I have this image… Inzi as a father figure for the youngsters in our team and time after time he pulls us out of trouble, as if he’s looking after the younger members of the team.. Its like he’s sending a message to the england team “Its not over till I depart, I am the last defence and you will have to get past me to stand any chance” A mighty figure who lets his presence be felt even though he may not be the loudest person whilst batting… I just hope he carries on for a big one
Re: Giant Inzimam stands in the way again
And in two years time when he retires the younger sucklings will be exposed to the world like chicks to a falcon. No more papa inzi to bail em out of trouble time and again. Bad times are not far away.
Sincerely,
Captain Lota
Re: Giant Inzimam stands in the way again
Yes thats very worrying
Re: Giant Inzimam stands in the way again
Cricket goes on, we survived the departure of Wasim And Waqar we will survive Inzi's departure as well. Younis has already shown maturity in the past few series. Plenty of promosing youngsters coming forard like Hasan Raza, Bazid Khan, Saeed Bin Nasir etc. Ofcourse it would be hard to fill void of Inzimam (even literally) :) but I think the team is on the right track. Butt showed a lot of maturity yesterday. His favorite scoring region was plugged and he resisted the temptation for a long time to play lofted drives.
Mohammad Yousaf's test form has been worrying me. He hasnt played a good test knock in some time now. There is no doubt about his class but he will need to step up and play the role of the senior batsman as well.
Taufeeq Umar, Imran Farhat, Imran Nazir, Yasir Hameed, Asim Kamal are all talented players. A little hard would do wonders for them. I think our batting reserves are fine and eventually when Inzi leaves we will carry on the good work started by him and Woolmer.
Re: Giant Inzimam stands in the way again
Exactly. The game goes on. In fact, sometimes it’s better when a big player retires because then there is the added motivation to step up and take responsibilities for many of the other players. Hopefully that would be the case when Inzi retires.
Re: Giant Inzimam stands in the way again
We were worried when we saw Miandad's time to retire was coming, though we had Inzamam but we were still worried.... we are still worried about when Inzamam leaves. :)
Re: Giant Inzimam stands in the way again
Miandad wasnt much of a threat for oppositions towards the end of his career. Inzimam had taken over by then as Pakistan's piller of batting. Not doubting Miandad's statue as a great batsman but just pointing outthat Miandad, much like Kapil Dev played cricket way beyond his prime.
Re: Giant Inzimam stands in the way again
BTW, Imran Farhat/Nazir and Taufeeq are past now. I hope we won't see them again. Butt, Bazid and Malik are promising.
Re: Giant Inzimam stands in the way again
I disagree, Saeed Anwar had a miserable start to his test career in 1990/91 and made a strong comeback in 1993/94. Sames goes for many great cricketers who did not start so well but were fortunate enuff to get a second chance ie Imran Khan is a fine example.
Just look at thebowling talent available, selectors were finding it difficult who not to select. Its a matter of time, batting will also show its true colors, just give it a little bit more time.
Re: Giant Inzimam stands in the way again
^^ Agree 100 %. The great Imran Khan had a bad start to his test career as well and was dropped after that and made a come back later. Farhat, Nazir, Umar, Hameed all have age on their side and strong show at the domestic level will earn them a recall to the national side. Imran Nazir is perhaps the most naturally talented of them all but unfortunatley he never really fired consistently at test level. Imran farhat and Taufeeq Umar had some good moments as openrs but they faded away as well. Yaisr Hameed just didnt live up to the hype that he created after two centuries on debut even if they were agaisnt Bangladesh but it still was a big accomplishment but he just didnt do anything worthwile after those two knocks. He has the talent, is a hard worker but he isnt as young as the others.
Re: Giant Inzimam stands in the way again
I agree to the fact that Inzimam is more threat to the opposition then was Miandad towards the end of his career and I think Inzimam is also much better batsman then him, not taking any thing away from Maindad.
At the moment we must not worry regarding Inzi's replacement as I think this wont be a problem. Its only matter of time when Yousaf gets his form back and not to forget there are many promising youngster waiting to go out in the field.