*Official* Pakistan in New Zealand 2020/21

[Bahnz]

Wasn't it. There was some promising bowling from the opening bowlers in the A game just before the tests. Picking a very very raw third seamer and dropping a dozen catches across 2 tests is a surefire way of nerfing the potency of any attack. Also Yasir Shah doing Yasir Shah Outside Asia things.

Shah did fine I thought. Bowling in NZ is purgatory for touring spinners. Kept it tight, managed to stop Kane from making it 3 double hundreds in a row and snuffed out a classic NZ tail wag. Can't ask for a whole lot more, especially in the first innings. You're right about the catching though. NZ probably wouldn't have passed 300 (and certainly not 400) in either of their first innings efforts if Pakistan had held their chances.

 

[Prince EWS]

Yasir was ok...spinners die in NZ

Yeah I felt like his dropping was more just a recognition of this fact (and the direness of the tail) than an indictment of his performance. Zafar adds a lot more with the bat in theory.

#NZnoSpinny

 

[trundler]

Yeah I felt like his dropping was more just a recognition of this fact (and the direness of the tail) than an indictment of his performance. Zafar adds a lot more with the bat in theory.

#NZnoSpinny

Who do you think should be the third seamer for Pakistan

 

[GoodAreasShane]

I would suggest the apparently "injured" Hasan Ali myself

 

[trundler]

I doubt you've watched enough of the Quaid e Azam trophy to comment.

 

[Prince EWS]

Knew that was coming.

I agree with the Hasan Ali suggestion. I don't mind Imran either but he's been up to ****s in domestic cricket for a few seasons now.

 

[GoodAreasShane]

I admit I have seen very little of the QeA Trophy, so I will make no attempt to speculate on how Hasan may or may not go if he was to be recalled

But at least I had seen enough to know he was still on the park

 

[honestbharani]

But you know he is gonna injure himself again doing his stupid ass celebration after the first wicket he gets.

 

[nzfan]

Every twitter post on Pakistan cricket by their fans is to get rid of Misbah, Younis, Waqar etc... Some time ago they wanted Inzamam out of selection panel. Why is there so much wrath on the support staff? It's the players that go out and perform not the support staff. Pakistan is getting beaten by better opponents and they are not playing reckless bad cricket like SL did last night. Maybe at the most one or two selections may not have gone their way and that's true with all teams. You can't get it 100% right all the time. Recycling the support staff does no good. Rather you sign them up for a longer term so that they know what buttons to press for each player to get the best out of them. The support staff needs at least 2-3 years stretch to do a best job.

I think one area of massive improvement Pakistan can concentrate is fielding and catching. They are way better than before but their catching needs improving. If they had taken most of the chances that came their way they would have posed us some serious problems. I don't think you'll get better staff than Misbah, Younis and Waqar unless you can bring in Inzi, Akram and Miandad or Yousuf. Besides the bowling line up is very young. They are doing the best they can in their capacity. If they are persisted they will be a very solid team in like 5 years.

 

[trundler]

Problem with Waqar is that he's been coach on and off for a decade and fast bowling stocks have steadily declined in that time. Guys like Junaid Khan and Amir Yamin had promising performances here and there but did not amount to anywhere near what they should have. Misbah went on a mission to become supreme fuhrer of Pakistani cricket and had 5 jobs with the board and domestic teams at one point. Talk about conflict of interest. Also, he has looked very reactive during games when things have gone south.

As you say the major problem has been fielding. Batting has been meh and bowlers have lost confidence with all the dropped catches. The 600 innings was squarely the fault of some awful fielding that deflated the attack completely.