Hus
Tape Ball Regular
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2010
- Runs
- 338
1) Never send a nightwatchman:
This is something that most middle to lower tier test teams are guilty of. In Pakistans case there has never been confidence in the number 3-4 batsmen to play out 4-5 overs at the end of the day. The players themselves dont step up and go to the captain or coach and say Hey! I can weather these last few deliveries. Trust me and let me do my job. Nooooo! I cant imagine a single player utter those words in a Pakistan dressing room in our history. No coach or captain has ever been aggressive enough to dare believe in their abilities either (unfortunately for us probably to good reason). For the remainder of the teams you rarely win a match when you front that mindset. Teams smell blood and they come harder after you the following day.
2) Never enforce a follow on:
Hear me out. It gives you lots of brownie points with your fan base winning from positions of strength but I believe in todays day and age you have to look after your premier fast bowlers. Once you get a team out on subpar score youve bowled probably close to 40 overs if not more which is usually the case. When thats happened youre preparing to bowl another 100 overs because seldom do teams roll over twice in a row. That means the faster men might be overworked which also hurts more when you have more test matches coming up. Always take the bat to the ground, give your bowlers a session or two to put their legs up and gather some steam before giving it another go while batsmen deflate the other side for future encounters.
3) Bowling first in test matches isnt the brightest idea:
This is especially true for the touring side. Most of these decisions are based off of the fact that a) the pitch looks green or b) the weather looks bowler friendly. Theres two problems with this. One, those are unpredictable factors that youre banking on instead of believing in your abilities to in all likelihood do the right thing and put a task for the other team to overcome. Second, youll be chasing in that fourth inning. When you go on tours you better have a darn good batting side to chase scores over 200 runs. I remember there was a test match a good 12-15 years ago maybe even in Pakistan if I remember correctly where Flintoff was the stand in captain I think and when he chose batting and was asked why he said and Im paraphrasing here that the pitch would have to be knee deep in grass for me to elect to bowl first in a test match. Nothing to do entirely with my point above but Id guess trailing or catching up in sports cant help.
Of course some, maybe many of you will be disagree with some or all of the above but not only would I love to hear why, Id also love to hear what you think is an unpopular opinion in cricket but players or sides dont seem to recognize it costing them something or the other in games. Sportsmen who break the mold can change things. Those who cant dare to can never rise. Have at it!
This is something that most middle to lower tier test teams are guilty of. In Pakistans case there has never been confidence in the number 3-4 batsmen to play out 4-5 overs at the end of the day. The players themselves dont step up and go to the captain or coach and say Hey! I can weather these last few deliveries. Trust me and let me do my job. Nooooo! I cant imagine a single player utter those words in a Pakistan dressing room in our history. No coach or captain has ever been aggressive enough to dare believe in their abilities either (unfortunately for us probably to good reason). For the remainder of the teams you rarely win a match when you front that mindset. Teams smell blood and they come harder after you the following day.
2) Never enforce a follow on:
Hear me out. It gives you lots of brownie points with your fan base winning from positions of strength but I believe in todays day and age you have to look after your premier fast bowlers. Once you get a team out on subpar score youve bowled probably close to 40 overs if not more which is usually the case. When thats happened youre preparing to bowl another 100 overs because seldom do teams roll over twice in a row. That means the faster men might be overworked which also hurts more when you have more test matches coming up. Always take the bat to the ground, give your bowlers a session or two to put their legs up and gather some steam before giving it another go while batsmen deflate the other side for future encounters.
3) Bowling first in test matches isnt the brightest idea:
This is especially true for the touring side. Most of these decisions are based off of the fact that a) the pitch looks green or b) the weather looks bowler friendly. Theres two problems with this. One, those are unpredictable factors that youre banking on instead of believing in your abilities to in all likelihood do the right thing and put a task for the other team to overcome. Second, youll be chasing in that fourth inning. When you go on tours you better have a darn good batting side to chase scores over 200 runs. I remember there was a test match a good 12-15 years ago maybe even in Pakistan if I remember correctly where Flintoff was the stand in captain I think and when he chose batting and was asked why he said and Im paraphrasing here that the pitch would have to be knee deep in grass for me to elect to bowl first in a test match. Nothing to do entirely with my point above but Id guess trailing or catching up in sports cant help.
Of course some, maybe many of you will be disagree with some or all of the above but not only would I love to hear why, Id also love to hear what you think is an unpopular opinion in cricket but players or sides dont seem to recognize it costing them something or the other in games. Sportsmen who break the mold can change things. Those who cant dare to can never rise. Have at it!
