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Local Club Star
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- Jul 17, 2017
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Needless to say this was a thoroughly disappointing series even by our low recent standards. It is commonly known that Pakistani cricket team is unpredictable but whenever Pakistan walks into any series / tournament with any level of decent expectations 9/10 times it is very predictable that they would disappoint (same happened in this series). Anyways as cricket fans and lovers we would like to reflect back on things that are going well and things that needs to be looked into before world tournaments.
Firstly, its very clear by now that for Pakistan to win any game it needs its 3 premier players all of whom needs to have a good game (i.e. Babar, Rizwan and Shaheen). If one of them does not live up to their billing most likely Pakistan would not win.
Lets start with the batting and the top order. This is arguably the best top order Pakistan can muster and arguably the best top 4 in its long history of playing cricket. This is the best aspect of this XI and yes they had 2 off games where they underestimated Saqib Mehmood or were simply switched off but on most days this top order is good enough by Pakistani standards.
Now the middle and late order. Sohaib Maqsood / Asif Ali, they both are of same fold type cricketers and basically every strong team needs one such type of player. Usually this player is the one who has nerves of steel and can see through a tight or difficult chase. In this aspect Sohaib is better than Asif as he has shown some stellar performances in chasing impossible scores in domestic recently. Hence, I'm happy with Sohaib's inclusion into the team.
Saud Shakeel needs to be replaced with Haris Sohail. If Haris is unfit then we need to find a similar mold player from domestics. At the moment no player name springs to mind for this position.
Shadab and Faheem should only play test cricket in SENA together. Unfortunately they are not good enough or reliable enough for ODIs. Imad is seriously way better than Shadab. I for one feel if Imad would have been opening the bowling in this series then we might have got their top order in some sort of problems. Faheem needs to improve his defensive bowling or needs to be replaced by someone like Amad Butt. At the moment Faheem is better than replacements but I really hope he learns the art of defensive bowling.
On bowling now, clearly Shaheen did not had a good series. When Shaheen does not bowl well Pakistan generally struggles in bowling. Its very evident that they over rely on Shaheen already. But my biggest concern is Haris Rauf. Haris does not deserve to play such consistent international cricket given he has nothing to show for in his career so far. The guy has barely played 2 domestic seasons stiched together but has been a regular feature in our international circuit with zero results to show for is hard to justify. The management should bite on their ego and recall Aamir to the team in replace of Rauf. Amir, Shaheen, Hasan, Imad and Faheem still looks like a decent attack on paper than what we fielded today.
I save the last bit for the last i.e. the PCB management. Without doubt our management is utterly clueless when it comes to tactics. Any school coach would have better plans and implementation that them. I was surprised when the tactics did not even change slightly from 1st match till 3rd match. Let me point out to some glaring brainless tactical blunders.
- Idea of wicket: Clearly the management by 10th over today should have figured out that this is a great batting track where even 350 can be chased down (was chased by England last time Pakistan played in UK, the management should have been aware of that). Yet there was no leader to take that decision, it was only Rizwan that when he came to bat he assessed this to be a very good pitch and accelerated well with Babar.
- Bowling tactics: In recent past our strength have been using spinners in powerplay especially to players like Salt who likes pace on bowl. I'm surprised that no one went down this route and partly its also because Shadab can't be trusted with new ball.
- Field placements - When we have Shadab then why do we need Imam at point? Why Sohaib at long on?
Misbah unfortunately has not developed his tactics with fast paced world of cricket and is stuck somewhere in early 2000s. By now it should be very clear that Waqar is far from anything but a coach. The guy was supremely but naturally talented so as a cricketer when Waqar placed so much reliance on his natural ability then how would he coach someone new? It beggars belief that we still have Waqar in coaching stints given his past record. Lastly, who is our fielding coach?
I know PCB would not sack Misbah of the back of this series. But plans should be put in place that Misbah is replaced after the WT20 this year giving the new coach a full year before next WT20 and also next WC to put his best XI together. If it was up to me I would like to see discussions happening with Andy Flower to bring him to the helm after WT20.
Firstly, its very clear by now that for Pakistan to win any game it needs its 3 premier players all of whom needs to have a good game (i.e. Babar, Rizwan and Shaheen). If one of them does not live up to their billing most likely Pakistan would not win.
Lets start with the batting and the top order. This is arguably the best top order Pakistan can muster and arguably the best top 4 in its long history of playing cricket. This is the best aspect of this XI and yes they had 2 off games where they underestimated Saqib Mehmood or were simply switched off but on most days this top order is good enough by Pakistani standards.
Now the middle and late order. Sohaib Maqsood / Asif Ali, they both are of same fold type cricketers and basically every strong team needs one such type of player. Usually this player is the one who has nerves of steel and can see through a tight or difficult chase. In this aspect Sohaib is better than Asif as he has shown some stellar performances in chasing impossible scores in domestic recently. Hence, I'm happy with Sohaib's inclusion into the team.
Saud Shakeel needs to be replaced with Haris Sohail. If Haris is unfit then we need to find a similar mold player from domestics. At the moment no player name springs to mind for this position.
Shadab and Faheem should only play test cricket in SENA together. Unfortunately they are not good enough or reliable enough for ODIs. Imad is seriously way better than Shadab. I for one feel if Imad would have been opening the bowling in this series then we might have got their top order in some sort of problems. Faheem needs to improve his defensive bowling or needs to be replaced by someone like Amad Butt. At the moment Faheem is better than replacements but I really hope he learns the art of defensive bowling.
On bowling now, clearly Shaheen did not had a good series. When Shaheen does not bowl well Pakistan generally struggles in bowling. Its very evident that they over rely on Shaheen already. But my biggest concern is Haris Rauf. Haris does not deserve to play such consistent international cricket given he has nothing to show for in his career so far. The guy has barely played 2 domestic seasons stiched together but has been a regular feature in our international circuit with zero results to show for is hard to justify. The management should bite on their ego and recall Aamir to the team in replace of Rauf. Amir, Shaheen, Hasan, Imad and Faheem still looks like a decent attack on paper than what we fielded today.
I save the last bit for the last i.e. the PCB management. Without doubt our management is utterly clueless when it comes to tactics. Any school coach would have better plans and implementation that them. I was surprised when the tactics did not even change slightly from 1st match till 3rd match. Let me point out to some glaring brainless tactical blunders.
- Idea of wicket: Clearly the management by 10th over today should have figured out that this is a great batting track where even 350 can be chased down (was chased by England last time Pakistan played in UK, the management should have been aware of that). Yet there was no leader to take that decision, it was only Rizwan that when he came to bat he assessed this to be a very good pitch and accelerated well with Babar.
- Bowling tactics: In recent past our strength have been using spinners in powerplay especially to players like Salt who likes pace on bowl. I'm surprised that no one went down this route and partly its also because Shadab can't be trusted with new ball.
- Field placements - When we have Shadab then why do we need Imam at point? Why Sohaib at long on?
Misbah unfortunately has not developed his tactics with fast paced world of cricket and is stuck somewhere in early 2000s. By now it should be very clear that Waqar is far from anything but a coach. The guy was supremely but naturally talented so as a cricketer when Waqar placed so much reliance on his natural ability then how would he coach someone new? It beggars belief that we still have Waqar in coaching stints given his past record. Lastly, who is our fielding coach?
I know PCB would not sack Misbah of the back of this series. But plans should be put in place that Misbah is replaced after the WT20 this year giving the new coach a full year before next WT20 and also next WC to put his best XI together. If it was up to me I would like to see discussions happening with Andy Flower to bring him to the helm after WT20.
Best top 4 ever. 
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