Have you run out of any good material that could actually be meaningful? You seem to resort to the word "fluke" in every other post of yours. Now that the team has been performing well, the only thing you can do to get a reaction out of people is to showcase how limited your vocabulary actually is. This faux intellectuality that you try to showcase on here proves that you don't have a clue how competitive sports work.
How else would you like me to describe that spell?
I can list all the synonyms of the f word if you are so tired of hearing it, but the point that I am trying to make is that Junaid has not shown that level again.
He is simply not a strike bowler who can devastate a lineup every now and then. There is a reason why has zero five wicket hauls in ODIs, and that is something that is probably not going to change in the future either.
He is fast medium at best, barely swings the ball and usually bowls back of length because he doesn’t have the pace to bowl short, and if he pitches it up at that pace and lack of movement, he is asking for trouble.
Moreover, he is also prone to getting smashed every now and then. His fitness is also dubious as well.
He had early success in the UAE/Sri Lankan Tests when he reversed the ball, but back then, he was quicker. The numerous knee injuries have taken their toll.
He had a great 2013 where he often picked up wickets without bowling particularly well, but the purple patch went dry around 2014, and he bowled at a very poor level till 2017.
He has been decent for the last year or so, but we have seen the best that he has to offer and it is clear that he will never be a world beater.
Pakistan currently have two young left-arm pacers in Shinwari and Shaheen who appear to have higher ceilings.
They may or may not do justice to that assessment in the future, but their progress should not be stunted because of a bowler who will never be anything special.
I don’t mind Junaid as a reserve option. He can fill in when Amir goes through his usual mood swings and cannot be bothered, or when Hasan is injured and the likes of Shinwari, Shaheen and Abbas etc. are unavailable due to various reasons, but if you are giving Junaid a permanent slot in the playing XI in any format, you are not going to go anywhere as a team.
I know how competitive sports works, and I will explain it to you. In competitive sports, any team can beat any team on a given day, but more often than not, the weaker team will lose.
That is why Pakistan have lost around 80% of the ODI series against the top teams since 2006, and that figure is unlikely to change in the future.
South Africa aside, who are going through a mini crisis, we haven’t really closed the gap between us and the likes of India, England, Australia and New Zealand regardless of what happened over a three game streak in the Champions Trophy.
That is why we were battered 5-0 in New Zealand, and it had nothing to do with losing the Champions Trophy momentum due to the long gap and whatever nonsense excuse that you came up with at that time.
)
