Seems you're spewing a lot of negativity throughout these forums, repeating pretty much the same rhetoric for other top talents like Saim.
Not sure why being 'short' is an issue, but anyhow if you'd watched Haris bat you'd realise he's anything but powerless. He has immense bat speed and reflexes allowing him to hit 6s with ease. Being 'small' in stature doesn't necessarily result in lack of power.
Could you please enlighten us as to the better options out there?
‘Spewing’…hmm..let’s keep this civil. I’d suggest you look at your team’s performances in all formats recently, absolutely hopeless, the ‘negativity’, as you put it, is entirely justified. Should we be positive about losing to everybody, including a war-torn neighbour with no infrastructure, let alone cricketing infrastructure?
The jury is out on Saim, he’s certainly being pushed by some and I think it’s somewhat premature.
I’ve said it before to others and I’ll say it again, desist from the condescension, I’ve watched more cricket than you could ever dream of. As for the relevance of ‘short’:
A short batsman has a number of problems compared to an equally-capable taller batsman. Firstly, the shorter batsman doesn’t have the same mass or length of levers to get as much power into their shot, they therefore have to go further into their range of power by making a greater effort to hit the ball harder (by swinging harder/faster) or by having to run down the wicket to get more momentum into the shot or employing a higher backlift to get the ball the same distance as a taller batsman, they are, therefore, more likely to lose their form and lose control of the shot and hence lose their wicket. This lack of leverage is compounded by their lack of (fitness-induced) mass which is also a key component of hitting power. This is a fine example of why the western coaching manual methodology works for the western sides, but is so detrimental to your own and why you should exercise caution when employing their metrics. They are taller on average and are predisposed to having a higher lean muscle mass. Reducing weight through excessive fitness training for those who are predisposed to having higher body fat and lower muscle mass will result in a more detrimental loss of muscle mass.
Secondly, the shorter batsman will, of course, have a shorter stride. Pakistani batsman have, over the years, employed limited footwork, they tend not to get to the pitch of the ball and negate movement of the ball, resulting in greater likelihood of dismissal, particularly in conditions where lateral movement is on offer. A forward stride from a short batsman, even if they attempt to employ the forward press, for example, may not be sufficient to get to the pitch of the ball and therein lies the problem.
Thirdly, and given the propensity for current western bowlers to be on the tall side, a short batsman is likely to be playing a normal length delivery in the corridor outside off from such a bowler from above their waist and with little room to free their arms and hence their scoring opportunities, without taking risks, are far more limited. A taller batsman would have no such problem or certainly not to the same extent, hence why you see short batsman relatively unable to get on top of the ball, play the ball on the ground etc…and why you see such batsman so readily caught behind or the ball spooning up in the air when attempting a cut, pull or hook. They simply won’t have the same level of control over the shot, the ability to get on top of the ball and play it safely nor the same opportunity to score. I’m sure you’ve seen Pakistan play and have wondered at times why, particularly when they play the western teams, they go through phases where they look they’re about to collapse at any given moment and seem incapable of scoring runs like many other teams. This is why.
Whilst the majority of batsman will, and should be, on the average to taller side, there will always be exceptions like Brian Lara or Saeed Anwar whose hand-eye coordination, reflexes, timing, methodology, power and ability to see the ball and pick the length early are so exceptional that they counteract their physical deficiencies and can get away with cutting, hooking and pulling all day, playing with safety, risky shots for other short batsman, but they are the exception for short batsman, not the rule.
I’ve seen enough of Haris to know that, as things currently stand, he’ll be garbage in the medium-long term in international cricket. He’s a leg-side hack of the most extreme kind. He has no power, he just uses the the pace of the ball on the leg-side. Tie him up just outside off, even with a spinner and don’t give him room to free his arms and he’s hopeless. I’m slightly more on the fence somewhat with Saim, I’m worried that when he has to play in test match mode he may well fail, he doesn’t seem to know where his off stump is nor does he seem to have a natural off-side game.
As for other options, I’ve made my thought on that clear in the bench strength thread, you’ve had numerous potential world-class batsman appear in recent years and have ruined virtually all of them. In fact, you should have had what is comfortably the best side in the world, but your domestic coaches don’t know what they’re doing.
