General Cricket Thread ...

As the other sports forums seem to have taken old to some respect, well here is a cricket forum. NOTE: This forum will be heavily moderated and can be revoked at any time is discussions go out of hand.

Moderator: Moderators

User avatar
prasen9
Member
Member
Posts: 19124
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 8:49 pm
Please enter the middle number: 1
Location: State College, PA
Has thanked: 25 times
Been thanked: 8 times
Contact:

Re: General Cricket Thread ...

Post by prasen9 »

Our selections have become pretty reasonable in the last few years with some semblance of a plan. Pakistan kicked out or refused to pick three experienced batsmen after Younis/Misbah retired and now their batting is in shambles. SL, whom we steamrolled at their home, is bamboozling Pakistan in the UAE with the spinners doing the damage. Shafiq, Azhar, and Sarfraz are the only experienced batsmen among their top 7. Imho, they should have at least used a few of the other three experienced batsmen they dropped and had 1-2 newcomers instead of this severely inexperienced lineup that is struggling. At the very least, having one experienced opener with one inexperienced one would have helped them. Malik's occasional spin bowling could have helped too. Their selectors seem to be in the random chop and change more!
Sin Hombre
Member
Member
Posts: 5766
Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2010 6:59 pm
Antispam: No
Please enter the middle number: 5
Location: Chicago
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 5 times

Re: General Cricket Thread ...

Post by Sin Hombre »

Selectors cannot do much when there is a lack of quality players available.
User avatar
VReddy
Member
Member
Posts: 759
Joined: Fri Jan 27, 2006 3:34 pm
Please enter the middle number: 1
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Contact:

Re: General Cricket Thread ...

Post by VReddy »

prasen9 wrote: Sun Oct 08, 2017 3:40 pm Our selections have become pretty reasonable in the last few years with some semblance of a plan. Pakistan kicked out or refused to pick three experienced batsmen after Younis/Misbah retired and now their batting is in shambles. SL, whom we steamrolled at their home, is bamboozling Pakistan in the UAE with the spinners doing the damage. Shafiq, Azhar, and Sarfraz are the only experienced batsmen among their top 7. Imho, they should have at least used a few of the other three experienced batsmen they dropped and had 1-2 newcomers instead of this severely inexperienced lineup that is struggling. At the very least, having one experienced opener with one inexperienced one would have helped them. Malik's occasional spin bowling could have helped too. Their selectors seem to be in the random chop and change more!
Assuming you are referring to Shoaib Malik - didn't he retire after scoring a double century against England? Regd Hafeez - this guy is so inconsistent, I think they are doing the right thing by going with the likes of Babar Azam. They just need a series against India to settle their batting lineup.
Sin Hombre
Member
Member
Posts: 5766
Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2010 6:59 pm
Antispam: No
Please enter the middle number: 5
Location: Chicago
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 5 times

Re: General Cricket Thread ...

Post by Sin Hombre »

Babar Azam has a FC average of sub-40. Very good list A average that has translated into LOIs but nothing there to indicate a test match player.
User avatar
prasen9
Member
Member
Posts: 19124
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 8:49 pm
Please enter the middle number: 1
Location: State College, PA
Has thanked: 25 times
Been thanked: 8 times
Contact:

Re: General Cricket Thread ...

Post by prasen9 »

Ah, you are right. Shoaib Malik did retire. I forgot. The opener, I am talking about Hafeez. He may have been inconsistent, but, he still averaged close to 40. And, he can bowl spin. And, I was talking of Ahmed Shehzad, who is talented but has issues. But, they kept him as a backup. So, the issues are not the issue, I guess. I think Hafeez and Shehzad in the team would have provided some stability to the batting. Shehzad averages around 41. I think it may be wishful thinking to think that you can always get people who average greater than 40-ish while opening. We only had Gavaskar and Sehwag in our entire history who are not in the low 40s.

Hafeez, Shami Aslam (just because he is young and perhaps their future), Ahmed Shehzad, Azhar, Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Sarfraz would have most possibly gotten 138 in I4 in the last test. Hafeez would be the fifth bowler. Or drop Sami Aslam and get an all-rounder and move everyone one position up.

Sin Hombre is right about Babar. Consider Sami Aslam. He averages 35.8 in FC in 43 matches! And, Shan Masood averages 33.94! Sin Hombre is partially right that if these are the best youngsters, they do not have enough talent to choose from. But, then they should not just kick out Hafeez and Sehzad because honestly, selecting these guys on a prayer will not make them international batsmen all of a sudden. Hafeez may be inconsistent, but Masood is consistently bad. He is 27 and has played over 90 FC matches! I would rather have Hafeez.
Sin Hombre
Member
Member
Posts: 5766
Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2010 6:59 pm
Antispam: No
Please enter the middle number: 5
Location: Chicago
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 5 times

Re: General Cricket Thread ...

Post by Sin Hombre »

Shahzad has had a lot of disciplinary problems, he was given numerous chances to sort it out to no avail.

Hafeez's bowling action is suspect, otherwise he wouldn't have been dropped in the first place. Also, he wants to bat in the top 3 where he is a complete liability outside of the UAE. I guess they could have him replace Shan Masood in the middle order.

Pakistan's problem is an inept board, domestic coaching that is stuck in the 80s when cricket was still relatively amateurish and no home matches which is leading to dwindling in local interest over time.
User avatar
prasen9
Member
Member
Posts: 19124
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 8:49 pm
Please enter the middle number: 1
Location: State College, PA
Has thanked: 25 times
Been thanked: 8 times
Contact:

Re: General Cricket Thread ...

Post by prasen9 »

I know about Shahzad, but if he has disciplinary problems why was he in the training camp and why is he listed as an alternate?

Hafeez is better than replacement quality in Asia. This series is in the UAE. The question is whether any of these two openers are better than Hafeez. Even if he cannot bowl, his batting alone is better than the two they have now, imho. He is almost 37. Maybe they want to throw the matches now and have the young openers mature for the future.

I agree with the rest of your contentions.
User avatar
prasen9
Member
Member
Posts: 19124
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 8:49 pm
Please enter the middle number: 1
Location: State College, PA
Has thanked: 25 times
Been thanked: 8 times
Contact:

Re: General Cricket Thread ...

Post by prasen9 »

User avatar
suresh
Member
Member
Posts: 7879
Joined: Thu May 22, 2003 12:08 pm
Please enter the middle number: 1
Location: Chennai, IN

Re: General Cricket Thread ...

Post by suresh »

prasen9 wrote: Wed Oct 18, 2017 5:32 pm And now, Abdul Razzaq out because of too much spinach!
:rofl:
rajitghosh
Member
Member
Posts: 1450
Joined: Mon Nov 25, 2013 9:04 am
Antispam: No
Please enter the middle number: 5
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: General Cricket Thread ...

Post by rajitghosh »

There is an under 19 Asia Cup going on and Nepal has thrashed India. I am in Nepal right now and my business counterparts here were proudly telling me how they beat India and lost narrowly to Bangladesh.
User avatar
prasen9
Member
Member
Posts: 19124
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 8:49 pm
Please enter the middle number: 1
Location: State College, PA
Has thanked: 25 times
Been thanked: 8 times
Contact:

Re: General Cricket Thread ...

Post by prasen9 »

And then Bangladesh beat India and India is out of the cup. Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan are the semi-finalists. Dravid took a next tier U-19 team leaving out Prithvi Shaw and another star. He is experimenting with junior juniors for the longer term he said. I don't understand the logic very well but I trust him. Maybe he feels that Prithvi is better served playing Ranjis.
User avatar
PKBasu
Member
Member
Posts: 36869
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2003 6:04 pm
Please enter the middle number: 1
Location: New Delhi / Kolkata
Been thanked: 8 times

Re: General Cricket Thread ...

Post by PKBasu »

Huge egg on Dravid's face. There is really no disguising the fact that he has failed as coach, although he is too revered a figure to be blamed! (Much like the way he led India to disgrace in the 2007 World Cup).
User avatar
jayakris
Moderators
Moderators
Posts: 34757
Joined: Mon Dec 16, 2002 7:24 am
Antispam: No
Please enter the middle number: 5
Location: Irvine, CA, USA
Has thanked: 10 times
Been thanked: 1 time
Contact:

Re: General Cricket Thread ...

Post by jayakris »

I was surprised to suddenly see this ad today on youtube when I was at some drama channel... I thought it was targeted to me or something, but was surprised that it is from a US insurance company, Amica. Turns out that the company had put it up at their youtube channel today too. Not clear why they suddenly did one long ad with cricket talk. Are they big in India or something? Or trying to target the Indian population in the US? We have seen similar things before, but this was still funny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeFQBKIQhJ4

But, what is a "donkey drop?"

Jay
User avatar
PKBasu
Member
Member
Posts: 36869
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2003 6:04 pm
Please enter the middle number: 1
Location: New Delhi / Kolkata
Been thanked: 8 times

Re: General Cricket Thread ...

Post by PKBasu »

A donkey drop is a really bad ball -- specifically one that is flighted so much that it loops over the batsman's head and lands on the stumps (when it is really successful). More often than not, a donkey drop goes high up and lands somewhere near the batsman and gets walloped for six.
Sin Hombre
Member
Member
Posts: 5766
Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2010 6:59 pm
Antispam: No
Please enter the middle number: 5
Location: Chicago
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 5 times

Re: General Cricket Thread ...

Post by Sin Hombre »

British media is now all in on Smith being the second greatest batsman of all time ahead of Hobbs and Weekes. I am still amazed that so many subcontinental fans fall in for this bait so easily.
Post Reply