafeez when back then/even now found it hard to take singles.

It's obviously more an issue further down our structure. The issue seems to be the players can't be asked to do the basics and don't want to work for it. Then you have the social media aspects of things where people like Akmal and Shehzad seem oblivious to their shortcomings and find and praise by the loyal, yet obvious ignorant fanbase, as a fact etched in record books.

The likes of Babar Azam and now Sharjeel have also found themselves playing for the Pakistan A side around the World, thus know the various aspects of how to play modern cricket. They may not always deliver but there is something there and Pakistan should do everything to help them get to the next stage, not only mentally but tactically too.

I do feel the mental aspects of sports is a huge thing too, and when we see Pakistan often give up so meekly on be it bowling or batting, you do have to wonder what the PCB are doing Nationally to counter that problem.

This is why I respect a side like India/Australia so much. When the time comes they always stand up and be counted, more often than not.

But the cause can also be the PCB bigwigs being more concerned by lining up their own pockets than to fix the main infrastructure of Pakistan cricket.

There's so many things we can point at, from the players, modern infrastructure and profession to the main guys on the board not wanting to help in anyway.

 

[Flat_Track_Bully]

Its the players. They can't take pressure and most batters make pretty 30s and 40s and get out.

Hafeez/Malik generation are a total failure.

 

[hitthestump]

It's a lost cause. We used to have a passable batting line up and strong bowlers. Now we have neither. Our only hope is individual match winning performances from the few top players we have. Basically unless Sharjeel, Babar or Amir click we are rarely going to win anything.

 

[Hasan123]

Lack of game awareness
Fitness and fielding standards are shocking and disgraceful
Dot ball percentage.

 

[khurram39]

A bit of every thing:

Players not good enough?
Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Muhammad Nawaz, Muhammad Rizwan, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Rahat Ali and Muhammad Hafeez are just not good enough for this level anymore (or in some cases they never were).

Outdated tactics?
The team employs outdated tactics of relying on one batsman to go big (Sharjeel) while the others would anchor the innings. This style of cricket was outdated back in the 90s and you would fail everytime if you try to employ it here. The need of the hour is to look for a single off every single ball and then the boundaries bring up your run rate to sixes and sevens.

Poor coaching?
The coaching staff also take some of the blame for the poor tactics and constant repititation of the same mistakes. Besides Steve Rixon as fielding coach and Azhar Mahmood as bowling coach should seriously be looking over their shoulder right about now.

The approach of the players?
All of the above points apply here.

Totally agreed.

Problem is that we are living in old days and not foreseeing future. Old style cricket is obsolete now. At least 7 players of the current squad didn't possess the quality of being in ODI team.

Needs to think out of the box and bring something at least matching to international style.