We need to learn to differentiate between selfishness and lack of ability

[Hasan123]

I am sick of seeing when a player can't accelerate it is instantly called selfish.

I will give an example. In the Australian LO, when Rizwan scored a century. He was trying to hit boaudnries but he wasnt able to do this. Many called him selfish when in fact it wasnt selfish it was the fact that he isn't a boundary hitter at will.

Another example and more discussed one is Babar Azam. His recent century was called selfish towards the end of his innings. I think their could be a little bit of selfishness in it but u think mostly is just due to the fact that Babar cannot hit boundaries at will. And we need to stop expecting him to bat at the rate of Roy and Warner when he just isn't capable of it. I think he does need to improve his strike rotation. He should aim to play like Williamson and Root who ensure when not hitting boundaries that the strike is always turned over. Babar at time plays too many dots when he can rotate the strike to make up for his lack of consistent boundary hitting.

The purpose of the thread is just to make it clear to stop expecting limited players to hit boundaries at will and then call them selfish. Instead call them out for their lack of ability.

Rant over.

 

[Ronaldo7]

Babar didn't even try to hit boundaries. It was clearly evident that he wanted to take singles only.

 

[Hasan123]

Babar didn't even try to hit boundaries. It was clearly evident that he wanted to take singles only.

Because he cant hit boundaries at will like Roy. His strike rotation is more of a issue. He should aim to keep rotating strike and hit the odd boundary. If he picks up power hitting great if not we will still have a brilliant LO batter.

 

[Mueez]

I agree.

Babar and for example Rizwan/Sarfraz are top/middle order batsman, who can construct an innings but can’t hit it out of the park.

Imagine if Asif Ali comes at 4 down in the 48th over and is not hitting/showing intent to hit boundaries, that could be called selfishness.

So before we conclude somebody is selfish we need to keep his limitations in mind.

 

[saeed5646]

Babar azam is anything but not limited player .a few stats and figures would clear the point the op is trying to make against him

His strike rate is 140 in last 10 overs .i don.t know what he should do more .

The only issue babar have is batting between 80 to 100 where he slow down a bit which he can rectify and improve upon it .Poor guy is 24 year old only and people are already writting off

 

[Hasan123]

Babar azam is anything but not limited player .a few stats and figures would clear the point the op is trying to make against him

His strike rate is 140 in last 10 overs .i don.t know what he should do more .

The only issue babar have is batting between 80 to 100 where he slow down a bit which he can rectify and improve upon it .Poor guy is 24 year old only and people are already writting off

I am actually trying to defend him lol. I am not saying he is a limited player. I am saying he isn't someone who can hit 4s and 6s at will . So we need to stop expecting that from him.

 

[Ronaldo7]

Because he cant hit boundaries at will like Roy. His strike rotation is more of a issue. He should aim to keep rotating strike and hit the odd boundary. If he picks up power hitting great if not we will still have a brilliant LO batter.

That's just a bad excuse. Just coz he doesn't hit boundaries at will doesn't mean he shouldn't try. He's our no.3 batsman fgs he's not a tailender.

 

[khan_aa]

what i dont understand, lets say even if he took up 5-10 more balls to get the century, what about the other 10 guys? what were they doing to contribute to the win? baking cakes?
this is what i dont understand.

for more than 10 year, we did not have any class batsmen in ODIs that consistently performed. we suffered through the akmals, shehzads, yonis, malik hafeez...etc etc. now we have someone decent, we continue to criticize

 

[saeed5646]

I am actually trying to defend him lol. I am not saying he is a limited player. I am saying he isn't someone who can hit 4s and 6s at will . So we need to stop expecting that from him.

As i said his strike rate is 140 in last 10 overs .The problem lies when he near the hundred or fifty. He slow down a bit which is where he needs to improve

About his power hitting
1)He have improved his game against short pitch ball which he was ducking in early stage of odi career
2)He is hitting straight sixes to spinners by using his feet where early he was playing cross batted short to hit a boundary to them.

If you are talking about hitting a boundary at will i don't remember any batsmen in that early stage of career doing that apart from legend like sachin or lara when they were that young.babar is not complete batsmen but labelling him a limited hitter who will not be become batsmen that can hit a boundary at will is pretty harsh

 

[Hasan123]

That's just a bad excuse. Just coz he doesn't hit boundaries at will doesn't mean he shouldn't try. He's our no.3 batsman fgs he's not a tailender.

Because if he tries to play a game that is no natural to him, he won’t score as many runs as he does and then you will start complaining about him not scoring enough runs.

 

[Ronaldo7]

Because if he tries to play a game that is no natural to him, he won’t score as many runs as he does and then you will start complaining about him not scoring enough runs.

He can't become a top player if he's too scared to even try to hit fours.

 

[JibranAnsari]

by all means improvize if you can not hit boundaries in a conventional way.

 

[The_Odd_One]

Babar is a strange dude, plays tests like ODIs, ODIs like tests, and T20s like ODIs.

The aggression he showed in the SA test series was great to watch but he needs to do that in shorter formats.

I do not agree to OP. Why is that Babar always gets out after he crosses a 50 or 100? Clearly, he tries harder to play big shots after achieving his personal milestone.

 

[Chokli]

Sarfraz can't hit big but he can definitely keep the scoreboard ticking with a strike rate of more than a 100.

That's why he should bat at 4 or 5.

 

[topspin]

I totally agree with Rizwan but with Babar we’ve seen time and time again (like we did last week), when he scored that ton, he deliberately slowed down after he reached 80, but it didn’t really surprise me because I’ve seen him bat like this in the 40s as well because he values personal milestones over team success.

I know he’s an accumulator, so I don’t expect him to be batting 100-120 SR early in his innings, but on a batting paradise he should be able to end with a three figure score at a SR of 120. If Imam can score 151 at a SR of 115, why can’t Babar when he is far more technically proficient.

Also I’ve seen “he’s only 24” excuse been thrown around - his age is irrelevant because he’s been playing internationals for 4 years now. He’s past the youth in development phase now.

Babar Azam needs to start winning ODIs for Pakistan with the bat against the top 5 sides. None of his 50+ knocks have resulted in wins against SENAI. What worries me the most about him is when he recently said “I’ve reached no.1 in T20Is without power hitting”. This implies he has no intentions to boost his game and when you analyse this statement, it merely reinforces my point my view on how he values personal milestones over team success.

I hope he turns a new leaf and takes more responsibility in leading the side with the bat. This World Cup is no better time and place to announce himself on the world stage in resounding fashion. All the best to him.

 

[nads_rocks]

Babar is playing the role Misbah did whenever wickets tumbled or we collapsed, he is a partnership builder. Other batsman need to play around him but they dont.

I remember once Younis Khan who was our no.3 regular said him and Malik could chase 300 with singles and doubles, they are not big hitters but are partnership builders.
Babar is our Mr Dependable, he is like Azhar Ali who put a prize to their wicket like Misbah. Hard to get them out. Solid batsman once settled.

What about the rest of the team, are they here just to make up the numbers to hold the bat in the middle?
He isnt no Afridi or an Asif Ali, a No.3 batsman should be solid. Rahul Dravid became a legend not because of his power hitting but his contribution as a solid batsman, accumulator, partnership builder.
Can't expect Babar to magically hit 4s and 6s at will.

 

[Energy]

Lack of ability is associated with Malik Hafeez and Sarfaraz who have more than 50 years combined experience between them. Lack of ability is when you cannot score runs, not when you score them at a slightly slower rate.