**SIALKOT: Pakistan’s opening batsmen are to have an extra weapon with which to counter the England seam attack during the Test series starting next month…
The idea itself is not valid when your openers (* 2 are tried and tested and one is well dear to the heart of coach, captain and pcb, not doubting his sincerity and hardwork at all)* have a bad habit of poking, fishing and slashing the ball outside off-stumps, instead they could have used extra work in the training camp to rectify their problems.
Idea presented is okay but is it good for one series? or will they come up with these kind of ideas for other tours; (S-Africa, Kiwis and Kangroo’s…etc)
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Re: ~!~ *Pak openers to have special bats for England tour *~!~
The idea presented could have been taken one step further by formulating this mentioned gameplan. Laying a conditioning camp on Qabristan pitches will not even come close of helping the likes of Naveed and Asif (not to mention all of our openers), who, after their superb and successful returns from the English county season in a few short weeks, will once again find it hard to adjust their line and lengths from the perspective of preparing for English batters.
Only if one would make it an equal contest for both sides of the fence of gaining an extra advantage or two, why sit with both hands on the lap? If it is not feasible to prepare green tops at Gaddafi Stadium in such a short amount of time, why not move to Karachi, or at least, Multan, so that the fielders have an opportunity of a lifetime on their hands to make themselves comfortable before Rhodes arrival?
Re: ~!~ *Pak openers to have special bats for England tour *~!~
Dhobi bhai nice suggestion but unfortunately camp can't move to Karachi as pitch specialist from Kiwi land have come here and recommended few things and NSK 6 pitches will be dig up and then prepare according to their recommendations. so NSK is out of question, and Multan seems like a good idea but I think they(pcb/think tank) can prepare green pitches in Lahore/ NCA coz they prepared for SA tour many years ago (moving all the million $ equipments) will not be a good idea at all.
and I am not a fan of Rhodes coming here at all, I am still wondering what changes he can bring in mere couple of weeks :o
Re: ~!~ *Pak openers to have special bats for England tour *~!~
Acrobi jee and Dhobi jee,
I agree with both of your thoughts about special bats for our openers. In my view, these bats should just be used as an extra tool to combat English seam attack. These bats shouldn't be at all a piece of mind for our beloved Butt and Farhat so they can slash/smash every ball that goes out close to the off stump.
Regarding the conditioning camp, I agree that it should have been placed in Karachi or even Multan as in Multan we have a lush green ground and it would have been much easier for fielders to practice diving/running in terms of fielding but I guess in Multan we don't have good facilities like hotels.
In any case, Jonty Rhodes is about to arrive in Pak for 2 weeks and I'm as skeptical as you guys are about what "miracles" we gonna see in Pak fielding. I'm sure that players like "Malik, Afridi, &Younis Khan" going to get better inshAllah but what about Kaneria and Inzi. Any "revivals" for them in fielding. It would have been way better if we could employ Jonty for let's say atleast six months. But oh well, let's hope for the best and I can't wait for the England series to start.
P.S.: I read in Jang newspaper that it's highly unlikely for Shoaib Akhtar to be in the Pak team for England. A sad news as he was our main weapon when the English toured Pak.
Re: ~!~ *Pak openers to have special bats for England tour *~!~
Are these bats anything like “Patriot” anti-missile system where they track the missile and hit it? i.e. batsman will just hold the bat in air and bat will itself track the ball outside off-stump and hit it? If a batsman is moving his bat to nick the outgoing ball so slip/keeper can be happy then what would the “special” bat do? kick the batsman in his behind?
If a batsman is moving his bat to nick the outgoing ball so slip/keeper can be happy then what would the “special” bat do? kick the batsman in his behind?