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Yasir Shah - The batsman

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stevewittry

Tape Ball Regular
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While there has been multiple threads praising Yasir Shah as a leading leg spinner and probably the greatest spinner of this generation, his batting skills have often gone un-noticed. The latest being his cameo against the Windies that helped Pak post a match winning target when at one point they were at a risk of getting bundled out cheaply.

Should the management mentor him to function as ODI opener and pinch hitter to get along with the scoring during the power play- a role that Jason Roy has been doing so successfully for England and lately Sunil Narine is doing for KKR. He has shots all round the wicket and has the power game too an Pak can leverage in the shorter format, for want of a better top order hitter. He should be given the license to hit and his wicket would not be any harmful to Pakistan. Your thoughts ?
 
hahahahah i mean i would agree that he should improve his batting skills but ODI opener? seriously? .... and u comparing Jason Roy with him... that has to be the joke of the century .... lol and Narine is just a pinch hitter who has only done it in league cricket, international cricket is different ball game.
 
Man talk about thinking out of the box, but the OP has gone full OTT I guess.Yasir is no narine and can never be he could be more of a very hard to get out type of lower order batsman who play at goodish rate and can sneak and smash few fours here and there, he can still end up as pak best no. 8,
 
ChinMusic said:
hahahahah i mean i would agree that he should improve his batting skills but ODI opener? seriously? .... and u comparing Jason Roy with him... that has to be the joke of the century .... lol and Narine is just a pinch hitter who has only done it in league cricket, international cricket is different ball game.
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I am expecting Yasir Shah to play the role of pinch hitter, per my original quote. This is not a comparison but some examples of pinch hitting in modern day cricket. It would give Pak the much needed momentum at the top end of the innings, while allowing the other grafters- the likes of Azhar, Shehzad and Babar some cushion to settle down and help post a competitive total.

While this move may or may not be successful but something the team management can experiment with for a series or two to validate its effectiveness. Having watched Yasir bat, the chances of him succeeding in this role is more likely. In any case early loss of his wicket is inconsequential to the eventual outcome or the mood in the dressing room. A gamble worth taking.
 
Zeshan547 said:
Man talk about thinking out of the box, but the OP has gone full OTT I guess.Yasir is no narine and can never be he could be more of a very hard to get out type of lower order batsman who play at goodish rate and can sneak and smash few fours here and there, he can still end up as pak best no. 8,
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Thats exactly what Narine was before he started opening for KKR.
 
I have examples of international cricketers who started their career as a No 11 but turned out to be successful opening batsmen. YASIR has the potential to be an explosive opening batsman for his side.
 
Umar Gul should have been tried in that role -- had all the ingredients of being a good pinch hitter. Yasir is different
 
KyoOne said:
Umar Gul should have been tried in that role -- had all the ingredients of being a good pinch hitter. Yasir is different
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Yasir can handle the short ball better - a tool fast bowlers employ most often in the power play overs.
 
Not sure about opening in odis, but Yasir deserves a kick up the backside for not taking his batting more seriously
 
Under rated batsman, much better batsman than Wahab and Amir. Should be sent in after Sarfaraz
 
If we're trying pinch hitters as openers, try Umar Akmal. He's gotten enough matches at #s 4-6.
 
With the amount of leg-spinners turning around their career to become beast of a batsman, it's certainly not out of realm of possibility. :uakmal
 
I think he was tried as an opener in BPL 2015 by Dhaka Dynamites.
 
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stevewittry said:
I am expecting Yasir Shah to play the role of pinch hitter, per my original quote. This is not a comparison but some examples of pinch hitting in modern day cricket. It would give Pak the much needed momentum at the top end of the innings, while allowing the other grafters- the likes of Azhar, Shehzad and Babar some cushion to settle down and help post a competitive total.

While this move may or may not be successful but something the team management can experiment with for a series or two to validate its effectiveness. Having watched Yasir bat, the chances of him succeeding in this role is more likely. In any case early loss of his wicket is inconsequential to the eventual outcome or the mood in the dressing room. A gamble worth taking.
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Oh bhai i agree he can hit odd fours, but he can't regularly hit sixes at will, and i don't think he suddenly can learn that overnight, narine can hit even good balls for sixes with ease.
 
Imad Wasim would be apt for this role. We've all seen how he takes a little while to get going but seriously gets going when he does get going.
 
ExpressPacer said:
Imad Wasim would be apt for this role. We've all seen how he takes a little while to get going but seriously gets going when he does get going.
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I agree. Underrated batsman and I can see him being an opener if it would be an 'out of the box' option. Has the power and shot selection.
 
Pinch hitter role backfires in the sense that your last recognized batsman will have to bat with bowlers who can barely hold a bat
 
Mentioning sunil narine and Jason Roy in same sentence I hope you are not serious Jason Roy is one of the best opener going around he is one destructive batsman in the mould of Brendon Mccallum but he is better than brendon.
Yasir is good enough for no.8 and stylish too he should take his batting seriously he can average 25 in test matches he is not good enough for LOIs.
 
Sunil Narine played in middle order for his club team , he was never mug with the bat , just that did not get opportunities up the order
 
Yasir Shah - the new Courtney Walsh

He’s so bad that’s its entertaining watching him handle the willow these days. I think he has spent hours watching Courtney Walsh’s batting clips to remodel his batting style.
Not long ago, he used to be a decent bat so all this seems a very rapid development
 
More like the new Chris Martin. We must have the worst tail in the world considering our tail starts from no 7 onwards..
 
BreadPakoda said:
He’s so bad that’s its entertaining watching him handle the willow these days. I think he has spent hours watching Courtney Walsh’s batting clips to remodel his batting style.
Not long ago, he used to be a decent bat so all this seems a very rapid development
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He was a 15-20 averaging player when he first came into the team, and now he is a proper bunny.

This is a player who doesn’t play Limited Overs and gets lengthy lay-offs between games, and not only is he getting worse and worse with the bat, he is also getting fatter and fatter.

Sums up the culture of our cricket and how lazy and comfortable our players are in their comfort zone.

He knows he is an automatic pick for the Test team so there is no motivation for him to take his game to the next level. By now, he could have developed himself into a potential all-rounder who could have competed with our string of mediocre so-called all-rounders like Shadab, Imad, Nawaz etc.
 
Mamoon said:
He was a 15-20 averaging player when he first came into the team, and now he is a proper bunny.

This is a player who doesn’t play Limited Overs and gets lengthy lay-offs between games, and not only is he getting worse and worse with the bat, he is also getting fatter and fatter.

Sums up the culture of our cricket and how lazy and comfortable our players are in their comfort zone.

He knows he is an automatic pick for the Test team so there is no motivation for him to take his game to the next level. By now, he could have developed himself into a potential all-rounder who could have competed with our string of mediocre so-called all-rounders like Shadab, Imad, Nawaz etc.
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Same can also be said for a few others like Amir & Hasan both have the potential to average 15-20.
 
Mamoon said:
True, but they still score some runs. Yasir is a walking wicket.
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I think the general lack of game awareness by our tail is the most worrying part for me. For example Yasir yesterday knew that Olivier would bowl short pitched deliveries and yet he made no attempt to even get out of the way or anything. Our tail lacks the basic skills, I agree with the part of our players being way too comfortable someone like Yasir only plays around 7/8 matches a year so should have plenty of time to lose weight and focus on his batting.
 
Tailenders want nothing to do with it on pitches like perth & centurion, as well as the fielding team they too shout ‘Catch it’ when they nick off...
 
Won't judge him based on this pitch. On such pitches I would hope my main bowlers don't get injured, their 10-12 (best case scenarios) runs don't matter to me. Looking at his scores in the last couple of years I won't place him in Courtney Walsh or Chris Martin class. He is in the Ishant Sharma class and I will take that 'class' with his spin bowling credentials.
 
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The fact he hasn't improved his batting after a decent start sums up his mentality. Lazy crickter. Even his fielding has regressed.
 
He looks scared of pace bowling.

In fact I think he should be batting below Hasan Ali.

Yasir's technique is awful at the moment and he looks clueless.
 
Why blame a tail ender for being unable to bowl when more than half the batting order can't bat to save their lives.
 
Edisav_Yedava said:
Why blame a tail ender for being unable to bowl when more than half the batting order can't bat to save their lives.
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Welcome to PP. Did you mean to write "Why blame a tail ender for being unable to bat"?
 
Swashbuckler said:
Won't judge him based on this pitch. On such pitches I would hope my main bowlers don't get injured, their 10-12 (best case scenarios) runs don't matter to me. Looking at his scores in the last couple of years I won't place him in Courtney Walsh or Chris Martin class. He is in the Ishant Sharma class and I will take that 'class' with his spin bowling credentials.
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Steyn and Rabada gave South Africa a 1st innings lead. Your bowlers need to fight hard during low scoring games. Yasir looked uninterested with bat in hand.
 
As many other posters have pointed out that his batting has regressed badly. His technique to play fast bowlers is even worse , playing like a scared cat with closed eyes.He should bat only above sirfraz and Shaheen afridi in South Africa .
 
Post comeback he has looked Chris Martin with the Bat. Genuine number 11.

He shows zero fight with the Bat.


Time to play M Irfan Khan in overseas Tests (Aus, SA, NZ, SA). Irfan turns it more than any leggie in Pakistan and his batting is better than Shadab's.
 
TalentSpotterPk said:
Post comeback he has looked Chris Martin with the Bat. Genuine number 11.

He shows zero fight with the Bat.


Time to play M Irfan Khan in overseas Tests (Aus, SA, NZ, SA). Irfan turns it more than any leggie in Pakistan and his batting is better than Shadab's.
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Why not force him to improve his batting? If he could bat well once upon a time, I'm sure he can get the hang of it again. No? I'm really not sure how good Irfan Khan is but Yasir hasn't been bad for a leggie either.
 
Gives up too easily. I’m sure sodhi, chahal, lyon, kuldeep, mahraj would’ve showed some resistance. If you ain’t picking up wickets, then at least put some runs on the board.
 
His batting is so awful its actually funny to watch.
Terrible technique and no application what so ever.
Should not be sent above Abbas in any circumstances.
 
BreadPakoda said:
Why not force him to improve his batting? If he could bat well once upon a time, I'm sure he can get the hang of it again. No? I'm really not sure how good Irfan Khan is but Yasir hasn't been bad for a leggie either.
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See. He is not showing any fight whatsoever with the bat. We can't force him.


Since he doesn't turn the ball much hence outside Asia on such wickets we don't need him as a bowler.


Usama Mir & M Irfan Khan are big turners of the ball. Irfan's best FC score is 96 while batting at number 6. FC pitches are too seamers friendly hence he bowls few overs only but He was highest wicket taker in List A Cup in Pakistan and batted quite well as well. He played at number 3 for Multans (Although T20) but stroked a qualitu 60 odd and looked technically sound.


So in Tests in SA, NZ, UK, Aus I would want M Irfan Khan batting at number 8 and not Shadab or Yasir.


Shadab doesn't give adequate flight to the ball, bowls at faster pace and doesn't spin it much so for such overseas tours I will prefer Irfan.
 
His weaknesses with the bat are glaringly obvious and he is getting worse with the bat.

Needs to put in some hours working on his batting.
 
His batting has deteriorated badly. He's still useful as a bowler in spinning conditions but maybe Shadab should have been played instead. He's a much better batter than Yasir.
 
Any thoughts about him being captain in tests should be scrapped lol. His attitude towards batting sums him up. Was a decent batter and now he can barely hold a bat. Disgraceful attitude for a senior player.
 
Why the heck doesn’t he learn to duck, sway and leave short balls. He’s blocking chest high deliveries with his bat and on this wicket with this attack he’s bound to glove or edge it behind. I honestly can’t think of a worse tail ender even Abbas tried to hang around.
 
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