hafizexpress
Local Club Star
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- Aug 14, 2013
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I know that I will get a lot of criticism here for the title of the thread alone. I haven't seen many people left here that support Amir, and neither do I to be very honest -- he doesn't deserve to be in the team on merit but I do sympathize for him and wanted to express some of my thoughts here.
In today's cricket, and in any era anywhere, a player would have to perform exceptionally well in domestic cricket to even be considered for national selection. Amir, however, hadn't played even domestic cricket let alone international cricket for 5 whole years, and was fast-tracked into the national team. In addition to that, upon his comeback in test cricket, he had about 16 catches dropped off his bowling within a couple of series. 16 is no mere number, especially when we're talking about dropped catches, and that too off one bowler. Some of those proved to be very costly. That figure alone could devastate and demotivate any bowler, and more so for a man who had been out for so long and had just dramatically returned to bowling to world-class batsmen. Had Pakistan even taken most of those catches, his figures would give him a different outlook and personal confidence.
Even restoring a sufficient fitness level enough to play international cricket is a big task, and the management did not handle him well at all. Bowled him to the ground in all formats of the game. I believe there was a statistic in one of those late 2010s where he had the record for the most balls bowled by a bowler, which is insane considering he went from not playing competitive cricket for 5 years to becoming the spearhead of an international bowling attack and bowling the most deliveries being a fast bowler. No wonder his pace significantly decreased in the last few years.
It is amazing how he still managed to make records and bowl phenomenally at times. He holds the record for the most dot balls in a t20i game (21 dot balls I believe). He turned up in tournaments such as the Asia Cup where he was swinging the ball both ways at 145+ kmh; the 2017 CT which speaks for itself, and the 2019 world cup where he was Pakistan's best bowler and one of the tournament's leading wicket takers. I understand that in bilateral series and more often than not outside of ICC events, Amir had been underwhelming at times, but when I consider some of the factors I mentioned, I can see why he couldn't reach a higher feat in his career.
I know I will get a lot of flack for this post, but I genuinely think that Amir could've been handled better and that he could have had more to contribute to Pakistan cricket, in addition to what he has already accomplished. I expect to see comments saying how he should be lucky that he even got a chance to play again, or that he acts self-entitled, or that he's a crybaby etc etc. He served the ban given to him. The fans can't choose the length of his ban so all he can do is deal with what's given to him by the board and higher ups. I agree that he can complain a lot sometimes, but I am strictly looking at everything here from a cricket point of view and him as a cricketer. In conclusion, I feel like he could've done more.
In today's cricket, and in any era anywhere, a player would have to perform exceptionally well in domestic cricket to even be considered for national selection. Amir, however, hadn't played even domestic cricket let alone international cricket for 5 whole years, and was fast-tracked into the national team. In addition to that, upon his comeback in test cricket, he had about 16 catches dropped off his bowling within a couple of series. 16 is no mere number, especially when we're talking about dropped catches, and that too off one bowler. Some of those proved to be very costly. That figure alone could devastate and demotivate any bowler, and more so for a man who had been out for so long and had just dramatically returned to bowling to world-class batsmen. Had Pakistan even taken most of those catches, his figures would give him a different outlook and personal confidence.
Even restoring a sufficient fitness level enough to play international cricket is a big task, and the management did not handle him well at all. Bowled him to the ground in all formats of the game. I believe there was a statistic in one of those late 2010s where he had the record for the most balls bowled by a bowler, which is insane considering he went from not playing competitive cricket for 5 years to becoming the spearhead of an international bowling attack and bowling the most deliveries being a fast bowler. No wonder his pace significantly decreased in the last few years.
It is amazing how he still managed to make records and bowl phenomenally at times. He holds the record for the most dot balls in a t20i game (21 dot balls I believe). He turned up in tournaments such as the Asia Cup where he was swinging the ball both ways at 145+ kmh; the 2017 CT which speaks for itself, and the 2019 world cup where he was Pakistan's best bowler and one of the tournament's leading wicket takers. I understand that in bilateral series and more often than not outside of ICC events, Amir had been underwhelming at times, but when I consider some of the factors I mentioned, I can see why he couldn't reach a higher feat in his career.
I know I will get a lot of flack for this post, but I genuinely think that Amir could've been handled better and that he could have had more to contribute to Pakistan cricket, in addition to what he has already accomplished. I expect to see comments saying how he should be lucky that he even got a chance to play again, or that he acts self-entitled, or that he's a crybaby etc etc. He served the ban given to him. The fans can't choose the length of his ban so all he can do is deal with what's given to him by the board and higher ups. I agree that he can complain a lot sometimes, but I am strictly looking at everything here from a cricket point of view and him as a cricketer. In conclusion, I feel like he could've done more.
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