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"We feel right now that we can win Test matches with our fast-bowling" : Azhar Ali

Abdullah719

T20I Captain
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Apr 16, 2013
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Azhar Ali at a press conference ahead of the first Test against Bangladesh:

"Every Test match in the Test Championship is important. It's a split series but credit to both boards that at least this series is happening, we'll try to adapt. For now we'll focus on the 1st Test, then look to the 2nd one when it comes.

"I am not satisfied with my performances specially as a player over the last year or so. But the good thing is that hitting a century in the last match has given me a lot of confidence. I made runs in FC also this season so I will try to continue that. Test matches happen after intervals so it's not easy to carry on form but I will focus on my batting and try to continue from the last Test.

"We want to try to use mostly the same combination of the last Test but we will try to adapt to the conditions of Rawalpindi. Pindi always has conditions for results so I am hopeful that if we play our best game, we'll get a positive result.

"It's a good sign that teams are coming to Pakistan and that PSL will be held in Pakistan. The message is going to the world that it's safe to play cricket in Pakistan. Confidence will keep developing and many foreign players are coming for PSL which will send out a great message.

"We have a new pace bowling attack and from Australia till now, the way they have improved is a great sign. I said that we need to give the new attack some time but the way they have taken up the responsibility is heartening. We will back them, they are the bowlers we have and it's an excellent attack. We will rely on them to win us matches.

"There are some PSL matches here, Pindi always gets good crowds. I am hopeful that the way people came for the last day of the SL Test will be replicated and people turn up for the match tomorrow and then PSL as well going forward.

"Test matches aren't easy to win, we are just focusing on playing our best game and we aren't taking Bangladesh lightly. They don't have some of their senior players but they still have players who can deliver match-winning performances. From the start, we'll try to play our A game.

"Potential-wise, Pakistan team is excellent at the moment. But I won't say we are better or worse than anyone. Only those teams win who perform well in the ground. If we're better in any aspect, we have to show that through performances.

"Fawad is in the squad on the basis of his performances and ability. All members in the squad can be in the playing XI at any time. Whenever he plays, I think he will perform. Not only Fawad, but everyone is the same and they're looking to perform when given a chance.

(Is Faheem in the squad due to the England tour) "Definitely, going forward we have to look at the cricket we play overseas. The way we're developing our bowling attack as well, we're looking at a few things. We're not in the ideal situation where we want a pace-bowling all-rounder who can support us overseas as a fourth seamer. When you play overseas then sometimes you need that fourth seamer to better balance the bowling attack. Three pacers can get tired quickly. We're also thinking about the conditions we're trying to develop in Pakistan where wickets offer some help for pacers so here also we may sometimes need a fourth seamer. We want to make the ideal combination that can help us when we go to Eng, SA, Aus so that we have all-rounders who can support us. We'll see wherever we can utilise these players and include them in the playing XI.

"Bangladesh can be a competitive side and they can surprise you so we aren't taking them lightly. They have match-winners in their team. We have the opportunity to win Tests at home so we'll try our best.

"Home Tests are played according to your strengths. Currently, we feel that our fast-bowling is a threat for the opposition so we're trying to have pitches that can support our fast-bowlers and that we win Tests with fast-bowling. Yes, this will also help us when we go to places like England. But home Tests are played according to your own strengths. If you feel you can defeat the other team with spin then you make turning wickets. We feel right now that we can win Test matches with our fast-bowling.

"Bangladesh are missing a couple of key players. We have an upper hand due to home advantage and current form but we have to apply that in the middle. Nothing is won off the field so we have to do it on the field."
 
Against weak lineups sure, but we saw what the much revered new found pace battery did in Australia.

They managed to keep the best Test batsman in the world quiet because....they couldn’t get the top 3 dismissed.

Shaheen is the only one who can be considered someone who is on the brink of becoming world class.

Musa is average, Abbas has been found out, and Naseem is decent but he is roughly the same age as Shaheen but far behind him in terms of development.

However, PCB have successfully managed to hype him by pretending that he is 16 year old, and thus some bowling version of Tendulkar who is Test class at the age of 16.

India, Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand and even West Indies have more impressive pace attacks and I don’t see it changing in the next few years.

With Yasir on the decline, Pakistan actually has one of the worst bowling attacks at the moment.
 
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In the last 2 years, Azhar Ali has played 8 Tests outside Asia.

In those 8 Tests he averaged 12.12.

This man has no right to still play Test cricket.
 
Against Asian sides yes with conditions favouring pacers. For others I think having some spin in the wickets might be a good approach.
 
Show some patience. How many tests have Naseem and Shaheen played? Abbas has not been ‘found out’. He was out of form and mismanaged in Australia, which, anyway, was one series. You have ignored his performances in England and in the UAE. Even if he is a conditions bowler (and this has not been proven yet) and better at testing batsmen out on the front foot, he is a match winner in those conditions.

Let’s do a case study to test your supposed ‘impartial’ analysis - lol! If Philander was Pakistani, what do the rest of you think [MENTION=131701]Mamoon[/MENTION] would have said about him as he started out his career? This would be the jist of it, I think - ‘He will be found out abroad because he has no pace and he is Pakistani, so I don’t like him. Buvneshwar, on the other hand, looks like a real talent. Reminds me of Mohammad Asif, but better, because he is not Pakistani.’
 
Against weak lineups sure, but we saw what the much revered new found pax’s battery did in Australia.

They managed to keep the best Test batsman in the world quiet because....they couldn’t get the top 3 dismissed.

Shaheen is the only one who can be considered someone who is on the brink of becoming world class.

Musa is average, Abbas has been found out, and Naseem is decent but he is roughly the same age as Shaheen but far behind him in terms of development.

However, PCB have successfully managed to hype him by pretending that he is 16 year old, and thus some bowling version of Tendulkar who is Test class at the age of 16.

India, Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand and even West Indies have more impressive pace attacks and I don’t see it changing in the next few years.

With Yasir on the decline, Pakistan actually has one of the worst bowling attacks at the moment.
They were always going to get slaughtered in Australia. Experienced bowling attacks have got proper hammerings there.

The way Shaheen and Naseem bowled against Sri Lanka was very good. Naseem has a higher ceiling than Shaheen. He bowls the corridor at good pace and can only get better from here.
 
Babar and Shaheen are the only two players too look forward to at the moment.

Just these two.
 
They were always going to get slaughtered in Australia. Experienced bowling attacks have got proper hammerings there.

The way Shaheen and Naseem bowled against Sri Lanka was very good. Naseem has a higher ceiling than Shaheen. He bowls the corridor at good pace and can only get better from here.

I agree with you - Naseem has a higher ceiling than Shaheen. Both look like very good prospects though, for sure. Not only can Naseem get wickets with pace and bounce, like Shaheen, I have seen Naseem swing it in and out as well, and bowl an attacking full length in domestic cricket and get it to swing from there as well, so not just a back of a length bowler. Shaheen’s swing is also developing but too early to say whether he can consistently swing it back in, he relies more on pace and bounce for wickets of a back of a length. Both are exciting and I really hope they continue to develop and grow.
 
I disagree Shaheen is very underrated he has the potential of an ATG and for Naseem think about it if God forbid he gets injured or just gets old he has nothing going for him except for pace, he is good but he can never be as good as what Shaheen can do or reach his sealing
 
yea, bowling will have to win matches, because with your batting we are not winning jack...
 
Babar and Shaheen are the only two players too look forward to at the moment.

Just these two.

Haris Sohail is also world class, but he is a victim of mismanagement. He failed in Australia, but they should have persisted with him because for a long time after Misbah and Younis, he was a far superior batsman than Azhar and Shafiq - esp. when babar was not doing well in tests.

They mismanaged him, and now he has lost his confidence.
 
I disagree Shaheen is very underrated he has the potential of an ATG and for Naseem think about it if God forbid he gets injured or just gets old he has nothing going for him except for pace, he is good but he can never be as good as what Shaheen can do or reach his sealing

Naseem was moving the ball decently against Srl with good seam position and bowled consistently in the area of uncertainty.

He has much more than pace up his sleeves. Not to forget that Shaheen has a lot more international experience than Naseem so its not fair to compare Naseem with him at the moment. I personally rate both of them pretty highly and I hope they remain injury free.
 
Haris Sohail is also world class, but he is a victim of mismanagement. He failed in Australia, but they should have persisted with him because for a long time after Misbah and Younis, he was a far superior batsman than Azhar and Shafiq - esp. when babar was not doing well in tests.

They mismanaged him, and now he has lost his confidence.

Haris’ fitness has been the issue for him for some years now. He was destined to be a very good player around 2014-15 but then his lost around three years due to his knees and even now he struggles with his knees and hasnt worked a lot of on his overall fitness which holds him back more often than not.
 
Babar and Shaheen are the only two players too look forward to at the moment.

Just these two.

That's it, 2 out of 11 that are world class, the rest would barely scrape a living in other cricket playing nation's domestic set up!
 
Haris Sohail is also world class, but he is a victim of mismanagement. He failed in Australia, but they should have persisted with him because for a long time after Misbah and Younis, he was a far superior batsman than Azhar and Shafiq - esp. when babar was not doing well in tests.

They mismanaged him, and now he has lost his confidence.

Haris has been mismanaged in the past especially during the Misbah era, but he hasn’t dome himself any favors since. He clearly has the talent and has been given enough opportunities across formats in the last 2-3 years to absolutely nail his place in the team but he hasn’t performed consistently enough across formats.

He is also completely invisible in the PSL.

His fitness is always borderline and there are strong rumors that he is a smoker. He doesn’t seem to be hungry enough for runs. A lazy character.

The difference between his work ethic and that of Babar is quite clear. Even Imam works much harder than him, in spite of all the over the top hate that he gets from the fans.
 
We are BACK.

Having beaten the mighty Sri Lanka, with its legends like Sanga, Mahela, Jayasuriya, Murali and Vaas (and despite being 191 all out in the 1st innings) - we are on the verge of a golden era as per Misbah and Azhar.
 
Haris’ fitness has been the issue for him for some years now. He was destined to be a very good player around 2014-15 but then his lost around three years due to his knees and even now he struggles with his knees and hasnt worked a lot of on his overall fitness which holds him back more often than not.

What do you expect from a player who believes in black majic.

Most of our players have superior cricketing skills, but zero real life skills.

This is one of the major disadvantages of being a basic pakistani citizen - the lack of exposure to good education, and grooming by society.

When these players do manage to make it to the top, they need to be handled better. They are an asset to the team. you cant expect wasim khan and najam sethi or eshsan mani to pad up and play for pakistan right? Their job needs to be individual specific, and get the player the right resources so they perform for themselves and pakistan.

that is how successful teams work, be it sports, corporations, hospitals, etc. haris sohail is a kid with exceptional eye hand coordination and timing. Look at his innings in WC against SA and then NZ. He even outclassed Babar in those two matches...
a root cause analysis needs to be done as to why he is low on confidence. you cant just discard player like him.

fitness, yes sure, but even tendulkar had a bad elbow, inzi was over weight, wasim akram had a bad shoulder, shoaib had bad knees...but they survived...
 
"Fawad is in the squad on the basis of his performances and ability. All members in the squad can be in the playing XI at any time. Whenever he plays, I think he will perform. Not only Fawad, but everyone is the same and they're looking to perform when given a chance.
Translation - We are picking him in the squad to keep the Karachi media off our backs.
 
Against weak lineups sure, but we saw what the much revered new found pace battery did in Australia.

They managed to keep the best Test batsman in the world quiet because....they couldn’t get the top 3 dismissed.

Shaheen is the only one who can be considered someone who is on the brink of becoming world class.

Musa is average, Abbas has been found out, and Naseem is decent but he is roughly the same age as Shaheen but far behind him in terms of development.

However, PCB have successfully managed to hype him by pretending that he is 16 year old, and thus some bowling version of Tendulkar who is Test class at the age of 16.

India, Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand and even West Indies have more impressive pace attacks and I don’t see it changing in the next few years.

With Yasir on the decline, Pakistan actually has one of the worst bowling attacks at the moment.

I guess Abbas’ performance today doesn’t count because it is in Pakistan and that is not a real country like India? Record number of dot balls. Going at 1 run per over with 8 maidens.
 
So what can we say when Azhar cannot get to even 50 against this Bangladesh attack?
 
I guess Abbas’ performance today doesn’t count because it is in Pakistan and that is not a real country like India? Record number of dot balls. Going at 1 run per over with 8 maidens.

Yes it doesn’t count. Performances against Bangladesh have no meaning when they are without Shakib and Mushfiq, their two best batsmen by miles.

We saw how poor Abbas was against New Zealand in the UAE, in South Africa and Australia.
 
He has 27 wickets at under 18 runs per wicket in the UAE. And all those successes don’t count either, I suppose? Or his wickets in England or the West Indies - also sub-20 averages
 
He has 27 wickets at under 18 runs per wicket in the UAE. And all those successes don’t count either, I suppose? Or his wickets in England or the West Indies - also sub-20 averages

All of those were 1.5 years ago, which is a long time in cricket. He is washed up now.
 
What really worries me at the moment is not the bowling but the lack of focus on top 5 batsmen.
I really can see Pakistan being bowled out for less than 200 when we go to England. The only batsmen who I think will perform is Babar but he will probably run out of partners.

Shan Masood hasn’t performed for almost 2 years and then he makes 2 centuries against some really weak bowling on a flat track.

Abid Ali is new so I can’t comment much on him just yet

Azhar was struggling today against the BD attack imagine him batting against the English fast bowlers

Babar Azam- already said hopefully will get some runs in England

Asad Shafiq again someone who hasn’t performed really over the last couple years so don’t see much coming from him

Making Azhar was a stupid move, yes he used to be solid and played gritty cricket. However, he is now past his best and making him captain just to watch him fail and get kicked out of team.

What are your thoughts?
 
I agree, the batting is looking shaky. I am especially worried about the T20 world cup where we may be taking one of our worst T20 batting line ups ever.. If you stack our top five in that format against other teams, the difference is glaring.

In test cricket, I think Babar, Shafiq should do ok in England. Azhar is indeed past his best unfortunately, though I was a big fan of his when he was batting so consistently a few years back. Haris and Abid are still a little untested so it will be a good tour to find out where they are at with their test batting in tougher conditions. I don’t have much hope in Shan Masood delivering in seaming conditions. They should adopt a horses for courses approach there and pick Sami Aslam ahead of him.
 
Don't think Pakistan attack is that good. There's immense potential in there but I think it's an attack that is likely to blow hot and cold overseas. Naseem is too inexperienced and essentially a wildcard. It's good that he's getting chances at the highest level but we need to temper our expectations because he is not a fully formed bowler like Shaheen is. Shaheen and Abbas are the lynch-pins of this attack and therefore have to punch above their weight which makes this attack slightly unbalanced. A big reason for that is ofcourse also the recent decline of Yasir Shah, who even at his best has almost always failed overseas.

I think the addition of Faheem Ashraf can enhance the attack but again, he is not a proven performer by any stretch of the imagination. Eventhough he has done well as an all-rounder in the handful of tests he has played it remains to be seen if he can become that seam-bowling all-rounder Pakistan have been seeking, for so long. However, I still think he should be given chances at the test level to make his case. Having a strong bowling line-up is much more important overseas than the extra batsman.
 
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Would rather see Hasan Ali in the line up than Naseem. Naseem still needs time.
 
Would rather see Hasan Ali in the line up than Naseem. Naseem still needs time.

If Naseem is to be rotated out then I'd rather see Sameen Gul given a chance. Unfortunately this team management is hell bent on reviving the careers of Imran Khan (the not very good one) and Musa Khan.
 
Would rather see Hasan Ali in the line up than Naseem. Naseem still needs time.

Let's see what he's like when he's back.

Prior to his injury, he was all over the place.
 
If Naseem is to be rotated out then I'd rather see Sameen Gul given a chance. Unfortunately this team management is hell bent on reviving the careers of Imran Khan (the not very good one) and Musa Khan.

Another interesting option. Don't think Naseem is ready for 3 games in England . He can be used but shouldn't be a certainty.
 
Inept leadership, batting line-up, and bowling.

A hatchet cleanup is required.
 
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