"We have to manage Mohammad Amir's workload" : Azhar Mahmood

[Kroll]

Azhar Mahmood speaking at the end of today's play.

"The day went well for us, we bowled them out and made them follow-on but unfortunately, we dropped a couple of catches due to which they are 64/0"

"Tomorrow is another day and we will try and get them out"

"We declared because the game wasn't moving and we thought, we will get a chance to bowl 2 spells"

"We got 3 wickets in that session (before Lunch) and that helped us as we were successful in getting them all-out quickly"

"If you look at the FC careers of Ed Joyce and William Porterfield, you will see that they together have about 25000 runs"

"They are good players and if you drop their catches then they will make use of those opportunities":

"We came to Ireland last year as well to play One-Day cricket and people really support cricket":

"It augurs well [for the game] that the Irish team have been given Test status and it's great that we are their opponents in their first Test match"

"Amir has a chronic knee problem which slightly flared up"

"He got treatment [for that] and we will assess tomorrow morning"

"Hopefully he will be OK tomorrow to bowl for us"

"He's having treatment tonight and he will also have ice treatment tomorrow and hopefully he will be fine"

"He's had this problem before on his left knee"

"He [Amir] is having treatment; The physio can tell you better [information]"

"He came back after 5 years and he has played every format for us; we have to manage his workload"

"Maybe this is a sign for us to see in the future where he [Amir] stands"

"We have bunch of new guys coming up and we want to have Test bowlers separate from the One-Day and T20 bowlers; We are working on that and hopefully we can come up with something"

"We want him to run in and bowl for us":

"I have seen that due to workload, their body can't take it and they just manage to play one or 2 formats of the game"

"It is a concern for us [about Amir] and hopefully, we will manage his workload better":

"You never know about the weather here and we want to win the Test match, which is why we enforced the follow-on"

"Hopefully we can come tomorrow, take early wickets and take the game away from Ireland"

"A heavy roller went on the pitch so it's slightly slower"

 

[Prince of Pakistan]

Amir knows his body and that's probably the reason he wants to play less tests.

He is not needed anyway for the UAE tests etc. as we got Wahab, Yasir there.

We really need to keep Amir and Hasan for almost all ODI + T20's and a few tests here and there (SA/UK). We got more options in Asian conditions so we should make use of it. Good to hear that they are working on that. It is also how SA managed Steyn for years.

 

[fluke]

better replace him immediately either with sadaf hussain or somone as tall as sadaf who can extract some bounce in UK. I dont think amir can do any better than any of his potential replacement

 

[Prince of Pakistan]

better replace him immediately either with sadaf hussain or somone as tall as sadaf who can extract some bounce in UK. I dont think amir can do any better than any of his potential replacement

The realistic replacements are:

Junaid Khan
Usman Shinwari
Mir Hamza

Not sure if any of them can do better in the UK. Yes in the UAE it's a different story.

 

[Abid Z]

A chronic knee problem that wasn’t sorted out in his 5 years away from cricket?

 

[fluke]

The realistic replacements are:

Junaid Khan
Usman Shinwari
Mir Hamza

Not sure if any of them can do better in the UK. Yes in the UAE it's a different story.

Shinwari can be a very good option as he swings the ball miles and second option should have been Sadaf hussain who is tall and can extract bounce and has control over his line and length and can swing the ball both ways also

 

[Boi]

Amir's days as a test cricketer are numbered it seems. Time to fast track Shaheen. Shouldve brought him along in the squad.

 

[Prince of Pakistan]

Shinwari can be a very good option as he swings the ball miles and second option should have been Sadaf hussain who is tall and can extract bounce and has control over his line and length and can swing the ball both ways also

I was actually surprised not to see Shinwari included. He swung Lanka out of the ODI series yet not picked up for the UK tour.

Maybe it had to do with his fitness? Mickey did not want a Sohail Khan scenario.

 

[blackanhyellow]

Pakistan is running its fast bowlers to the ground.

It makes no sense, back in the day on the flattest of Pakistani pitches, the fast bowlers used to bowl countless overs and still had long careers.

This generation doesnt have that in them. Need to manage their work load especially in the UAE.

 

[Mamoon]

Getting tired of Azhar's monthly statements of managing Amir's workload, and the rumors that Amir is thinking about his Test future.

Perhaps we should bite the bullet early. Drop him from Tests for good in the hope that it will improve his consistency in Limited Overs. There is no point in forcing him to play Tests when he does not have the heart or the body for this format.

 

[aloo paratha]

So not only can he not take many wickets he can't even last on the field...

 

[yasir]

A chronic knee problem that wasn’t sorted out in his 5 years away from cricket?

Chronic, generally means something that there is no permanent cure. It can happen again and again. He is always going to be more vulnerable to knee issues. It depends how worse it gets from here now. This is not good news, first time I am hearing about this, now I can see why he wants to limit himself to LOIs...

 

[Prince of Pakistan]

Chronic, generally means something that there is no permanent cure. It can happen again and again. He is always going to be more vulnerable to knee issues. It depends how worse it gets from here now. This is not good news, first time I am hearing about this, now I can see why he wants to limit himself to LOIs...

Something similar to the issue Shoaib Akhtar had. No matter what he did it got bad for him after a few games.

 

[Prince of Pakistan]

Getting tired of Azhar's monthly statements of managing Amir's workload, and the rumors that Amir is thinking about his Test future.

Perhaps we should bite the bullet early. Drop him from Tests for good in the hope that it will improve his consistency in Limited Overs. There is no point in forcing him to play Tests when he does not have the heart or the body for this format.

If it's a chronic knee issue then he can not do much about it even if he wanted to succeed in Tests. It will always be an issue and yes the selectors/PCB should take a stand about it.

So that we do not repeat the mistakes we made with Shoaib Akhtar.

 

[Savak]

To be Honest Amir hasn't done anything of note to deserve much pampering. In every test innings he is being out performed by the likes of Abbass, Yasir and even Wahab. These guys never complain about workload, injuries or other problems.

 

[Prince of Pakistan]

To be Honest Amir hasn't done anything of note to deserve much pampering. In every test innings he is being out performed by the likes of Abbass, Yasir and even Wahab. These guys never complain about workload, injuries or other problems.

I thought a Shoaib Akhtar fan would know what a chronic knee issue is.

 

[Kaka4pope]

Hasn’t bowled great in tests, completely discarded the seam, it seems.

He does look jaded a lot though...

 

[coy0607]

the PCB / management has every opportunity to 'better manage' Amir's workload

for starters, he should've been rested in the Sri Lanka UAE series, and in WI T20s in Karachi. Or more recently, in one of the practice games

Azhar (and Mickey) should take his own advice

 

[Savak]

the PCB / management has every opportunity to 'better manage' Amir's workload

for starters, he should've been rested in the Sri Lanka UAE series, and in WI T20s in Karachi. Or more recently, in one of the practice games

Azhar (and Mickey) should take his own advice

To be honest Amirs workload is no different to Wahab, Hasan Ali or Wasim, Waqar in the past. Those guys would not complain about it, would not talk about retiring from one format. They would get on with it.

 

[Savak]

I thought a Shoaib Akhtar fan would know what a chronic knee issue is.

Shoaibs output in test matches is far greater than Amirs. He had far more serious injuries and body issues compared to Amir and deserved some pampering in comparison to the over rated Amir.

 

[Abdul]

Other bowlers are far, far better than him. And they're not proven cheats.

 

[giri26]

To be frank, it is better for Amir to announce retirement from the test format. If he has a chronic problem, it isn't going to get better. It is better for him to concentrate on the LO formats. He isn't Pakistan's best test bowler either, so no need for PCB to go out of the way to manage anything.

 

[coy0607]

To be honest Amirs workload is no different to Wahab, Hasan Ali or Wasim, Waqar in the past. Those guys would not complain about it, would not talk about retiring from one format. They would get on with it.

Well, Wasim and Waqar played in a very different era, before T20 cricket and all the leagues. They didn't have quite as much cricket
Hassan has only just started, and isn't a regular in Tests yet
And Wahab has never really been a consistent player across formats, not a consistent enough selection to complain

I'm not trying to defend Amir's complaining here, but the fact is he seems to have some sort of chronic issue with his knee, and if the PCB valuehim as a long term asset, they need to treat him like that... Amir can't be playing all 3 formats against every opponent

 

[Junaids]

Match figures of

13.2 - 7 - 11 - 2

Seems pretty good to me!

 

[Shafi]

We have bunch of new guys coming up and we want to have Test bowlers separate from the One-Day and T20 bowlers
That's what we need not only for bowlers but also batsmen.

 

[Mamoon]

If it's a chronic knee issue then he can not do much about it even if he wanted to succeed in Tests. It will always be an issue and yes the selectors/PCB should take a stand about it.

So that we do not repeat the mistakes we made with Shoaib Akhtar.

Of course, there is no point in hampering his career altogether because he his knees cannot hold up in Test cricket.

 

[Abdullah719]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Pakistan team's physiotherapist on Mohammad Amir's fitness: "We treated him last night and this morning and he has responded really well. All we need to do now is to manage the pain which is left under his kneecap and hopefully everything will go according to plan" <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IREvPAK?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IREvPAK</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) <a href="https://twitter.com/Saj_PakPassion/status/995969625526595584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 14, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[hadi123]

Has bowled 1 over this morning and you could tell he was struggling.

 

[Abdullah719]

Seems to have recovered enough to bowl effectively. Really good spell there in the first session.

 

[Deewana Mastana]

He has not been able to bowl freely since he came back into international cricket and surely test cricket for him is not essential and he just wants to play limited cricket for Pakistan.

His body can not cope neither he has the stamina and fitness to play Test Cricket for Pakistan or even at county cricket.

 

[Prince of Pakistan]

Shoaibs output in test matches is far greater than Amirs. He had far more serious injuries and body issues compared to Amir and deserved some pampering in comparison to the over rated Amir.

That's true, but just saying that bowlers who for example have chronic knee issues will always have trouble staying fit after a few long days.

Even Akhtar was misunderstood about this for years. When we realised this it was already too late and had wasted a career.

 

[Syed1]

Shoaibs output in test matches is far greater than Amirs. He had far more serious injuries and body issues compared to Amir and deserved some pampering in comparison to the over rated Amir.

How many ODIs and T20s Shoaib played in a calendar year?

 

[BunnyRabbit]

Amir knows his body and that's probably the reason he wants to play less tests.

He is not needed anyway for the UAE tests etc. as we got Wahab, Yasir there.

We really need to keep Amir and Hasan for almost all ODI + T20's and a few tests here and there (SA/UK). We got more options in Asian conditions so we should make use of it. Good to hear that they are working on that. It is also how SA managed Steyn for years.

Steyn didn't miss Tests from 2008 till 2015 apart from injuries. His workload was only managed for ODI's and T20is.

 

[Prince of Pakistan]

Steyn didn't miss Tests from 2008 till 2015 apart from injuries. His workload was only managed for ODI's and T20is.

Exactly my point.

SA kept him away from the limited overs formats so that he could focus on tests. Pak could do that with Amir by keeping him out of most tests. He is important for us in the OD formats.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

For that we need to stop labelling him as the leader of the Test attack first.
I, being sort of a traditionalist would want him to stay away from T20is and have him focus on his fitness for Tests and ODI's. Rumman, Hassan, Junaid, Shinwari, Shaheen and even one of Sohails can do the job for T20is. Amir can be called upon for T20is for world cups only. But currently, he is not doing enough to be the Test spearhead.

 

[MenInG]

Not sure if work load is the issue here

 

[Deewana Mastana]

Not sure if work load is the issue here

Inner desire.

 

[boomboomcheema]

Inner desire.

Or lack of ability? Not as good as the fans expected him to be.