*Official* Pakistan in England 2010

[vcs]

Which is cute, but runs against Bangladesh aren't worth squat.

Jason Gillespie dislikes this.

 

[Faisal1985]

Yeah, but it doesn't really show if he's a good batsman or not - it just shows that he managed to withstand the nerves. The evidence provided by the rest of his Test career and indeed his entire First Class career suggests that he's, at best, only as good as Farhat.

....and could have been better if he would have been given consistent chances like Farhat. I don't hate Farhat out of the blue..its just that he has not improved one bit..Hameed would have been a much better investment...

 

[Faisal1985]

I agree with you on this, yes Hameed has far more potential than Farhat and Butt. This is undeniable. However, to date, Hameed hasnt really delivered in his test match career or in his FC career. I can understand saying that he has done enough to get a shot over the likes of Farhat and Butt, but I dont think he is the savior of Pakistan cricket or that he has been treated unfairly. Hes only been treated unfairly when compared with the likes of Farhat and Iqbal who received favoritism and played way more than they should have.

Alam and Kamal are quite obviously different stories and Kamal situation as most people know is one that I have constantly harped on about.

And had he gotten the shots...he would have been better....Farhat is the same flashy trash that he was 5 years ago...the judgment failure or favoritism of PCB is that they couldn't see a noob who could have been against a noob who will remain the same....Anyways..i think i made my point clear...Although his FC record did come out as a surprise to me..he should have been doing much better in FC...

 

[Prince EWS]

....and could have been better if he would have been given consistent chances like Farhat. I don't hate Farhat out of the blue..its just that he has not improved one bit..Hameed would have been a much better investment...

There's no real way of telling that though. I bet if Farhat and Hameed had been given inverse opportunities they'd have very similar records and there'd be people moaning about Farhat not being given more opportunities. Neither of them are very good so whichever one isn't playing is going to be favoured due to the natural frustration people will have at the other.

Hameed seems technically equipped and he has a greater stroke range, but he scores less runs anyway. I don't think he has any right to claim he's been unlucky with selection when he averages 36 in First Class cricket - he's been lucky to even play one Test, IMO. He's one of those batsmen who fools everyone by developing a style that resembles that of other successful batsmen but fails to actually score many runs, at any level.

I think the biggest stumbling block is the fact that Farhat has consistently outperformed Yasir Hameed in First Class cricket. It's completely fair to say that not being secured of one's place in the Test team will have a negative impact on your performance, but I just don't buy it in this instance because he doesn't score many runs in domestic cricket either. If he went back there and scored mountains of runs he'd be quite within his rights to feel unlucky about his inconsistent selection but if anything he's been pretty lucky to get as many chances as he has given he's regularly trumped by others - Farhat included - domestically.

Tests excluding Bangladesh:

	Yasir	Farhat

Mts	21	37
Runs	1113	2272
Avg	30.08	32.92
100s	0	3
50s	8	14

First Class Domestic Cricket

	Yasir	Farhat

Mts	107	67
Runs	5974	4747
Avg	37.57	45.64
100s	14	14
50s	26	16

Now I'm not necessarily saying that Farhat should be picked ahead of Hameed and I'm definitely not saying that Farhat should be in the team, but the theory that Farhat has had so many chances and that Hameed is so much more deserving is a myth because Farhat has outperformed Hameed at both Test and domestic First Class levels. Hameed has no right to complain about his lack of Test opportunities until he actually starts outperforming his rivals domestically. IMO, neither should be in the team. Farhat's a proven failure at Test level and Hameed probably shouldn't have been picked in the first place. I'd be opening with Butt and Azhar Ali. Azhar would be on pretty borrowed time though - if he failed I'd probably have another look at Mansoor. There aren't a lot of options to my knowledge but Hameed really shouldn't be one of them IMO.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Bell having the best series out of England's top 5 that is for sure.

Lol. Yup, a lucky break for Ding Dong.

I'll see myself out...

 

[GIMH]

Pothas is right about the prices. I was gonna go and stay with a mate for this until ge decided to refuse to pay such high prices.

 

[outbreak]

I don't know too much about the pakistan FC league but I say hameed shouldn't be picked. Surely there's some other batsmen who are performing better then hameed who should be getting the chances. Why recall a player who has consistently performed poorly in both tests AND fc when sent back to try to improve and find form? Give another player a chance to make his mark and show the players in the FC system that a good performance in first class will let them progress to test matches not that the favourites of the system will be chosen over you.

 

[Manee]

Just a quick word about the crowds today, as it happened I had work today anyway but will not be attending this test despite living just a 20 minute train journey from the Oval, simply cannot afford the tickets.

Yes. I'm not too far from the Oval, but at those prices, I don't really consider being able to go.

 

[Jayzamann]

Plays of the Day: Wahab you been all this time? | Cricket News | England v Pakistan 2010 | Cricinfo.com

Puns!

 

[Uppercut]

Well, they didn't *have* to drop Malik, although it's definitely fair enough that they did - I think he's only a little bit better than Farhat and Hameed as a batsman and he's not only in poor form but is a very disruptive influence on the team. Yousuf wasn't even in the squad to begin with though, so the original planned eleven consisted of three openers and the only backup batsman was an opener. Well done PCB.

I'd probably keep Malik there for his bowling and, more importantly, fielding. I think picking a competent fielder like Malik over batsmen that are arguably more capable lays down a marker to the rest of the team. The sad fact is that none of the options are likely to score any runs worthy of note, so you might as well pick the guy who'll hold on to his catches.

 

[Prince EWS]

I'd probably keep Malik there for his bowling and, more importantly, fielding. I think picking a competent fielder like Malik over batsmen that are arguably more capable lays down a marker to the rest of the team. The sad fact is that none of the options are likely to score any runs worthy of note, so you might as well pick the guy who'll hold on to his catches.

I think Malik's the best cricketer of the lot by a fair distance but reports about his general attitude since losing the captaincy and overall effect he has on team cohesion makes me want to leave him out. I mean if they can leave Younis Khan out then why the **** is Malik playing?

 

[GIMH]

Not the worst start to the day

 

[King Pietersen]

How can anyone write Finn off? The lad's a gun. 4.1 overs, 4 maidens 0-1 so far in this innings. Glenn who?

 

[Prince EWS]

Not the worst start to the day

Haha I was kind of scared Hameed would go on and make a massive ton after I ripped into him overnight in this thread, especially since he looked good at times yesterday.

So thanks Finn.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Ugh I do hate no third man.

They must have scored over half their runs down there.

 

[Hurricane]

I'd probably keep Malik there for his bowling and, more importantly, fielding. I think picking a competent fielder like Malik over batsmen that are arguably more capable lays down a marker to the rest of the team. The sad fact is that none of the options are likely to score any runs worthy of note, so you might as well pick the guy who'll hold on to his catches.

I agree with this - not about Malik per se - but about picking some batsman who can field. Only Butt, Yousuf, and Akmal should be making the team based on batting. For the other spots I would pick some batsman who can actually catch. Even if they just had a specialist first slip and a specialist second slip this would improve things tremendously.

Also by all accounts Pakistan pulled up their socks with the fielding in the 1st inning. But as a general rule if I was the Pak coach I would spend 50% of my time practising non stop fielding drills. If Bangers can improve so can Pakistan. I am sure they are practising but they need to practice harder.

 

[Prince EWS]

Ugh I do hate no third man.

They must have scored over half their runs down there.

Yeah it's particularly stupid against prank-batting lineups in favourable bowling conditions. If you're not going to have a third man in the first session of a day in England against Pakistan, are you ever going to have one?

 

[NZ Guy]

Yeah it's particularly stupid against prank-batting lineups in favourable bowling conditions. If you're not going to have a third man in the first session of a day in England against Pakistan, are you ever going to have one?

Can we have a like button implemented?

 

[GIMH]

We used to have one but it was crashing the server with the amount of people that were pressing it on my posts.

 

[Daemon]

We used to have one but it was crashing the server with the amount of people that were pressing it on my posts.

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