I don’t know why but I feel with Shadab you are just jealous of him you don’t wanna kick out any other player it’s funny you said that cause he struck as soon as he came into the attack otherwise it would have been over way before
I am not competing with Shadab for a place in the national team. On what basis will I be jealous?
My problem is with the notion that Shadab is indispensable and somehow vital a component of our attack. However, that is not true at all.
He averages almost 40 with the ball against India, England, New Zealand and South Africa. He is not a good enough batsman to bat in the top-order, and neither is he a good enough hitter to bat in the lower-order.
The only thing he is great at is fielding, but there is no point in carrying a specialist fielder when you are not good enough with bat or ball.
Shadab has been given the golden boy treatment because of his rapid rise. He starred in PSL 2017, made an early impression against a weak West Indies team on turning tracks, before becoming a part of the Champions Trophy winning team which elevated him to stardom, especially with that Yuvraj review which made him very popular.
Nonetheless, underneath all the bling, glamor and showboating, he is a mediocre player which is not remotely good enough to be a frontline spinner. Even in the PSL, he has struggled over the last two editions because his googly has been found out and his leg break is about as effective as Azhar Ali’s or David Warner’s.
He is a good three levels below the best ODI spinners like Rashid Khan, Kuldeep, Tahir and Chahal. There are very few teams that he would get into, and Afghanistan is certainly not one of them.
If any of those bowlers including Mujeeb were to play for Pakistan, we would not have been losing left and right in the last two years.
People talk about the decline of our fast bowling, but the biggest weakness in our team at the moment, and it has been the case for many years now, is the absence of a genuine wicket-taking spinner.
When your so-called main spinner averages almost 40 against the top sides, nothing more needs to be said about the quality of your spin bowling.
Ideally, only one of Shadab or Imad need to play, and they have to partnered by a specialist, quality spinner. I prefer Imad because he bats better.
If Shadab continues to be our main spinner, we will continue to lose more often than not. Pakistan want to jump on the wrist-spinner bandwagon who have tasted a lot of success in recent years, but there is no point when your options are not good enough.
Shadab is severely undercooked and needs to go back to F/C cricket and put in the hard yards. He is being played too much but he is not ready.
He needs to bowl long spells in domestic cricket, work on his leg break, develop bowling discipline and composure, and perhaps stake a claim to replace the aging Yasir in a few years. If we continue to masquerade him as our frontline spinner Limited Overs, his career will be over soon.
Pakistan needs to give more chances to spinners like Gohar and Asghar who are less flashy but have stronger basics. Their stock deliveries are better developed and are less gimmicky.
