SJS
Hall of Fame Member
Its amazing how many people have a poor opinion of Jaffer. Let me make a submission here.
This is not to make Jaffer sound as a bigger player than he is but all that I have said is true. Jaffer also has great patience and can go on to play very long innings and has done so in the past.
His drawbacks are a sudden loss in concentration at times. A tendency to play with a casualness reminicient of Laxman which can let him down when the ball does something special - in other words he can get carried away by his own flow of stroking the ball.
He needs someone to keep talking to him in the middle so that he keeps at it otherwise after reaching a decent score he may get out and not even look as if he is upset about it a la Sadgopan Ramesh.
If Jaffer could be more ambitious and hungry for really big stuff he can surprise everyone. He has almost everything that it takes.
But he is unglamourous. The Indian public thinks of him as someone who is there because we have no one better and sometimes he gives the impression that he doesn't mind that or is not willing to show everyone how wrong they are.
Thats all thats wrong with him.
The wicket today was placid but his stroke play was still incandescent. I dont remember when I last saw such brilliant strokeplay from an Indian batsman without a single risky stroke. Fabulous batting on a good wicket is still fabulous batting. A batsman is not to be faulted for it. There were other 'great' batsmen playing today on the same wicket and he managed to outshine all of them. What more do you want him to do?
- Wasim Jaffer is the best opener between India and Pakistan and the [layer with the best technique amongst all the openers in both the countries.
- Jaffer has the best backfoot play of all openers and, in fact is one of the most technically correct batsmen in the subcontinent when playing off the backfoot. Not being able to play off the backfoot with a straight bat, except occasionally in defence, is the bane of most young batsmen in the sub continent.
- Jaffer plays each and every stroke in the game and plays them all in copy book style. His cricket is simultaneoulsy free of risk and pleasing to the eye which is not something many are able to combine.
This is not to make Jaffer sound as a bigger player than he is but all that I have said is true. Jaffer also has great patience and can go on to play very long innings and has done so in the past.
His drawbacks are a sudden loss in concentration at times. A tendency to play with a casualness reminicient of Laxman which can let him down when the ball does something special - in other words he can get carried away by his own flow of stroking the ball.
He needs someone to keep talking to him in the middle so that he keeps at it otherwise after reaching a decent score he may get out and not even look as if he is upset about it a la Sadgopan Ramesh.
If Jaffer could be more ambitious and hungry for really big stuff he can surprise everyone. He has almost everything that it takes.
But he is unglamourous. The Indian public thinks of him as someone who is there because we have no one better and sometimes he gives the impression that he doesn't mind that or is not willing to show everyone how wrong they are.
Thats all thats wrong with him.
The wicket today was placid but his stroke play was still incandescent. I dont remember when I last saw such brilliant strokeplay from an Indian batsman without a single risky stroke. Fabulous batting on a good wicket is still fabulous batting. A batsman is not to be faulted for it. There were other 'great' batsmen playing today on the same wicket and he managed to outshine all of them. What more do you want him to do?
I'd be much happier if the top Indian scorer was someone other than Sehwag.
