Mamoon
ATG
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2012
- Runs
- 102,922
- Post of the Week
- 12
These are the situations in which we need Umar Akmal in this line up.
at 253/5, we need someone like Umar Akmal to keep the scoring rate going and play a nice little cameo.
But tomorrow, barring a miracle (which I'm hoping for badly), we will be all out around the 300 mark.
At the most 320.
All the good work will go to waste because 300 on this track isn't enough unless we bowl magically.
With better planning and strategy, we could have touched 400.
Why? Sarfraz with his sensational average of 2 will poke around the off stump like a rabbit caught in headlights and will eventually become another Steyn victim.
Shafiq will eventually run out of partners and will be left stranded.
Every major test team has an aggressor in the lower order to capitalize on situations like this. Except for Pakistan.
England - Matt Prior
Australia - Wade
SA - Duminy (though injured at the moment), Du Plessis
SL - Mathews, Perera
NZ - Colin Munro
The batsmen I have mentioned don't need to be sloggers and aren't. For instance, Du Plessis played one of the finest test innings of the year against Australia in the second test back in November but, he is an aggressive player with ODI strike rate of 87 who can accelerate when required.
He will score quite a few run a ball fifties and even hundreds in tests.
A successful team is all about the right balance.
Too much of anything will be harmful for the team.
Look at our middle order/late order,
Azhar
Younis
Misbah
Azhar
Sarfraz
All of them are slow one paced batsmen who will struggle to score a run a ball half century or a hundred which is so often needed in tests especially the second innings, like the way AB played in the last match.
Now Younis does score quickly after settling in and Shafiq does too but they will never be able to score a 50 or a 70 with a strike rate in excess of 75-80.
There is a reason why all of the teams have deployed these batsmen in the number 5/6 positions. They are not the finest batsmen in the country, many better test players are sitting on the sidelines because of them with better FC averages, but they are playing for one reason only- the one I've mentioned already
The solution to this problem is Umar Akmal.
Yes he has his failures and always will have, but he will score regular fifties at a great strike rate like he does in ODIs and that is all he is required in the role he deserves to occupy.
if you argue that will increase the chances of us collapsing in a heap, well to remind you, with a such an excessive defensive minded lineup, we still got bundled out for 49. If you collapse with 4 defensive middle orders, so be it. There is no solution for that.
How would Umar Akmal fit in this team? That is up to the think tank but IMO, Misbah should make way.
Shafiq is ready to take over the anchor role at no 5, leaving no 6 for Umar Akmal.
He has already had as many hundreds in the last 1.5 years as Misbah has all career.
Misbah is a very limited batsman who can't kick on after a 50 odd. That is not good enough. The excuse for him not scoring even a single ODI hundred is that he bats too low but what is the excuse of his lack of test hundreds? simple. He ain't good enough for that and we have upcoming batsmen like Haris Sohail, Usman Salahuddin who can fit in at no 4 and let Younis Khan drop to no 5 or so as well who will be entering into the last few years of his career which will add much more stability to our middle order than it presently has.
Misbah has a good average but that isn't an average. It reflects exactly what he does, get a 40-50 every innings. Nothing less, nothing more.
it would be much rather appreciable if he gets a few single digit scores here and there but also gets a big hundred along with which he doesn't. Something Younis does and that is why he is so important to the team and has an average in excess of 50.
This is slowly turning into a Misbah bashing thread but that isn't the intention.
I've made my points clear.
at 253/5, we need someone like Umar Akmal to keep the scoring rate going and play a nice little cameo.
But tomorrow, barring a miracle (which I'm hoping for badly), we will be all out around the 300 mark.
At the most 320.
All the good work will go to waste because 300 on this track isn't enough unless we bowl magically.
With better planning and strategy, we could have touched 400.
Why? Sarfraz with his sensational average of 2 will poke around the off stump like a rabbit caught in headlights and will eventually become another Steyn victim.
Shafiq will eventually run out of partners and will be left stranded.
Every major test team has an aggressor in the lower order to capitalize on situations like this. Except for Pakistan.
England - Matt Prior
Australia - Wade
SA - Duminy (though injured at the moment), Du Plessis
SL - Mathews, Perera
NZ - Colin Munro
The batsmen I have mentioned don't need to be sloggers and aren't. For instance, Du Plessis played one of the finest test innings of the year against Australia in the second test back in November but, he is an aggressive player with ODI strike rate of 87 who can accelerate when required.
He will score quite a few run a ball fifties and even hundreds in tests.
A successful team is all about the right balance.
Too much of anything will be harmful for the team.
Look at our middle order/late order,
Azhar
Younis
Misbah
Azhar
Sarfraz
All of them are slow one paced batsmen who will struggle to score a run a ball half century or a hundred which is so often needed in tests especially the second innings, like the way AB played in the last match.
Now Younis does score quickly after settling in and Shafiq does too but they will never be able to score a 50 or a 70 with a strike rate in excess of 75-80.
There is a reason why all of the teams have deployed these batsmen in the number 5/6 positions. They are not the finest batsmen in the country, many better test players are sitting on the sidelines because of them with better FC averages, but they are playing for one reason only- the one I've mentioned already
The solution to this problem is Umar Akmal.
Yes he has his failures and always will have, but he will score regular fifties at a great strike rate like he does in ODIs and that is all he is required in the role he deserves to occupy.
if you argue that will increase the chances of us collapsing in a heap, well to remind you, with a such an excessive defensive minded lineup, we still got bundled out for 49. If you collapse with 4 defensive middle orders, so be it. There is no solution for that.
How would Umar Akmal fit in this team? That is up to the think tank but IMO, Misbah should make way.
Shafiq is ready to take over the anchor role at no 5, leaving no 6 for Umar Akmal.
He has already had as many hundreds in the last 1.5 years as Misbah has all career.
Misbah is a very limited batsman who can't kick on after a 50 odd. That is not good enough. The excuse for him not scoring even a single ODI hundred is that he bats too low but what is the excuse of his lack of test hundreds? simple. He ain't good enough for that and we have upcoming batsmen like Haris Sohail, Usman Salahuddin who can fit in at no 4 and let Younis Khan drop to no 5 or so as well who will be entering into the last few years of his career which will add much more stability to our middle order than it presently has.
Misbah has a good average but that isn't an average. It reflects exactly what he does, get a 40-50 every innings. Nothing less, nothing more.
it would be much rather appreciable if he gets a few single digit scores here and there but also gets a big hundred along with which he doesn't. Something Younis does and that is why he is so important to the team and has an average in excess of 50.
This is slowly turning into a Misbah bashing thread but that isn't the intention.
I've made my points clear.
Last edited:
nvir
destroyed our pathetic batting in the fourth innings.
