***Official*** Pakistan and England in UAE

[Jarquis]

No. No you couldn't. Bopara has a poor domestic T20 record and a truly awful T20I record. He has an international strike rate of 94.50 FFS, it would make Geoffrey Boycott embarrassed. Do not deprive current or future England players of a place to accommodate someone as bad as that. We are the World Champions not bloody Zimbabwe.

Hales has hardly set the world on fire with his start in T20Is. The selectors are obviously a fan of Bopara for whatever reason and his T20 bowling is actually pretty decent and a 6th bowling option is something the selectors might favour. It would also allow KP to open the batting in both formats (unless Patel did which is something that was experimented with in SL).
I wouldn't do it myself but when you consider Hale's poor start in T20Is, supposed weakness against spin, poor tour of Bangladesh and Ravi's bowling. There is a case.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Hales has hardly set the world on fire with his start in T20Is. The selectors are obviously a fan of Bopara for whatever reason and his T20 bowling is actually pretty decent and a 6th bowling option is something the selectors might favour. It would also allow KP to open the batting in both formats (unless Patel did which is something that was experimented with in SL).
I wouldn't do it myself but when you consider Hale's poor start in T20Is, supposed weakness against spin, poor tour of Bangladesh and Ravi's bowling. There is a case.

No there isn't because nobody can do worse than average slightly over 20 and score at less than a run a ball. There are literally HUNDREDS of better options available. His bowling is ****e, we won the World Cup by having 5 bowlers. Wright was the 6th bowler, he bowled one over all tournament. At least Wright wasn't a total liability with the bat - he was just rubbish and generally got out straight off but at least he slogged a few occasionally instead of wasting 20-30 balls.

If the whole XI were doing badly and merited being dropped I still wouldn't pick Bopara.

 

[Jarquis]

Well who else would you pick as a batsman from that ****ing squad? Anderson, Briggs or one of Finn/Dernbach?
There's no other ****ing options, jesus.

 

[Cricketismylife]

I like how he grinds out his innings but we also have to realize that his extent of stonewalling can only succeed when the opposition isn't too adept at applying true claustrophobic pressure. For all the noise about English bowling, and they've been fairly disciplined in all honesty, it does say something about their much wonted incisiveness when they've let a team of strokeless wonders like Pak (bar Younis) cross even 300 on two occasions this series.

Ridiculous comment. It is extremely hard to score at any speed on these pitches and England bowlers were extremely discplined. Test cricket is a 5 day game so you can afford to take your time. It's the runs that count at the end of the day and Azhar played a matchwinning innings in both the second and third test. He wasn't allowed to play this innings by England, who bowled well, he just showed discipline, skill and technique. He had the intelligence to realise that he doesnt have the shots of someone like Younis, and didn't panic when he was scoreless for say 20 balls. Whereas the English batsman were in a mode where they just blocked 95% of the balls and then went for a risky shot. There was not enough strike rotation.

It annoys me in general when people criticise Misbah and Azhar for scoring rates. It's the least of Pakistan's problem if it is even a problem. Pakistan should focus on sorting out their last 5 batsman who are free wickets, and their openers. Hafeez is not a test standard opener and Taufeeq is just adequate and was found wanting this series against a decent attack. Pakistan thoroughly deserve 3-0, but can't afford to continue with such a weak batting line up that is over reliant on numbers 3-6, especially when Shafiq at 6 is still establishing himself. Misbah and Azhar have been consistent run scores and whatever they are doing is working for them. We cannot assume that if they upped their scoring rate they would survive as long as they do. Maybe Azhar could think about more strike rotation, but this is a minor issue imo.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Well who else would you pick as a batsman from that ****ing squad? Anderson, Briggs or one of Finn/Dernbach?
There's no other ****ing options, jesus.

Then you pick another bowler (Patel is a risk as 5th option anyway) or you don't drop Hales in the first place. There is simply no reason to pick someone as tragically useless in T20 as Ravi Bopara.

 

[Jarquis]

Yeah, Patel is a risk but dropping a batsman for a bowler leaves us with a hideous tail.
Agree or not. Like it or not, There exists a case for picking Bopara.

 

[theegyptian]

Kill me if Anderson plays over Finn. Anderson is a average odi bowler who becomes poor in Asia. How he still gets in our ODI and T20 squad amazes me. Just let him rest and be fit for test series'

Dernbach lucky to get a callup also given his poor form in recent times(although I think he's better than some of you give him credit for) but i guess that just shows the lack of bowling depth in ODI cricket we have.

England really need a batsman who bowls a bit as a 6th bowler because Samit as the fifth with no sixth bowler is pretty thin. Hopefully Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes or Joe Root continue to improve and offer us this option in the future. **** bopara is in the squad.

was hoping the squad was a bit more radical tbh. seems like they're unwilling to change

 

[ganeshran]

Kieswetter
Cook
Trott
KP
Bopara
Buttler
Samit patel
Bresnan
Broad
Swann
Finn

 

[Agent Nationaux]

Anderson is very poor at the death in ODI's.

 

[Viscount Tom]

Then don't bowl him at the death, simple.

drop Bopara for Briggs and I'm happy with gane's team right there mind. Then play Buttler and Patel higher, you need at least a workable 6th bowler in your ODI team anyway.

 

[Agent Nationaux]

Rahat Ali Bowling.mp4 - YouTube

The clip shows Rahat Ali. What do you guys make of his bowling?

Amir Sohail mentioned him live to Nasser Hussain.

 

[Shri]

Pitch looks so green.

 

[Viscount Tom]

Reckon at least part of that greenness is the quality of the camera.

1st Wicket: No Footwork, good enough ball
2nd Wicket: Looks to withdraw at the last minute but gets too much into the shot before he tries to do so, tempted by the ball too easily IMO.
3rd: Gem of an inswinger caught the batsman on the move too.
4th: Good ball top of off.
5th: Lol Shot.

 

[Prince EWS]

Rahat Ali Bowling.mp4 - YouTube

The clip shows Rahat Ali. What do you guys make of his bowling?

Amir Sohail mentioned him live to Nasser Hussain.

Haha, funny you should mention him now because I did a few months ago and then you said you'd not heard of him.

Definitely something to work with (reminds me quite a bit of Junaid the first time I saw him) but there are quite a few little technical things you could change about that action to increase his pace and accuracy.

Firstly his run up seems to consist of running 15 metres at the same pace and then bowling; I'd look at trying to make that run up a little more explosive even if he cut it down a little bit. You don't want to be accelerating as you enter your action because then you lose control over your movements but he doesn't accelerate much at all after the first few steps so a lot of it is wasted IMO. Hard to make any real judgements on this based just on his wicket balls though.

The most noticeable about his delivery is his front arm. You can see he's come from the school of snapping it down fast to generate pace but, as with a lot of young bowlers who get taught that, he's missing the point of having a front arm at all and that's to align your action and give you accuracy, symmetry and a good wrist position. He needs to get that arm up a lot higher before he snaps it down, and that's a relatively easy thing to fix. I bet if he actually watched this footage (lets hope he does..) he'd think "wow, is my front arm really that low?!".

Another thing I noticed was this:

He's got a bit of a teenage Jimmy Anderson going on (although not as exaggerated - Anderson looked sideways) where he's not really looking at where he's bowling. He's also not making full use of his height there as, while he's got his arm in a good spot and he's braced his front leg, he's crouching a little bit ala Nathan Rimmington. He'd do well to work on keeping that head a bit more upright and down the wicket if possible, although a lot of bowlers just lose their actions completely when they do this; it's not an easy thing to change.

The positives are that he completes his action well, gets through the crease nicely, looks to have a very natural angle away from the RHB and, so far, takes lots of wickets and a tiny average. What he sends down looks decent enough in that video but it's basically impossible to make any judgements on that from a few balls.

Needs work, but at 23 with the record he's got, he's definitely a potential international bowler.

 

[Agent Nationaux]

So what do you think of the bowler and his speed.

 

[Shri]

Haha, funny you should mention him now because I did a few months ago and then you said you'd not heard of him.

Definitely something to work with (reminds me quite a bit of Junaid the first time I saw him) but there are quite a few little technical things you could change about that action to increase his pace and accuracy.

Firstly his run up seems to consist of running 15 metres at the same pace and then bowling; I'd look at trying to make that run up a little more explosive even if he cut it down a little bit. You don't want to be accelerating as you enter your action because then you lose control over your movements but he doesn't accelerate much at all after the first few steps so a lot of it is wasted IMO. Hard to make any real judgements on this based just on his wicket balls though.

The most noticeable about his delivery is his front arm. You can see he's come from the school of snapping it down fast to generate pace but, as with a lot of young bowlers who get taught that, he's missing the point of having a front arm at all and that's to align your action and give you accuracy, symmetry and a good wrist position. He needs to get that arm up a lot higher before he snaps it down, and that's a relatively easy thing to fix. I bet if he actually watched this footage (lets hope he does..) he'd think "wow, is my front arm really that low?!".

Another thing I noticed was this:

He's got a bit of a teenage Jimmy Anderson going on (although not as exaggerated - Anderson looked sideways) where he's not really looking at where he's bowling. He's also not making full use of his height there as, while he's got his arm in a good spot and he's braced his front leg, he's crouching a little bit ala Nathan Rimmington. He'd do well to work on keeping that head a bit more upright and down the wicket if possible, although a lot of bowlers just lose their actions completely when they do this; it's not an easy thing to change.

The positives are that he completes his action well, gets through the crease nicely, looks to have a very natural angle away from the RHB and, so far, takes lots of wickets and a tiny average. What he sends down looks decent enough in that video but it's basically impossible to make any judgements on that from a few balls.

Needs work, but at 23 with the record he's got, he's definitely a potential international bowler.

Oh look at me! I can draw spines on Paint!

Good analysis though.<_<

Been bowling spin all my life in cricket so far and I am looking to bowl fast(read slow) in local game these days without much success copying Akhtar's action. Will try and implement the things you said tomorrow.

 

[Prince EWS]

So what do you think of the bowler and his speed.

He looks about Junaid pace, but (again, limited sample and all that) I don't think he'll move the ball as much as Junaid or indeed be as accurate as him with that action. Has potential; needs work though. I certainly wouldn't be selecting him ahead of Junaid based on what I've seen, but he's worth a go at some point if he continues to average 18 or whatever in domestic cricket.

 

[Prince EWS]

Oh look at me! I can draw spines on Paint!

Good analysis though.<_<

Been bowling spin all my life in cricket so far and I am looking to bowl fast(read slow) in local game these days without much success copying Akhtar's action. Will try and implement the things you said tomorrow.

Haha well I'm an off spinner myself so you should probably just ignore me completely.

 

[Shri]

Haha well I'm an off spinner myself so you should probably just ignore me completely.

Yeah shame that Goughy isn't around much these days. Wanted to ask him a thing or two about the basics of fast bowling.

 

[Prince EWS]

Yeah shame that Goughy isn't around much these days. Wanted to ask him a thing or two about the basics of fast bowling.

Basically you're looking at

1. Mark out your run-up so you're a full pace when you enter your delivery stride but no longer accelerating. It's a fine balance; you don't want to lose pace by not arriving at your maximum speed but you don't want to still be accelerating either or you'll lose control over your body.

2. Whether you're side on or chest on, you still need to get your front arm up as high as possible in front of your face to guide your action into shape and increase your accuracy. After it's up, snap it down as quickly as you can to kick-start the rest of your action and generate pace.

3. Brace your front leg by keeping it straight, get your wrist behind the ball, try to keep your head upright and let your bowling arm come through straight near your ear. This is where I prefer the side-on technique as you can use your front arm to guide through to your bowling arm and keep everything in line, but conventional wisdom disagrees with me for a few reasons there.

Those are the basics when building a fast bowling action from scratch. If you used to be an off spinner your biggest challenge will be to stop pivoting, else you'll bowl like Vinay Kumar.