The incredible fighting spirit of this young Pakistan cricket team

[Suleiman]

Yes I know we get caught up in the here and now and want glory asap, but can we take a moment to acknowledge the mentality of champions this team has regardless of circumstance?

We saw a glimpse of it Vs Afghanistan- where we were set to lose but pulled the rabbit out of the hat at the very end.

And again today against a dangerous England outfit chasing a middling score.

This is why it’s important to have young blood in the team. You have the fire in your heart to add another W to the column for your country. It’s no coincidence that this is how we are playing these days once the geriatric older guys (Hafeez and co) have finally vacated their places.

It’s this mentality that allowed us to break the WC streak last year Vs India and tame them in the Asia Cup after we looked in a bit of trouble.

We may not have our middle order sorted out, and may drop dollies- but we are playing like tigers now. Not cornered tigers, but tigers that corner other teams.

This newfound never say die attitude will take us very very far now.

 

[Rana]

They have been blessed a lot by the Almighty

No other explanation. Saqlain is right.

 

[sweep_shot]

I agree that this current bunch are better fighters than previous bunch.

Pakistan haven't played like this since days of Wasim-Waqar.

 

[finalfantasy7]

i was impressed by Iftikhar Ahmed bowling, very tidy - bowled many deliveries to harry brook- could sometimes only take singles.

kushdil i'll replace for fakhar - with england bowling - fakhar should have a decent knock.


usman qadirr didnt even bowl a single delivery what happened got injured?

 

[BreadPakoda]

Golden era of Pak cricket with amazing fighting spirit and some great results. And on the other hand India going through its darkest period in the last 20 years. Who would have thought a few years ago.

 

[Rana]

i was impressed by Iftikhar Ahmed bowling, very tidy - bowled many deliveries to harry brook- could sometimes only take singles.

kushdil i'll replace for fakhar - with england bowling - fakhar should have a decent knock.


usman qadirr didnt even bowl a single delivery what happened got injured?

I said this in the match thread

Iftikhar is the only reliable right arm off spinner in Pakistan for T20 cricket.

He knows how to keep hitting a length at a flat trajectory. I’ve never ever seen anyone get a hold of him!

 

[Kaka4pope]

i was impressed by Iftikhar Ahmed bowling, very tidy - bowled many deliveries to harry brook- could sometimes only take singles.

kushdil i'll replace for fakhar - with england bowling - fakhar should have a decent knock.


usman qadirr didnt even bowl a single delivery what happened got injured?

I don’t think Qadir had the trust of Babar and I can care why, gets it wrong a lot. Shadab be back soon hopefully.

Ifti’s overs were very tidy, pak seems to have an endless supply of all rounders who’s best strength is white ball spin - Hafeez/Malik/Afridi.

Even Fakhar is a tidy bowler, agreed he should come in for kushdil.

It looks too late to test Saim Ayub, or that Mohammad haris will get a serious run in the side, so reckon our best xi for the WC is:

Rizwan
Fakhar (should just go hard in the PP, hit OTT)
Babar (tends to attack after PP anyway)
Haider (can open up offside, needs to play next 3)
Asif (our only real six hitter)
Ifthikar (gives added spin option)
Shadab
Nawaz
Shaheen (Waseem if unfit)
Rauf
Naseem

 

[gazza619]

We make things difficult for ourselves.

There was no reason for Shan to come to bat in the 12th over when a gazillion better strikers were available.

England were struggling against left arm spin so Khushdil should have been tried for at least an over.

Hardly any risks taken by our batters again in the power play. I don’t expect us to be 70 in 6 overs but geez show some intent!

Husnain was bowling against Tail enders and third man was up, can someone explain that to me?

It was a good move to bowl Iftikhar, but guess what it was a forced move because Usman had hurt in right hand finger on the field. Babar does not have the brains to have done this by choice.

I just hope the management focuses on the bad things we did today.

 

[PakLFC]

Our so called fighting spirit will be exposed in Australia next month. I am expected an early flight back home.

 

[Gayle_Force]

I love the fighting spirit but why does our team keep putting itself in such position where this fighting spirit is required.

 

[Suleiman]

i was impressed by Iftikhar Ahmed bowling, very tidy - bowled many deliveries to harry brook- could sometimes only take singles.

kushdil i'll replace for fakhar - with england bowling - fakhar should have a decent knock.

It only reinforces the thought in our minds that Usman was pressured to be selected because of you know what.

Why would you have a bowler in the team in whom you have zero confidence.

Either way, I was even considering moving Ifti down the order further- taking away some of the expectations batting wise and asking him to bowl more- with Asif batting above him and Khushdil and even potentially at 3 if we’ve set a base.

We absolutely have to use this series to experiment with solutions in the areas we are dodgy in.

But yeah Khushdil ideally won’t have a place in the side. 108 SR is criminal, Fakhar will have to pull up his boots and slot in.

 

[MenInG]

Our so called fighting spirit will be exposed in Australia next month. I am expected an early flight back home.

Do you know how many people said that when we went to UAE for the T20 WC?

 

[PakLFC]

Do you know how many people said that when we went to UAE for the T20 WC?

The team we had then would have been much different. We were fortunate enough to be without Khushdil, Nawaz and Shan Masood then i believe?.

 

[Suleiman]

Lowest score ever in t20s in Gaddafi stadium defended. Debutant allrounder successfully defending the total against a bonafide trailblazer in Moeen Ali.

The fighting spirit continues to burn bright.

 

[bujhee kom]

Batting is pants, bowling is mercurial but gifted as anything. Heart is there. Good signs.

 

[Shaddy86]

Shadab brings a lot to this team. His presence whether it's with the bat, ball, fielding makes a lot of difference but I reckon tactically he's much superior to Babar and he reads the game very well for his age.

 

[Saj]

I'm enjoying the effort and performances of several of the players at the moment, but let's not ignore the weaknesses.

The batting is terrible and so reliant on Rizwan and Babar that it's almost embarrassing if both of them are out early.

About time other batters stepped up.

 

[Fenrir]

The two run out didn’t help.A score of 165-170 would have been hard to chase in this wicket.England tactics were wrong.146 should have been easy for England.

 

[Bhaijaan]

Have to admire this, despite playing without Rauf and Naseem, they’re fighting this hard. Taking it all the way down.

 

[Saj]

Worryingly looking a bit jaded and short of confidence.

A few injuries, a few players lacking form.

Not great signs ahead of the World Cup.

 

[Ali T]

Worryingly looking a bit jaded and short of confidence.

A few injuries, a few players lacking form.

Not great signs ahead of the World Cup.

Yes agree.
Even against India the bowlers were looking a bit lethargic.
Batsmen seem to be struggling against spin.
Good thing is our catching has been on point except for the Rizwan drop.

To be fair to Pakistan, the bowl was doing a lot first half of the Sri Lankan innings and rest of the game was pretty batting friendly.

In that respect we did well.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

Looked very disjointed and out of sorts Pak today.

 

[JattMaula]

Youngsta beauties fought till the end.

 

[Bhaijaan]

They fought till the end like true Shaheens.

 

[hoshiarpurexpress]

only team in the world which produce a fighting performance despite losing two main fast bowlers.. who are top class.

 

[SportsWarrior]

only team in the world which produce a fighting performance despite losing two main fast bowlers.. who are top class.

SL was without their main bowlers too..

 

[jnaveen1980]

Ifti is the one who gave some life to this match thanks to Srilanka's implosion talent

 

[shokz1408]

It was disappointing but I don’t feel as bad because Sri Lanka were cruising for the most part. Great fight back by the boys, looking forward to seeing more of zaman. The only worrying thing our part time spinner in Iftikhar looked more threatening than the frontline spinners. It’s good Ifti is performing with bat and ball, but Shadab and Nawaz don’t have a great wickets column.

 

[Cricket Warrior]

I think they should have piciked Dahani instead of Muhammad Waseem, this lad is doing nothing for the good.

 

[hoshiarpurexpress]

SL was without their main bowlers too..

yes but here we had Zaman on debut and Wasim Jr playing there first match in the most pressure scenario and they almost pulled it off. Credit where due !! Pakistan is a true land of fast bowlers.

 

[Anupam]

It was more of a choke job on the part of Sri Lankans which brought the game close and not because of any inspired performance from Pakistan. 30 runs to get off 30 balls with 7 wickets in hand on a flat track, they should have won comfortably but they made a meal out of the chase.

 

[PakLFC]

The resistance came from the bowlers. The batsmen failed as always where as a top class fielding side would have saved about ten runs. Babar the captain looked lost a lost puppy on the field with no control over his troops.

 

[GLORY OF '92]

Lol SL tried hard to lose. Our fielding was a joke we gifted about 20 runs.

 

[Visaal-E-Yaar]

Lol SL tried hard to lose. Our fielding was a joke we gifted about 20 runs.

3 run out chances, dropped by rizwan this is where we lost

 

[PakLFC]

Lol SL tried hard to lose. Our fielding was a joke we gifted about 20 runs.

Some posters here will tell you if we had not given away those 20 runs then perhaps a player would have suffered a fatal injury Great logic.

 

[shamaan]

Sri Lanka should have won easily but they gifted them the wickets.