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Why did Pakistan open their bowling with Imad Wasim today?

Bhaijaan

Bhaijaan

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What was the point of starting with a spinner today?

I know it's a trend in T20s but seriously only an idiot opener would throw his wicket to an ordinary spinner right away.

The opening over from Amit was TERRIFIC. Pakistan totally lost sense of seriousness when the spinner came on right next to Amir.

Shocking!
 
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The tactic worked when we were bowling on WI pitches to Chadwick Walton and Evin Lewis, but it wasn't going to be a wicket-taking option on a flat Edgbaston deck against Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan.
 
Markhor said:
The tactic worked when we were bowling on WI pitches to Chadwick Walton and Evin Lewis, but it wasn't going to be a wicket-taking option on a flat Edgbaston deck against Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan.
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Exactly.

Dhawan and Rohit are seasoned openers with no massive weakness as such against spin. A spinner bowling 5 overs inside first 10 right next to Amir ruined Amir's impact.
 
Markhor said:
The tactic worked when we were bowling on WI pitches to Chadwick Walton and Evin Lewis, but it wasn't going to be a wicket-taking option on a flat Edgbaston deck against Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan.
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Mickey and Sarfraz were only trying to attack.

Cut them some slack.

:najam
 
its done to protect Imad, they want him in the team and hence are trying to get away with a few overs early.

Another reason they will cite is that Riaz is awful in general, even more awful with the new ball. Hasan also prefers the older ball though having said that he is no slouch with the new ball
 
Maybe that was his out of the box plan. Kudos to the indian openers that they survived their first 10 overs.

Rohit and Dhawan might be inconsistent players otherwise but always bat sensibly in icc tournaments.
 
I have been thinking about this since afternoon

He won the toss and rightly chose to bowl in overcast conditions but then why give the spinner half of first ten overs especially when Amir was brilliant in first 2 overs
 
They were "thinking out of the box". Beautiful from Mickey and Sarfaraz
 
We were trying to surprise them. India would probably have scored 500 had we gone in with the useless Wahab.
 
It's interesting isn't it Sarfraz said he would think out of the box so he thought out of the box but not how we were expecting it was a stupid decision that Sarfraz shouldn't have been boasting about
 
Imad is a great choice against sides who are weak against spin (windies Zimbabwe australia ) but nor a subcontinent team
 
Syed1 said:
They were "thinking out of the box". Beautiful from Mickey and Sarfaraz
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I am ok with this out of the box thing as well but everyone realised after Imad's 2 overs that he won't get a wicket, at that time why not give it to Hassan Ali ?

Also Hafeez would probably have done better against Dhawan, he used be brilliant against Lefties
 
I think the more nuanced question should be: why did he continue to bowl. No issue with trying something different. but you should go back to plan A if its not working,
 
I would have understood if they opened with Hafeez to try and pick up Dhawan who has a good record against left handers. Imad was never going to trouble Dhawan. Rohit Sharma on the other hand is very good against spin. A commie stated he averages like 58 against spin. So that was lack of homework on Pakistans part.

Secondly, as a captain Sarfraz should have seen from Aamir's first over the movement he was getting and even if he had a plan to bowl Imad he should have changed it. As a captain you have to be flexible and proactive and react to what you see on the pitch. 7-8 overs of Aamir and Hasan Ali would not have been easy for India and they could have picked up a wicket. Imad was never going to get a wicket in the first 10 overs in overcast conditions.
 
I think he probably had the idea of restricting India rather than taking wickets. By 10th over India was only 40 odd. So he thought he was doing the right thing. But he didn't realize he was allowing two not so inform players to get set.
 
It worked against Chadwick Walton and Evin Lewis on WI dustbowls so the bizarre logic was it'll work against Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma on a flat Edgbaston deck.

I'm all for thinking outside the box but you have to assess the conditions. Overcast weather, morning start, stick your two best seamers in Amir and Ali on.

Imad is increasingly struggling as teams work him out and see his action won't allow him to impart much turn and can be played like a medium pacer.
 
Markhor said:
It worked against Chadwick Walton and Evin Lewis on WI dustbowls so the bizarre logic was it'll work against Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma on a flat Edgbaston deck.

I'm all for thinking outside the box but you have to assess the conditions. Overcast weather, morning start, stick your two best seamers in Amir and Ali on.

Imad is increasingly struggling as teams work him out and see his action won't allow him to impart much turn and can be played like a medium pacer.
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Imad has to improve his batting and fitness otherwise soon he will be out of the team. His bowling won't improve.
 
PakLFC said:
That is the whole point. Maybe he would have done today seeing we opened with Imad.
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Hasan Ali has bowled with new ball in Int aswell as domestic cricket. He should have opened with Amir & not Imad dart expert.
 
TalentSpotterPk said:
Indeed.

Rohit was out of Int Cricket for a while due to injury . Amir got past his bat 3 times so Hasan should have come In.


Amir & Hasan's bowling lengths were defensive and not wicket taking.
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Exactly even if the plan before the start was to surprise by starting with IMAD after watching amirs first over Sarfaraz should have scrapped that plan and got in Hasan ali.. Any smart captain would have done that..

why do you think junaid was not selected mate over Wahab?
 
TalentSpotterPk said:
Hasan Ali has bowled with new ball in Int aswell as domestic cricket. He should have opened with Amir & not Imad dart expert.
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Would have made no difference. We would have got tanked even if the average Hasan Ali had opened the attack.
 
He thought he would have bowled more economically and get a wicket or two in his first spell but clearly the plan backfired. He wasn't bowling like his usual self either, not wicket to wicket or cramping the batsman.
 
Pete Rose said:
I think the more nuanced question should be: why did he continue to bowl. No issue with trying something different. but you should go back to plan A if its not working,
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Yeah, I still can't believe that mickey n Sarf agree on giving Imad full five overs especially when it was bloody overcast and two out of form batsman with suspect defensive techniques were batting....

Dhawan hardly faced Amir in first 10 overs, imagine giving ali a chance to get him and then getting Kohli in under clouds....

Pak think tank needs to be questioned here
 
big_gamer007 said:
Exactly even if the plan before the start was to surprise by starting with IMAD after watching amirs first over Sarfaraz should have scrapped that plan and got in Hasan ali.. Any smart captain would have done that..

why do you think junaid was not selected mate over Wahab?
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Come to Savak's thread. I have posted stats of both Wahab & Junaid. Both average 57 in last 12 and 9 Odis before this match.
 
PakLFC said:
Would have made no difference. We would have got tanked even if the average Hasan Ali had opened the attack.
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With 2 fivefers in last 1 year Hasan had a better chance to pick up a wicket than Imad Wasim darter. That's the main point.
 
Markhor said:
It worked against Chadwick Walton and Evin Lewis on WI dustbowls so the bizarre logic was it'll work against Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma on a flat Edgbaston deck.

I'm all for thinking outside the box but you have to assess the conditions. Overcast weather, morning start, stick your two best seamers in Amir and Ali on.

Imad is increasingly struggling as teams work him out and see his action won't allow him to impart much turn and can be played like a medium pacer.
Click to expand...

Imad was, and always will be, bits and pieces.
 
TalentSpotterPk said:
Come to Savak's thread. I have posted stats of both Wahab & Junaid. Both average 57 in last 12 and 9 Odis before this match.
Click to expand...

again and again...the finger of blame goes to no one but inzi. he is selecting basis seniority and nothing else. I will not be surprised if he brings rahat and sohail for odi's next.
 
TalentSpotterPk said:
With 2 fivefers in last 1 year Hasan had a better chance to pick up a wicket than Imad Wasim darter. That's the main point.
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That would be like saying what would have happened had he not dropped that catch. "Better chance" does not do it for me.
 
Sarfraz has done India a huge favour by getting all the top 3 Indian batsman back in form...

India's prospects are suddenly better in this CT, a lot of credit should go to Sarfraz and Imad
 
Simple. To control runs from 1 end and attack from the other.

Sarfraz realised it would be hard for his bowlers to take wickets, his game plan was to contain. It worked until 40 overs like he said in the post match interview. After 40 overs, the indian batsman took them to cleaners. His game plan got further messed up by Amir injury.
 
PakLFC said:
That would be like saying what would have happened had he not dropped that catch. "Better chance" does not do it for me.
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I am a nobody infront of former international Cricketers. Did you bother hearing what they said ?


Nobody here is saying that Hasan would hv made sure that India got all out on 100 but that was the way to go as per majority analysts and pundits.


Imad isn't Murali, Ashwin, Saqlain or Warne. He is a darter. Look at Odi averages of Top 7 Indian batsman.


Giving Imad more than one over was terrible captaincy something I would criticise even at Club level.


No point arguing further.
 
Pete Rose said:
again and again...the finger of blame goes to no one but inzi. he is selecting basis seniority and nothing else. I will not be surprised if he brings rahat and sohail for odi's next.
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There is say of Captain, NCA aswell as team management aswell. So blame should go to all of them collectively.


Ahmed Bashir & Atif Jabbar weren't picked for PC so who is to blame for that ? Entire PCB and rotten system.


Rahat never was a list A bowler so he has played enough. Sohail should be picked if he is seen as a bowler for 2019 WC when he will be 35 otherwise his fitness remains an issue.


But for CT Sohail merited selection ahead of Wahab & Junaid. His fitness is better than Irfan whom we carried for 3 years with okayish performances post injury. And Sohail swings a new ball, has good slower balls, yorker and bouncer, is a wicket taker and can bat aswell. Dropping him for fitness over 58 averaging wahab & junaid was terrible.
 
TalentSpotterPk said:
There is say of Captain, NCA aswell as team management aswell. So blame should go to all of them collectively.


Ahmed Bashir & Atif Jabbar weren't picked for PC so who is to blame for that ? Entire PCB and rotten system.


Rahat never was a list A bowler so he has played enough. Sohail should be picked if he is seen as a bowler for 2019 WC when he will be 35 otherwise his fitness remains an issue.


But for CT Sohail merited selection ahead of Wahab & Junaid. His fitness is better than Irfan whom we carried for 3 years with okayish performances post injury. And Sohail swings a new ball, has good slower balls, yorker and bouncer, is a wicket taker and can bat aswell. Dropping him for fitness over 58 averaging wahab & junaid was terrible.
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Boss you know how the pakistan selection process works. No one wants to be identified as the guy who did not want the senior players in the team. I mean w are fans so most of us can say openly there is no place in this team for Malik, Azhar, Hafeez. Shehzad, wahab. But who do you think will pull that trigger: not inzi (who as you might note has not selected a single proper back up opener in the squad), not Arthur (who learned from his last job that better to avoid controversy), sarfaraz (new captain who doesn't want to alienate anyone)?
 
Decisions like these confirm my belief that Pakistani management do **** all behind the scenes. How can they not know that Indians will feast on Imad's darts?

I mean c'mon, I don't even play cricket and I know that you don't bowl spinners against a fresh Kholi who beasts on them, and especially when Amir did so well in his initial spell.

Or Sarfraz lost it mentally and forgot about it due to the pressure on the field.
 
TalentSpotterPk said:
I am a nobody infront of former international Cricketers. Did you bother hearing what they said ?


Nobody here is saying that Hasan would hv made sure that India got all out on 100 but that was the way to go as per majority analysts and pundits.


Imad isn't Murali, Ashwin, Saqlain or Warne. He is a darter. Look at Odi averages of Top 7 Indian batsman.


Giving Imad more than one over was terrible captaincy something I would criticise even at Club level.


No point arguing further.
Click to expand...

I heard and read you well. Try to understand what I am saying as well.
 
Pete Rose said:
Boss you know how the pakistan selection process works. No one wants to be identified as the guy who did not want the senior players in the team. I mean w are fans so most of us can say openly there is no place in this team for Malik, Azhar, Hafeez. Shehzad, wahab. But who do you think will pull that trigger: not inzi (who as you might note has not selected a single proper back up opener in the squad), not Arthur (who learned from his last job that better to avoid controversy), sarfaraz (new captain who doesn't want to alienate anyone)?
Click to expand...


All the anger & frustration is right.


Wrt Openers you and I had healthy debate and Conclusion was that we only have two Established List A openers in Pakistan with required Ave & SR combination.

1. Sharjeel

2. Shahzaib


Period


We have lost both of them because of Spot fixing.


So we picked old guns and a 90 95 Sr opener Fakhar Zaman.


Though personally I rate Ahsan & Sahibzada as better prospects because of their shot range and game against fast medium stuff. Ahsan picks up the length as early as Umar Akmal & Babar Azam or Yousuf. Very few batsman have this ability but we arent Bangladesh who picked 17 averaging Soumya Sarkar for BD national Odi team and today he averages 40 plus. Another thing is that Ahsan only got consistent chances first time ever in Fc last year and averaged 46 in the season while in list A he gets 2 games than gets dropped for next 10. Our selectors don't consider these ground realities politics legpullings and lack of merit.


If we did not pick Azhar & Shehzad than we could have picked rookie Sahibzada & Sami Aslam but teams pick rekatively experienced international batsman for CT, WC etc.

Still Sami was in redhot form and might hv faired better than Azhar & Shehzad but I can't say that with surity.


List A SR - 10-15 would be Int SR given the standard, competitiveness of Pak domestic List A Cricket.


If spot fixing scandal had not emerged than Sharjeel & Shahzaib should have been opener for Pakistan.
 
the only reason I can think of is that netiher Wahab nor Hassan are considered opening bowlers, and the plan is to use them in the middle or late overs

but thats a pretty poor strategy. Another opening bowler should have been playing instead of passenger Wahab
 
I have no idea - I questioned this ridiculous decision straight away on the commentary thread.

It's probably just a defence strategy to contain Indian batting line up - hoping to get wickets instead of trying to get them.

Poor defensive thinking, poor fielding, poor batting squad and the bowling is average at best.

Depressing time to be a Pak supporter when it comes ODI cricket.

Overall I was disgusted with the squad selection when it was announced - win or lose at least select a team that can attempt to compete at this level.
 
The problem wasn't necessarily opening the bowing with him (hafiz used to do something similar back in the day) but it was giving him so many overs. Should have been given 2 overs max at the start and then gone with another pace bowler.
 
Who else is the bigger match winner in our team than Imad Wasim?

People tend to forget his numerous 5 wickets haul in England,Australia and West Indies.

Give me a name who can turn the ball more than him? He is a pearl and in the class of his own, he can speak English, he is over confident and on top of that he is mickey's blue eyed man.
 
basitmian said:
Simple. To control runs from 1 end and attack from the other.

Sarfraz realised it would be hard for his bowlers to take wickets, his game plan was to contain. It worked until 40 overs like he said in the post match interview. After 40 overs, the indian batsman took them to cleaners. His game plan got further messed up by Amir injury.
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Hmmm, you are right....
 
I think people here dont understand what selecting Wahab Riaz did to our line-up today. Wahab and Hasan can never play in the same team. Both are support seamers at best. Sarfraz wasn't confident in either's new ball abilities, in which case he pressed the panic button and got Imad to get over with his overs as quickly as possible. This has happened TWICE this year. Wahab gets selected, disrupts the bowling line up completely and gets smashed all over the park. He gets dropped, Junaid comes in and performs at a MUCH higher level than Wahab. Wahab sits out the rest of the series and somehow comes back in the first game of the next series/tournament. Happened in Australia and West Indies.

Dropping Junaid for this game was a huge blunder which messed up the balance of the bowling attack. We wouldn't have won, but we had a better chance.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
 
And we should have had Fakhar Zaman instead of selfie and maybe Fahim Ashraf instead of Professori Hafeez
 
He's worst captain then azhar fine leg was up no second slips brainless should be kick out from team
 
Usman Chadda said:
I think people here dont understand what selecting Wahab Riaz did to our line-up today. Wahab and Hasan can never play in the same team. Both are support seamers at best. Sarfraz wasn't confident in either's new ball abilities, in which case he pressed the panic button and got Imad to get over with his overs as quickly as possible. This has happened TWICE this year. Wahab gets selected, disrupts the bowling line up completely and gets smashed all over the park. He gets dropped, Junaid comes in and performs at a MUCH higher level than Wahab. Wahab sits out the rest of the series and somehow comes back in the first game of the next series/tournament. Happened in Australia and West Indies.

Dropping Junaid for this game was a huge blunder which messed up the balance of the bowling attack. We wouldn't have won, but we had a better chance.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
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This is the simple answer to the OPs and other posters question !!!

I've been harping this from day 1. Wahab is the biggest P@rch! In the PCT - nepotism at it worst ......
 
ahmedwaqas92 said:
This is the simple answer to the OPs and other posters question !!!

I've been harping this from day 1. Wahab is the biggest P@rch! In the PCT - nepotism at it worst ......
Click to expand...

I had a feeling that Wahab would go for runs in CT after his performance on tour of WI in 4th T20I.
 
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