Which selections could have changed our fate in the recent Test series against Australia?

[MRSN]

after seeing so many people bashing Misbah for selections especially bowling I was wondering what Misbah should have done but to be honest I myself was out of ideas.

Amir and Wahab have no interest in tests.
Rahat is hated more than loved.
Shadab just not good enough yet as evident from SA series.
Shinwari got phainty of his life by Miller and co and then by rookie SL team. He is also not an option.


positives:
Rizwan performed big time which is a selection Misbah had to take a lot of criticism as there is a whole mafia he was fighting.
Naseem Shah was a good find and a good selection.

negatives:
IK was a bad call.
Iftikhar was a bad call as well. not just test material.
Harris should have been persisted with in the second test as well.

mixed:
Musa looked like a decent selection but looks like he needs a lot of work on his bowling.

 

[MRSN]

I am not a big fan of Misbah myself but I think he should be given some time before judging. Also in my opinion Waseem should definitely sack him as a head and batting coach and hire better professionals. He should only have chief selector post.

 

[Omer2002]

I am not fully convinced on Rizwan either..everybody keep saying pace n bounce etc in Australia...i am telling you the two tests we played were belter of flat wickets i have seen in australia in long long time yet our batters struggled big time

 

[jnaveen1980]

Bowlers who did not play in this series should consider themselves lucky. Both were flat decks. Without experience and skill can't do much here. Let us not forget many even actually believed "pink ball test" would bridge the gap between bowling of Pakistan and Australia massively. Didn't happen.

 

[ARK Rafay]

The team is currently not good enough. No one would've changed our faith but selecting players on merit would've definitely helped closing the gap a bit more.

 

[Forward Defensive Push]

Very nicely put. Indeed I was hopeful when the team was announced but it didn't turn out to be that way at the end.

 

[Saj]

The cupboard is not full of cricketers who are ready for Test cricket and who could have made a huge difference in Australia.

I wouldn't have taken Naseem or Musa or Imran Khan. I would have taken 3 pacers with more experience, perhaps the likes of Mir Hamza.

With the bat I would have picked Usman Salahuddin and Fawad Alam for the middle order - both would have put a price on their wicket and made it tougher for the Aussie bowlers.

 

[Cricketrenew]

The problem is with the Waqar and Misbah.
Whoever they would have taken would have lost.

Picking youngsters was a good idea as the more experienced would have just achieved the same result.

Fawad still not in the team..... very funny state of affairs.

 

[mahmed]

The cupboard is not full of cricketers who are ready for Test cricket and who could have made a huge difference in Australia.

I wouldn't have taken Naseem or Musa or Imran Khan. I would have taken 3 pacers with more experience, perhaps the likes of Mir Hamza.

With the bat I would have picked Usman Salahuddin and Fawad Alam for the middle order - both would have put a price on their wicket and made it tougher for the Aussie bowlers.

I agree with you sir, I would have played Fawad in place of Ifti. My pace battery would have been Mir Hamza, and negotiate with Amir to come out of retirement for at least two years until youngsters are settled. I would also have taken Faheem Ashraf to strengthen batting. No Musa and Imran.

 

[tyron_woodley]

I am not fully convinced on Rizwan either..everybody keep saying pace n bounce etc in Australia...i am telling you the two tests we played were belter of flat wickets i have seen in australia in long long time yet our batters struggled big time

how hard is it to understand that it's always been that way in australia. yes it's flat but it's a hard bouncy flat wicket.

 

[hitthestump]

This is a great question and makes you wonder despite the criticism Misbah and co faced whether anyone could have prevented a phainty from occuring here.

Some ideas:

Musa and Naseem - Musa not good at all and Naseem was clearly intended to be kept in bubble wrap which means his selection for the 5 day game is extremely questionable. No obvious replacements stand out though. Adil, Junaid or Rahat pretty much the only 'experienced' names who spring to mind from FC cricket.

Yasir - Seems useless outside of Asia. An economical spinner like Kashif or Gohar may have been better. Would they have scored the runs Yasir did though?

Imam - Would Abid have done better? Who knows.

Azhar - Flopped as captain and batsman. As a batsman there's a few who could have done better. As captain...no one really stands out as an obvious replacement.

Playing a 5 bowler strategy - Could have been better. If Yasir and Abbas strugged though...Faheem and Shadab unlikely to do much better.


In conclusion - unlikely anyone could have made a difference to the overall phainty that was recieved

 

[Junaids]

after seeing so many people bashing Misbah for selections especially bowling I was wondering what Misbah should have done but to be honest I myself was out of ideas.

Shadab just not good enough yet as evident from SA series.

What? What? What?

Shadab massively outperformed Yasir Shah in South Africa.

Yasir Shah in South Africa 2018-19:
4-0-24-0
7.4-1-20-1
21-1-79-0

4, 0, 5, 5

Shadab Khan in South Africa 2018-19
10-2-39-1
11.3-0-41-3

0, 52 not out.

Yasir Shah Test batting average in South Africa: 3.75
Shadab Khan Test batting average in South Africa: 52.00

Yasir Shah Test bowling average in South Africa: 123.00
Shadab Khan Test bowling average in South Africa: 20.00

Now, on to the others.

The batting performed pretty much as well as could be hoped: 240, 335, 302, 239.

Yes, replacing Yasir Shah with Shadab would have added a few runs, but Yasir overperformed with the bat so I suspect the difference would only have been around 20 runs per innings.

The key thing is the bowling.

I have said until I'm blue in the face, in Australia you need at least 3 fast bowlers at least 6'3 in height. There is no swing, there is no seam, all there is is bounce, and you need to be tall to lift it from a good length. India did well with shorter bowlers, but against a demoralized and understrength Aussie team minus Warner and Smith which had lost 4 of its last 5 Tests.

Shaheen Shah Afridi was the only quick bowler who was tall enough, and his economy rate was 2 runs per over less than all the other bowlers.

So if there were 2 other tall fast bowlers, the Aussie First innings 300-1 per day would have been 250 per day, probably for 4 wickets.

My team would have been:

1. Sami Aslam
2. Imam-ul-Haq (who would have failed)
3. Shan Masood
4. Babar Azam
5. Umar Akmal (who has a brilliant record in Australia)
6. Mohammad Rizwan (wk)
7. Shadab Khan
8. Faheem Ashraf
9. Ehsan Adil or Sameen Gul
10. Rahat Ali (Brisbane) / Mohammad Amir (Adelaide)
11. Shaheen Shah Afridi

In Australia you need the height of Ehsan Adil or Rahat Ali or Sameen Gul to dry up the scoring rate. Waqar was too short at 6'0, so obviously Naseem Shah was never going to succeed at 5'9.

 

[Cric_lover4487]

I recently watched highlights of Pakistan domestic cricket on youtube. I felt that Junaid Khan has lost a yard of pace. How fast is Rahat Ali? Hazelwood, Wagner, Abbas etc bowl in 130s kph have been successful in test cricket because they have control on swing and line.