It only feels like yesterday when Kaneria first appeared on the scene and we watched in anticipation as promises were made for another wrist magician. Sadly, in the past six or seven years, he has thoroughly disappointed us except in the 2005 England tour to Pakistan. We have been waiting as he announced the development of a mystery ball, waited when we were told that he couldn’t get wickets because the batsmen weren’t putting enough runs on the board for Kaneria to apply pressure, waited when we were told that the wickets he was being made to bowl on weren’t good for spin bowling, waited as we were told that he was trying to ‘contain’ the batting side.
It’s about time people realized that we have another Sami on our hands. His average (bowling) is increasing over time, wickets are getting fewer and far between, and if a bowler cannot apply pressure against a team that is 4 wickets down for under a 100 runs, then WHEN can he do it? Sadly, he’s not a run containing option either as quite often he gives away more runs than our pacers. Just like Mohd. Sami, he’s been blocking the the slot of a spinner in our team. Had we given up on Sami long time ago, we could have developed many more deserving and talented bowlers in place. Just this year alone Arafat, Iftikhar Anjum and Sohail Tanveer have shown test potential. And in the years before, Umar Gul and Mohd. Asif managed to make a splash when we finally dumped Sami and tried some other options.
Abur Rehman might not be the best leg spinner around, but he certainly seems better than Kaneria at this point, as was evident when they both played against South Africa recently. How long do we continue to wait for Kaneria to materialize all the ‘potential’ he’s been promising us. To top it all off, he can’t bat for more than one ball, his fielding is atrocious and quite often his fielding displays bring the team morale down.
I am not a huge Afridi supporter, but I believe that he can provide more value to us as our spin option (until we find a better spinner), he’s guaranteed to score more runs than Kaneria, and he keeps the team active.
Let’s all make a collective prayer for Kaneria to be dropped from the team!
Re: How much longer do we let Kaneria "develop" into a world class bowler
nothing will happen. kaneria will remain an integral part of the team. period. PCB is too incompetent to make brave decisions and to bring in new blood.
Re: How much longer do we let Kaneria "develop" into a world class bowler
one spinner in a test series. you have to look at the wicket also. even indian commentators are admittig that there is nothing for bowlers and ball is coming to batsmen.
Re: How much longer do we let Kaneria "develop" into a world class bowler
I am talking about Danish's performance in the past six years and not just this series. And wait till Pakistan bats to find out what daemons are present in the wicket after all!
Re: How much longer do we let Kaneria "develop" into a world class bowler
look at his record, his wickets, his performance this year in jan against SA. problem is those time he either had Irshad khan or abdur rehman with him. spin requires combination, or they can do what Sri Lanka and Australia does, make wicket for spinners only.
the difference between indian and pakistani batsmen is that pak batsmen gave away their wickets. there are too many clumsy outs that are not even worth mentioning.
Re: How much longer do we let Kaneria "develop" into a world class bowler
about time someone asked this question. I have always said that Kaneria is over-rated, certainly not as good as Abdul Qadir, Saqlain Mushtaq, Mushtaq Ahmed (in his prime) and even Iqbal Qasim. He has to bowl something like 35-40 overs per innings to get 2-3 wickets which is hardly a performance at this level. He struggles to get top-order batsmen out and he usu. takes heaps of wickets when the opposition is already down or there is someone like Akhtar to apply pressure from the other end. This series has very brutally exposed our bowling limitations. Apart from Akhtar (who is very injury prone) we lack truly world class bowlers who can consistently run thru top order batsmen on decent tracks. Even Asif and Gul are decent/very good rather than great.
Re: How much longer do we let Kaneria "develop" into a world class bowler
the only thing exposed so far are our selection committee. you can not win a test series by one spinner only. they played two seamers against South Africa and look what happened to both of them. we all know the blame will once again come down to players and PCB will get away with another excuse.
Re: How much longer do we let Kaneria "develop" into a world class bowler
the only thing exposed so far are our selection committee. you can not win a test series by one spinner only. they played two seamers against South Africa and look what happened to both of them. we all know the blame will once again come down to players and PCB will get away with another excuse.
You should learn to look past your prejudices. Jumping up and down and shouting 'Selection Committee Bad' all day isn't an argument. How Kaneria bowls and how capable a bowler he is, isn't and shouldn't be dependent on what selection committee is doing.
And as I write this, Kaneria takes his FIRST wicket of the match, in his 45th over. Wonderful!
Re: How much longer do we let Kaneria "develop" into a world class bowler
i have prejudices....lol
nice way to divert the topic.
selection comitte is to be blamed. you can not go into a test match with four bowlers where one of them is a spiner. it is simple logic, bowlers get wear down. to take a wicket in a test match, one needs combination. something that was common with saqlain, mushtaq, qadir and others.
Re: How much longer do we let Kaneria "develop" into a world class bowler
MWAP: I was a Kaneria fan but the frequency with which he just serves up rubbish for batsmen is astonishing. Yes bowlers need support from the other end but the least he coud do is avoid bowling those leg side long hops which were all too frequent for yuvraj and Gangs.
Abdul Rahman SHOULD have played in this match but our management lacks the balls to make tough decisions.
Re: How much longer do we let Kaneria "develop" into a world class bowler
Lol... I dont have anything against Kaneria
But the truth is that he is a crap bowler... And even after getting smacked all around the park he has the audacity to pick up the ball and charge the batsman... Hilarious!
I mean if it was Akhtar I can understand! Cuz everyone knows he can back aggression up with an equally good performance. But Kaneria! Good christ! lmao.
Re: How much longer do we let Kaneria "develop" into a world class bowler
the only thing exposed so far are our selection committee. you can not win a test series by one spinner only. they played two seamers against South Africa and look what happened to both of them. we all know the blame will once again come down to players and PCB will get away with another excuse.
Disagree. Warne and Murali were the lone spinners for their teams in test matches for so many years and they were mighty effective. Even in the current series against England, Murali is their lone spinner with Vaas, Malinga and Fernando completing the bowling attack. The fact that Gul and Asif were 'exposed' against SA has more to do with their own respective deficiencies i.e. they both lack serious pace (which Imran Khan and the two W's had in abundance in their prime years) that is required to consistently trouble top order batsmen on these placid sub-continental pitches. That Karachi track where Asif took a heap of wickets in 2005 was seamer-friendly. Even Pathan had us six wickets down for not many.
Kaneria is just not truly world class. How many times for instance does he account for top order batsmen? I think of him more as a support bowler rather than a match-winner. Let's just accept that he is not good enough at this level.
Re: How much longer do we let Kaneria "develop" into a world class bowler
Disagree. Warne and Murali were the lone spinners for their teams in test matches for so many years and they were mighty effective. Even in the current series against England, Murali is their lone spinner with Vaas, Malinga and Fernando completing the bowling attack. The fact that Gul and Asif were 'exposed' against SA has more to do with their own respective deficiencies i.e. they both lack serious pace (that Imran Khan and the two w's had in abundance in their prime years) that is required to consistently trouble top order batsmen on these placid sub-continental pitches. That Karachi track where Asif took a heap of wickets in 2005 was seamer-friendly. Even Pathan had us six wickets down for not many.
Kaneria is just not truly world class. How many times for instance does he account for top order batsmen? I think of him more as a support bowler rather than a match-winner. Let's just accept that he is not good enough at this level.
Agree with you to some extent. However, if you look at Warne and Murali, both have had sufficient backup from other bowlers in their respective teams.
Mcgrath, Lee & Vaas are more than sufficient anyway.
I don't think its fair of us to compare Kaneria with Warne/Murali. Those two are far superior in skill and concentration than any other. Kaneria is not even worth a mention in front of those two.
Kaneria got smacked today because he mostly bowled to left handers who traditionally play the leg-spinners well. He was floating the wrong ones through but he bowls them much slower than he should and therefore is easier to read. Moreoever, I have no idea why he doesnt come around the wicket to lefties more often. Neither he tries to vary his pace nor he has great levels of concentration. Kind of underlines what I said before.
Well, I'll still save my judgement on him though. I want to see how he bowls on a spinning track. That should seal the verdict.
Re: How much longer do we let Kaneria "develop" into a world class bowler
Kaneria is a mediocre bowler at best. I wish we can found someone in Pakistan who is Murali/Warnesque. Murali/Warne worked even if the wickets were not made for spin. Til we find someone who can penetrate better than Kaneria I guess we have to live with him. Sadly, there seems to be no urgency by the PCB to find a replacement for him!
Re: How much longer do we let Kaneria "develop" into a world class bowler
Pakistan has no other leg spinner available at the moment, except may be Amjad or maybe one or two from the junior side. Legspinners take time to mature. They always go for runs, and it isn't easy to pick wickets on placid tracks. Indians are excellent players of spin bowling, so being thrashed around the park wasn't unexpected.
His overall performance isn't bad... 217 wickets in 50 Tests is nothing to sneeze at. In our last tour to Australia (2004/2005) he outdid both Warne and MacGill. That should tell you something.
And Abdur Rehman is not a leg spinner, he's left-arm orthodox.
Re: How much longer do we let Kaneria "develop" into a world class bowler
And I am all in favor of giving our left arm orthodox and domestic leg spinners a chance, or even try Shahid Afridi as the team spinner for now. You think they'll do worse than 1 wicket in 50+ overs for 170+ runs that Kaneria so often gets?
Re: How much longer do we let Kaneria "develop" into a world class bowler
Could we have not brought back Saqlain Mushtaq sometime ago? I mean the guy had a few bad series and we got rid of him forever. He deserves a chance again.