Lack of Quality Batsmen

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21

Our batting problem only lies in the opening spot..and it has been there for a long time now. Hafeez has really not proved himself consistent. Afridi, Nazir...all had the same problem, they knocked a half centuray once in a while and then failed in the rest of the games.

Hafeez has socred 27, 28, 2 in the 3 games he has played agianst the bengalis...which makes me wonder how he will fare when he faces the SA bowling attack...Allah rahem karay...

I think Salman looked to be more of a ODI player than Test player...he should have been tried for ODI's.

22

I agree with Xtreme. Our batting is very fragile. We dont have any dependable players. Even Inzi & YoYo have not been very consistent agaisnt quality oppositions. We need a batting line up like the one we had in the 70's.

I think out best batting line up was in the 70's. Though I did not witness most of those players playing in their prime but I tihnk Ehsan bhai might be able to shed more line on it. In the 70's we had a middle order packed with Zaheer Abbas, Mushtaq Muhammad, Asif Iqbal & Javed Miandad. Even a gifted batsman like Majid Khan had to move up the order to become an opener becasue there was on room for him in the middle order. Then we had the talented Wasim Raja a classical strokemaker, and Imran Khan who was also a solid bat in the lower middle order. Now this is a strong batting liune up. ANd even if a couple of players failed one of them came through for the team.

23

If we are talking about 70's (its more like early 80's) then let me just share a few fleeting images.

Asif Iqbal, although a terrific runner between the wickets, was not a highly reliable batsman. Atleast not at the time I saw him play, very briefly.

Zahir was amazing, but erratic. In some series, he will just be a dud and in some others will shower runs like there is no tomorrow.

Miandad was a class-act.

Mushtaq Muhammad was not a particularly impressive batsman. At the time I saw him, again very briefly, I am not sure he'd had a place in the team, if it were not for his captaincy skills.

Majid... I only saw him in towards the end of his career, and that too embroiled in all the controversies, what with players revolting against Miandad and IK becoming captain. He was a solid batsman. Class act.

Wasim Raja.. I am sure he played some good innings, but he was highly erratic as a batsman. He was stylish no doubt. But not someone you can rely to win you matches as a batsman. His leg break (with a funky action) would come in handy too.

Then we had Mohsin Khan. We still romanticize about the successful opening pair of Mohsin and Musassar... but hand-to-heart, other than his 200* at Lords, I can't remember any other solid innings from him. He was stylish no doubt, but the West Indians tour of Pakistan exposes his lack of depth.

Mudassar... a gifted player. But so boring, you can go to sleep once he comes in to bat. Thank God, we had Mohsin on the other end to keep us entertained.

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In my view, one of our more reliable batting line up was at the 1996 World Cup. A very decent mix of batsman (later allegations of match fixing, notwithstanding).

Aamir Sohail
Saeed Anwar
Inzamam-ul-Haq
Javed Miandad
Salim Malik
Ijaz Ahmed (<- he was the only weak link, as he was erratic)
Rameez Raja
Wasim Akram

24

Arey Faisal bhai you picked up batting for one specific tournament. Even as far as World Cups are concerned I think we had a better line up in the 87' cup compared to 96. Rameez, Amir & Ijaz were never class acts. Wasim's batting ofcourse can not be compared to Imran's. Even if you go head to head I think the team of late 70's will come out stronger.

We share Minadad in both the line ups apart form that your batting line up has no one world class excpet of Saeed Anwar and perhaps Malik to some extent.

Zaheer in full flow was majestic. I have not witnessed him playing live but have seen some recording of his classic innings. Even Miandad in his autobiography said Zahher was the most natualry talented batsman Pakistan has ever produced. Now coming from Javed thats a big thing as Zahher & Javed were not the best of friends.

Asif Iqbal was a man of crisis for Pakistan and his Test record is pretty solid. Mushtaq apart from being an exceptional captain was also a very solid batsman. I wont lie to you I have never seen him bat but his record suggests that. He's got a very decent average of around 40 along with 79 wickets in 57 tests.

These players were purley world class. I think Ehsan bhai might be albe to put things to rest as he seems to be the only one who has seen all these plyers in their prime.

25

Bhai, I am not a statistics guy... so I don't check Stats Guru before posting my opinion. I gave my rundown on these people based on how I remember them playing. I have seen all of them play (those I mentioned).

Zahir was definitely a naturally gifted player, but being talented is one, to consistently prove it is another. But he did play a number of solid innings. No doubt. So I won't argue on him. Or Miandad for that matter.

Mushtaq, I can't remember a single solid innings from him. Then again, to be fair to him, I saw him at the tail-end of his cricket career. His captaincy was top-notch even then.

Pls checks records to see whether our team in 70's was more consistent in batting, or was the team in early-to-mid 90's more consistent. So, there were not a lot of super-super-stars in 90's team, but they usually delivered. And, I think thats what really matters. Individual brilliance, notwithstanding.

26

I don't think I've ever seen a really class batting Pakistan line up but the WC 96 line up that Faisal mentioned probably was as close to it as we are going to get. The key to the strentgh of that line up was a top opening pair of left-handers in Aamir and Anwar who smacked the living sh1t out of the fast bowlers of the day, which regularly set up the middle order to capitalise, especially in one dayers.

27

I dont think Pakistan lacks good batsmen, Selectors and Fans have to be patient with their team. A team isn't built in a day.

The main reason Pakistan has been lacking in batting is because of frequent changes in the Batting line up, Frequent changes in Captaincy, and not to forget selectors. If you look at the last corp of batsmen like Miandad, Saeed, Sohail, Ramiz, Malik, Inzamam etc, all of them Came (or at least flourished) under Imran. By the time Imran left, new batsmen like Saeed, Sohail, Inzamam had grown in confidence.

People say Kaif, Yuvraj etc are good batsmen, well they are and the reason is because they have a captain who supports them and assures them that they shouldn't be afraid of failure. He backs them well. Confidence plays a big role at International Level and I dont think any Pakistani batsman enjoys that at the moment. One bad inning and people start gunning for a batsman's head.

I say give these batsmen some confidence that they will not lose their place just because of one or two bad performance and you will see the result.

28

^^ totally agreed!!! but I would say give chances to ones who have a very good record in domestic and county cricket.... Junaid Zia has no place in the team... and I don't know why Saeed bin Nasir is not included in the squad... his domestic record is very good....

29

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by TomSawyer: *
That's another reason Indian TV programs should not be banned. The youngsters could watch Indian on TV and pick up batting techniques.
[/QUOTE]

u dont learn to play cricket watching videos and reading books..

30

^ Depends on what level you want to play at. I know people who spend hours watching video to perfect a stroke or to land on the perfect toe

31

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Asif_k: *
I dont think Pakistan lacks good batsmen, Selectors and Fans have to be patient with their team. A team isn't built in a day.

People say Kaif, Yuvraj etc are good batsmen, well they are and the reason is because they have a captain who supports them and assures them that they shouldn't be afraid of failure. He backs them well. Confidence plays a big role at International Level and I dont think any Pakistani batsman enjoys that at the moment. One bad inning and people start gunning for a batsman's head.

[/QUOTE]

It's not that simple Asif. Yaasir Hameed has kept his place in the side because so far he has shown a good technique as well as scored runs. Even though I agree that people tend to get after players too quickly (you only have to look at the stick Taufeeq gets here after a very successful start in international cricket to see that). But too many of our batsmen just look very ordinairy or lacking basic technique or shot selection. The very reason I mentioned Kaif, Yuvraj etc is because they are fairly complete players with no real flaws. Everybody can't be a Tendulkar or Lara, but we seem to be having trouble even getting a few test standard players coming through.