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Why Faheem Ashraf should play the next game

lolpakistan

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Jan 25, 2011
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With all his lacklustre PSL performances and nothing out of the ordinary stint in West Indies, Fakhar Zaman made an impact with his first game in the champions trophy. For sure he's not the most technically sound player in the squad, yet he managed to do something that most of our players have recently been very afraid of; going from the word go.

I don't know if Fakhar Zaman can keep the game consistent, but the performances has made one picture very clear; these young players, the batsmen specially, are willing to give it a whack and look to be out of the pathetic block-block-pressure bubble that is created by folks like Hafeez and Azhar.

Same goes for Fahim. He surely won't be the best player in the team but his warm-up performance is enough evidence to suggest that he will go for it. We need those type of players in our team for the coming matches. The fact remains that we managed to win against South Africa solely because of our balling, our batting almost made a meal of the chase and if it had not been for Fakhar's start and Malik thrashes, we could have had a bad day with DRS.

Now, considering the way Pakistani team changes work after win (no changes), it is unfortunately highly unlikely to have a team change for the game. Junaid, Amir and Hasan are set. So is Imad after his better show against SA. Shadab I feel won't be removed as was troubling the batsmen. Sarfaraz is captain. Malik won't be dropped and Babar is the chosen one, which leaves Azhar and Hafeez. Hafeez can never be dropped now that he completed his full quote of overs in the last game (doesn't matter if he takes wicket or not unfortunately), so I feel Azhar has to go. Sarfaraz or Babar should open with Fakhar and Fahim should be given the license to go crazy down the order.

It's a gamble, sure, but I believe this is the only way we could have pile up a huge score on board. And we definitely need to confidence to some sort of considerable scored piled up going into the semi's if we make it.

What do you guys think? Fahim or no Fahim against Sri Lanka? If yes, who goes out?
 
Hafeez should open with fakhar and faheem should come in for azhar.
 
We need to realize that we cant assume things based on one warm-up game. In the same game Hasan Ali also wacked few. Does it mean that he's also the solution for our batting issues?

Its the application which is the issue so far. Otherwise both Hafeez and Shahzad are capable enough to hit it out. I'd rather want Haris or Ruman in instead.
 
Haris for Azhar would be the only change I would make.
 
We need to realize that we cant assume things based on one warm-up game. In the same game Hasan Ali also wacked few. Does it mean that he's also the solution for our batting issues?

Its the application which is the issue so far. Otherwise both Hafeez and Shahzad are capable enough to hit it out. I'd rather want Haris or Ruman in instead.

More than assuming, I'm assessing options to somehow be able to put up a good score. With Hafeez in the middle i just don't see that happening with his chicken approach towards the game. Faheem could very well be the biggest misfire ever but that's a risk I think the team should be willing to take to atleast give the batting some fire.
 
if he isn't good enough to play, he should not have been in the squad in the first place.

all 15 members of the squad should be good enough to play a match.
 
Why not swap him for Shadab, who imo is still too raw. He's bowled a lot of bad balls and isn't getting enough purchase off these pitches to trouble the batsmen from what i've seen, so i have a feeling Sri Lanka will play him very easily.
 
More than assuming, I'm assessing options to somehow be able to put up a good score. With Hafeez in the middle i just don't see that happening with his chicken approach towards the game. Faheem could very well be the biggest misfire ever but that's a risk I think the team should be willing to take to atleast give the batting some fire.

We are already taking a risk with Fakhar. He might misfire as well. Then you have the dot ball machines Azhar and Hafeez. Babar also takes his sweet time before he starts scoring. Malik is the only bat performing. Sarfaraz has hardly had a hit yet.
 
No point discussing it as they will play same XI which played S.A

But something has to be done about dot ball machines Azhar and Hafeez. We will go nowhere with those two in the side.
 
Malik , hafeez , Imad , Shadab . How many spin options Pakistan needs ? It makes no sense at all.

Even Harris can bowl a few if required.
 
Malik , hafeez , Imad , Shadab . How many spin options Pakistan needs ? It makes no sense at all.

Even Harris can bowl a few if required.

Ashraf isn't a spinner.

Personally, the only change I'd make is removing Azhar for Haris and have Hafeez open with Haris batting at #4. But I wouldn't be upset if they swapped Shadab for Ashraf, however, I feel like Shadab is a better wicket taker at this point and if Pakistan does win, it will most likely have to be because of their bowling.
 
Malik , hafeez , Imad , Shadab . How many spin options Pakistan needs ? It makes no sense at all.

Even Harris can bowl a few if required.

Bowling was the reason Harris has been out of Pak team for 2 years.
 
With all his lacklustre PSL performances and nothing out of the ordinary stint in West Indies, Fakhar Zaman made an impact with his first game in the champions trophy. For sure he's not the most technically sound player in the squad, yet he managed to do something that most of our players have recently been very afraid of; going from the word go.

I don't know if Fakhar Zaman can keep the game consistent, but the performances has made one picture very clear; these young players, the batsmen specially, are willing to give it a whack and look to be out of the pathetic block-block-pressure bubble that is created by folks like Hafeez and Azhar.

Same goes for Fahim. He surely won't be the best player in the team but his warm-up performance is enough evidence to suggest that he will go for it. We need those type of players in our team for the coming matches. The fact remains that we managed to win against South Africa solely because of our balling, our batting almost made a meal of the chase and if it had not been for Fakhar's start and Malik thrashes, we could have had a bad day with DRS.

Now, considering the way Pakistani team changes work after win (no changes), it is unfortunately highly unlikely to have a team change for the game. Junaid, Amir and Hasan are set. So is Imad after his better show against SA. Shadab I feel won't be removed as was troubling the batsmen. Sarfaraz is captain. Malik won't be dropped and Babar is the chosen one, which leaves Azhar and Hafeez. Hafeez can never be dropped now that he completed his full quote of overs in the last game (doesn't matter if he takes wicket or not unfortunately), so I feel Azhar has to go. Sarfaraz or Babar should open with Fakhar and Fahim should be given the license to go crazy down the order.

It's a gamble, sure, but I believe this is the only way we could have pile up a huge score on board. And we definitely need to confidence to some sort of considerable scored piled up going into the semi's if we make it.

What do you guys think? Fahim or no Fahim against Sri Lanka? If yes, who goes out?

Like your strategy
 
No need for any change. We should stick with the same combination . However, the batting order needs to be shuffled with Sarfraz at 4, Malik at 5 and Hafeez at 6.
 
More than assuming, I'm assessing options to somehow be able to put up a good score. With Hafeez in the middle i just don't see that happening with his chicken approach towards the game. Faheem could very well be the biggest misfire ever but that's a risk I think the team should be willing to take to atleast give the batting some fire.

We need shuffle our order instead of replacing batsmen for CT.
 
azhar and hafeez out - bring in haris and Fahim. Batting order should go like this:

Haris
Fakhar
Babar
Sarfraz
Malik
Imad
Fahim
Shadab
Amir
Hasan
Junaid
 
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