Best bowling option for Pakistan in WC

[mohammad16]

You are correct, they are pretty different players - but the role they'll be asked to play in the team is the same, ideally coming in at six/seven and blasting away at the end whilst doing a reasonable containing job with the ball. Razzaq's batting superiority is off-set by Mahmood's better bowling form, so overall Pakistan breaks just about even.

There's no doubt in my mind that Mahmood has the talent and ability to play innings which, if not quite upto par with Razzaq's brutal death order onslaughts, will be more than useful. The question is whether he'll be able to harnass the talent effectively; I haven't followed Mahmood's recent career, but I remember watching Mahmood flay 100 odd against the likes of Pollock and Donald at Durban (I think that innings was picked as the seventh best of all time in the wisden list) and anybody who can do that is perfectly capable of batting at six/seven IMO.

azhar mahmood is the wrost bowler ever

every single time hes played for pakistan, the opposition ahs always singled him out and targetted him

i think razzaq would have been a very usefull bowler on slow pitches cuz he has a nack for getting the ball to seam around on slow dull pitches

anyways i think they should stick with sami, if he gets his lenght right, he can pose some problems for certain batsmen, top class batsmen will prob enjoy sami tohugh

i think iftikhar anjum might be a very good choice, he bowls pretty quick, but more importantly with a very quick action which seems a bit deceptive, and bowls a good lenght

 

[haroon510]

What makes you think that Sami will do good ?, he seems to have a terrible record.
Also what do you think about Arafat? can he be a better bet than Anjum?? I think Arafat is still very much unknown player, has hardly played much cricket, this might be his chance to impress.

sami averages better in one day than test. as far as i know araft is an alrounder and we already have a much better option in alrounder in name of azhar mahmood than yasir arafat. considering that the best option would be to go with an spacialist fast bowler. sami has played for along time now and he hasn't been in a good form but becuase of his exprince i would pick him over anjum any day. if i would have to drop some one for anjum i would go with droping navid who has been in horrible form.

the whole pcb team selection didn't make sense to me. i don't know why hafeez is still in the team. comparing to yasir hameed hafeez innings are bellow in test matches in Sa
3 99 32 16.50 0 0 1 1/36 99.00
one day matches
2 21 21 10.50 0 0 2 2/69 39.00
camparing to him yasir hameed total score was
3 124 65 20.66 averaging
he at least made a fifty and he looked promising in his last innings but the pakistani team didn't even give him another chance to play. in world cup hafeez was picked over him.
yasir hameed averages 39 in 50 one day matches while hafeez averages 19 in 44 matches with strike rate of only 58. it is clear that yasir has a much better record and he has played much better cricket than hafeez in Sa too. but he gets droped from the team and hafeez gets selected for no damn reason.

 

[rodzilla1010]

Pakistan has to play 4 bowlers and expect thier top 6 batsmen to come good...

You cannot have a batting line up till #9 comprised of bits and peices players...and bowlers who cant take wickets until the batsmen gives it to them

Arafat, azhar are military medium.
Pakistan needs speiclaists

I would play rana/sami, Rao, kaneria and gul

 

[PhoenixFire]

Rana has been in awful form lately, I've got the feeling he's gonna get creamed on a flat Wi pitch.

 

[Prince EWS]

Surely Hafeez is in the team more for his bowling than his batting though.

There was once a time where I'd agree with you, but no longer, really. He was originally selected as a batting allrounder, then dropped because of his poor batting showings. He was then recalled years later for the tour of Australia - again as somewhat of a batting allrounder after the ban imposed on Malik. Although he batted ridiculously poorly, he kept his place in the side based on his performances with the ball and the chance that he just may do something with the bat eventually. He was promptly dropped after that when that didn't occur.

His recall though, was on the back on good test batting performances, rightly or wrongly, and his continued ODI selection is based on potential with the bat rather than application with the ball. It's quite reflective of the poor standards of Pakistani openers really.

Personally though, I back his selection as a batsman. His record is completely dire but he seems an improved player to me since his recall, even in the one day format where he hasn't really backed up the improvement with application yet. He looks the most technically sound to me out of Butt, Hameed, Farhat et al and I think he has ODI runs in him.

 

[Prince EWS]

Prince EWS,

Mahmood has to play, he's pretty much a straight replacement for Razzaq who is considered to be one of our more useful ODI players.

With Afridi, Malik and Hafeez already existing in the team, there is no real need to play Mahmood unless he genuinely is the next best batsman or the next best bowler - which I seriously doubt. Razzaq's selection was always based on the fact that he was a good player rather than the overall balance of the team, so picking someone who isn't as good just to maintain a balance which was always flawed would be suicidal as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Prince EWS]

Pakistan has to play 4 bowlers and expect thier top 6 batsmen to come good...

You cannot have a batting line up till #9 comprised of bits and peices players...and bowlers who cant take wickets until the batsmen gives it to them

Arafat, azhar are military medium.
Pakistan needs speiclaists

I would play rana/sami, Rao, kaneria and gul

Arafat is far from military medium. Personally I don't rate him a great deal from the two or three times I've seen him play, but he generates more pace than Asif and Rao to be perfectly honest.

Your team simply wouldn't work IMO, because the openers are a weaklink of the side already and you'd have to have Akmal batting at 6 with that lineup, with Afridi at 7 (when he returns - until then I'd assume Malik at 6 and Akmal at 7, which could work I guess.)

I'd drop either Rana or Kaneria from that side to play an extra batsman - and I don't mean Mahmood, either.

 

[Pup Clarke]

What about the following as bowling options in the opening WC game


Umar Gul
Rana Naved
Rao Iftikhar/Azhar Mahmood
Danish Kaneria
Shoaib Malik
Mohammed Hafeez

 

[Prince EWS]

What about the following as bowling options in the opening WC game


Umar Gul
Rana Naved
Rao Iftikhar/Azhar Mahmood
Danish Kaneria
Shoaib Malik
Mohammed Hafeez

I don't see how you could leave Afridi out given his recent bowling form - even if you don't rate his batting.

I'd go with:

Gul
Rao
Naved/Kaneria
Afridi
Hafeez
Malik

I'd like to play Kaneria over Naved, but there'd be problems in the powerplays really with only two quicks.

 

[Pup Clarke]

I don't see how you could leave Afridi out given his recent bowling form - even if you don't rate his batting.

I'd go with:

Gul
Rao
Naved/Kaneria
Afridi
Hafeez
Malik

I'd like to play Kaneria over Naved, but there'd be problems in the powerplays really with only two quicks.

Afridi's banned for the first two matches...

 

[Prince EWS]

Afridi's banned for the first two matches...

Oh, right, I missed the "opening WC game" part - I thought you were referring to their strongest team. Sorry about that. For the first two games, I'd probably play Mahmood, reluctantly, and Kaneria. I wouldn't be playing Rana.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Oh, right, I missed the "opening WC game" part - I thought you were referring to their strongest team. Sorry about that. For the first two games, I'd probably play Mahmood, reluctantly, and Kaneria. I wouldn't be playing Rana.

Disagree about Rana TBH.He might have got murdered in SA but is still a very good bowler with a proven record for the last couple of years now.Without Shoaib or Asif,Rana IMO has to play.I still think he'll be much more effective than Sami,Iftikhar and Azhar.

 

[Prince EWS]

Disagree about Rana TBH.He might have got murdered in SA but is still a very good bowler with a proven record for the last couple of years now.Without Shoaib or Asif,Rana IMO has to play.I still think he'll be much more effective than Sami,Iftikhar and Azhar.

I'd agree in terms of Mahmood and Sami, but not Rao, who I've actually been somewhat impressed with, particularly lately. I've picked Mahmood to prevent having Rana batting 8... he's not good enough for that batting position IMO, especially given the fact that the Pakistani openers aren't at all reliable. I don't really rate Mahmood's bowling one bit, but someone has to bowl first change even if it's only 4 or 5 overs until the powerplays are over.

I'd consider Rana when Afridi returned as the whole balance of the side would change.

 

[Pup Clarke]

I don't really rate Mahmood's bowling one bit

QUOTE]

I feel that's a tad harsh.Never been a really good bowler but is honest and is usually pretty accurate.I've seen alot worse bowlers that Azhar Mahmood including Razzaq who's bowling I don't rate one bit.

 

[Prince EWS]

I feel that's a tad harsh.Never been a really good bowler but is honest and is usually pretty accurate.I've seen alot worse bowlers that Azhar Mahmood including Razzaq who's bowling I don't rate one bit.

I probably rate Razzaq's bowling on par with Mahmood's - equally bad an of the part-time variety.

EDIT: And please fix up your quotes!!

 

[rodzilla1010]

i WOULD NOT PLAY MEHMOOD, in the first game i will def play Rao and kaneria with gul...

its between sami and rana...and i will give rana the go ahead.

 

[Prince EWS]

i WOULD NOT PLAY MEHMOOD, in the first game i will def play Rao and kaneria with gul...

its between sami and rana...and i will give rana the go ahead.

Long tail, and a brittle opening partnership...

 

[rodzilla1010]

Long tail, and a brittle opening partnership...

if Pakistan has to win they have to put the confidence in the players...no use playing defenisve cricket.

 

[Prince EWS]

if Pakistan has to win they have to put the confidence in the players...no use playing defenisve cricket.

If Pakistan wants to win, then they have to pick the best team available. Having faith in players is great, but if they fail and you've got no backup for them, then it really amounts to very little.

 

[rodzilla1010]

If Pakistan wants to win, then they have to pick the best team available. Having faith in players is great, but if they fail and you've got no backup for them, then it really amounts to very little.

I m not in favor of padding the batting line up with bits and pieces players just to watch them scoring nothing and getting hit all over the place

Secondly our openers will do better than what they did in SA