Well, that turned out worse than anyone expected.
When bowling on a flat pitch, you can't give boundary balls to established batsmen just like how a restaurant wouldn't give you two sandwiches if you ordered one, they'd be at a loss. When you do bowl boundary balls on a flat pitch, what you do is give the batsman an incentive to target you and become much more proactive, so the mindset changes from defending everything and playing it safe to looking for runs and creating scoring opportunities, which is dangerous on a flat pitch. However, I think that our bowlers did well to create chances and put pressure, but our fielding was attrocious yet again. You cannot take 20 wickets if you don't hold onto catches, it is a simple explanation. It is something that has led to our greatest downfall in test cricket, the lack of awareness for runouts and pathetic fielding standards. Get a coach right now because we're headed straight into trouble if we cannot reduce the mistakes in the outfield.
When a spinner is bowling overseas, there are three fundamental things to follow: Never bowl straight, always bowl at "that length" where the batsman has to come forward or stay back, and never bowl unnecessary variations. I didn't really see any of Zafar's bowling, so if someone could tell me if he did follow these rules or if he just got unlucky with poor fielding.
Moving onto Naseem, he's hardly an adult yet. He has been told to shorten his runup which has ruined him as a bowler, and it's sad to see that whoever told him this made a potential star into a measly factory style bowler. His lengths were off, and frankly, he doesn't have the same pace he had before to trouble batsmen with short stuff, so I guess he really brings nothing to the table now. Whoever told him to shorten his runup needs to get admitted into a psychological institution.
Shaheen's workload is insanely high, and he needs some rest as soon as possible. He's genuinely trying to be the best he can, but he rarely gets support from the other bowlers, which is sad. He needs to be around quality bowlers so that he can develop, and he also needs to go back to FC Cricket to get some experience in line/length bowling with the new ball, because his lengths early in the innings were very questionable.
Abbas has never looked more toothless in his life, at some stages, Shan Masood looked more threatening than Abbas, and that's just sad. For a senior bowler to be operating in the low 120kph is just sad, and honestly, we might be better off making Shan into a quick given that he bowls around 117kph. I am at a loss of words as to why Abbas does not bring the keeper up and why he can't improve his pace. Look at his action, he's gone for full replicability and accuracy as opposed to being a wicket taking threat. He doesn't even put effort into putting pace in the delivery, his back never bends, and that's just sad.
As an all-rounder, Faheem bowled pretty well and was looking threatening when he got the ball to seam back a bit. He should be the first change, not Naseem. I've said this before as well, that Naseem makes it much harder for Faheem to make an impact. I actually think that Faheem could play the role of Abbas, because frankly, Abbas is not taking wickets at all. If a batsman is averaging 130 against you when he's standing outside the crease, that should be an automatic suggestion to bring up your pace.
Overall, our fielding and lack of penetration were the reasons we lost, though I have sympathy for our bowlers who didn't get to bowl in the same conditions as the New Zealand bowlers. Weather says it's gonna rain tomorrow and looks like there will be overcast conditions, so that's our best chance.
Shaheen should bowl to Nicholls and if Rizwan comes up, then only Abbas should bowl to Williamson. Otherwise, give Faheem the ball alongside Shaheen.
