Not a hidden fact that Pakistan’s batting lineup lacks natural stroke players
to tackle bouncy tracks and most importantly the ‘short ball’ that is fast making a come back for taking wickets at the most important moments.
Apart from Inzimam, Yousuf,Shoiab,Razak,Imran and few others have no clue as how to react to such bowling.
I am being critical for obviouse reasons and hope that this SA tours goes well for Pakistan under scrupulous coaching and prep.
Spin bowling from Pak bowlers would be another demanding factor, and as we have seen in the the current Indian tour of SA, spin and fast bowling has to be
Quick-Sharp and Crispy in order to get help from the wicket.
I expect Rana Naweed tp play in the test match instead of Razzak as Rana has that ‘Sharp and Crispy’ affect not seen in Razzak’s bowling, Lets see,
Even Inzi's a bit suspect against short-pitched stuff. Imran Khan's contention that Inzi is one of the best players of fast bowling is misplaced. Inzi averages a dismal 33 and 31.40 against SA and Australia respectively (His away record in those countries would look even worse). Yousuf averages a dismal 16.86 and 29.60 against SA and Aus respectively. Inzi was given a good working over from Harmison at Lords this year and he looked clueless against his rising deliveries. Among his contemporaries Lara, Ponting and even SRT have negotiated short-pitched bowling a lot better than Inzi.
Quite a decent idea for a thread. The bowling is not as much of a worry as the batting department is. Apart from less than a handful of players who have that authority to play with command, there is not really anyone to be placed a bet upon. The same case with India's current tour; us both have the bowling resources to bowl the side out with a mighty reasonable total, but batting is the crunch, it has to click. I have more of a concern in the batting department that in any other, and that includes the fielding aspect, which has been troublesome over the years. Individual performances will vastly come into play, as they should.
Another interesting point to note would be the standard of fielding after the Rhodes' recent stint. Apart from a determined spirit by Younis and Inzamam in the slips, others will have to step up. It is not an option.
Thanks dhobi_bhai
The list goes on and ofcourse fielding and sharp reflexes are way up the list as well (add athletic condition of most players to the math)
However I just read Zulqarnain Haider as 2nd wicketkeeper added to the squad and I feel this to be an important move ahead of the WC. Mr Kamran has been little wayward behind the stumps lately.
Indians had some good fielding moments but enough to matvch the 'Super Fit'
afrikaans. Do we learn from it ?