After T20I cricket, Mohammad Rizwan might be sidelined from ODIs now too, which will result in a new wicket-keeper batsman considered in ODIs, and the competition will be between Mohammad Ghazi Ghori (1 ODI cap), Usman Khan (2 ODI caps), Saad Baig (uncapped in ODIs).
Let's see who win don the gloves in the home ODI series against Australia in May-June.
They all are all humans, they all have the passion to play for Pakistan and make their nation proud. They don't do things on the field deliberately. My take is that they are under toxic management, which will never let them do something up to their true potential.
It is just like a corporate cage. They also make mistakes; they deserve constructive criticism.
I just wanna bring "tum jeeto ya haro janoo" energy back. Remember back then when those legends failed, on a big stage, the first thing that happens is that every channel just plays such songs. But now that those legends have started sitting on TV, things have changed a lot.
I want to take you back to when we won our first series at home after a while. People crowned him as some King and acted like what we done was tremendous. Beating England on a spin track isn’t anything to get happy about as they are awful at playing it in red ball. I remember making a post not being so happy about the pitches and all i got was hate because apparently I was an annoyed “fanboy”.
I remember stating that these pitches would be the decline of us as it didn’t help our pace attack, batsman and spin bowlers either as they weren’t doing anything special and it was all the pitches doing. I said it would result in our batsman losing form and would you look at that they all average below 35 in that period bar Rizwan. I said the pacers wouldn’t get game time and then we would take them away from home where they wouldn’t have practice or anything and look they all bowl below 130 after their first spell and our spinners are averaging 50 with the ball in Bangladesh whilst the other teams spinners average in the low 20s. The flat pitches Ramiz made are as bad as the spin minefields because they give us no long term benefits and everyone in our team is declining. As soon as Bangladesh move away from the spin to win they somehow look like a semi decent team but we want to copy them and Sri Lanka of the last decade which isn’t anything special.
We could’ve easily made these pitches in Pakistan and had support for everyone and the guy curating the pitches actually worked for us before Bangladesh but he was another one let go by Dictator Aqib.
Now let’s come back to current time. Aqib has had control of this team for ages and we are rock bottom in all formats, we have let go world class coaches for guys like Saifu who have no experience or pedigree. Look at dravid, bro coached the India A team and U19s for a while then came to the main team and successfully led them before leaving. Then we have our ex players who get forced into positions so they have a nice wage whilst they do nothing to help the team. Kohli had a clip recently where he talked about being happy to being bowled by a youngster as it made India better if the guys against him are better but we have guys who don’t like each other succeeding.
I genuinely think our older players don’t want the current lot to win a WC because then they wouldn’t be special. They were a lot better back then but managed one WC whilst the younger and worse lot won the same amount of trophies. There hasn’t been much cricketers of ours who seem like they want the current lot to succeed.
Aqib was a failure of a coach and whatever role he had for the Qalanders and somehow he got the keys to the Pakistan team cuz he made a minefield to beat England. Since then there hasn’t been anything good but he still keeps his job whilst good people get sacked. Honestly Gillespie seemed like he cared more about our youngsters than any of these oldies did.
We can change captain and squads but it wouldn’t change anything because this guy runs our cricket. People need to speak out about him or watch our cricket die. Recently we have had players getting “injured”. Imo all these injuries are a lie, Babar was running on day 1-2 of the first test match, He definitely wasn’t injured for the Bangladesh Odi series and now suddenly Saim and Fakhar are injured again. He keeps lying and they keep letting him get away with it.
Why is it when a WC is coming up they start doing a randomiser for who plays and coaches. Pakistan Odi top 5 was almost set and even the bowlers. They needed to try a couple guys but now we be giving games to Ghazi Ghori with an average of about 20 and Saad Masood who had played one game previously 😭
Hello and welcome back to Guess the Player!
First of all, I am very sorry for not posting this segment for the last five days, at that time, Pakistan vs Bangladesh 2nd Test match was going on, and it was best to keep the attention of Pakistan fans towards it.
The answer to the last post of this series was Hafiz Saad Nasim, most of you got it right, the first three being, u/MoreCryptographer213, u/Ibh02 and u/Due-Finding4397. Congratulations to all of you guys who got it right. Even though I thought that this was going to be very difficult, we got only 3 guesses, and all of them were right.
Before we begin, here’s a quick refresher on the rules:
Welcome to Guess the Cricketer!
I’ll post clues about a cricket player, and your job is to figure out who it is.
Type your answer like this:
>!Babar Azam!<
It will appear like this:>!Babar Azam!<
“I think it’s >!Shaheen Afridi!< . ”
Alright, now it's time for some clues on today's cricketer!
Day 1 Results - It was more or less a 50/50 between Pengu and HMcod so I decided to add both to save a day.
- Pengu gets his opening spot as promised.
- HM will come in to bat at 8 just like his favourite player UK78.
Day 2 Results - An astounding number of you guys voted u/Ghostly_100 as the next player.
- Ghostly will now open alongside u/Pengu786
- As requested Ghostly is now also the Chairman of the PakCricket Subreddit XI whilst also being captain.
- u/PhaintaAssociate is now on the reserves on the "Damaad/Parchi quota"
Day 3 Results - Mainly everyone voted for u/MoreCryptographer213 to be next
- MoreCrypto will now come in at 3 just like his (and my) idol Agha Ji
Just a quick runover of the rules:
- You CANNOT vote for yourself
- You CANNOT vote for someone already in the team
- You only have ONE VOTE
- The person with the most upvotes wins
- The person MUST be in r/PakCricket
- You MUST give a reason for your choice
- You should also write what position they should play
Thankyou again to u/MoreCryptographer213 for the template
atleast bro is resigning himself instead of getting kicked out.
now its time for aqib javed to get out and leave us in peace
lets see if wheel turns once more and babar/rizwan becames captain or it goes to salman
A lot has been made about the fact that Bangladesh's pace attack is faster and better than Pakistan and one of the key reasons why we lost the series. The numbers, however, tell a different story. I have mapped the 3 main reasons why we lost the series:
Toothless Spin Attack
Pakistan's spinners took 8 wickets at an average of 55. Bangladesh's took 22 wickets @ 22.
4-6 of our 8 wickets came when Bangladesh was hitting out for a declaration. Strip those out and our spinners averaged well over 100!
You can credit Bangladesh's batting or blame our technique against spin but on good cricket wickets, spinners averaging triple digits means only one thing: they were woefully ineffective.
Ironically, our pace attack actually outperformed theirs:
Poor Start Conversion
The second major difference was conversion. Both teams made 9 fifty-plus scores in the series. What was different was what they did once they crossed 50:
That meant Bangladesh's nine 50+ knocks produced 140 more runs than ours. The series margin was roughly 180 runs. That gap is the entire series!
Under-50 innings average was the same for both teams. The difference was purely that when Bangladesh's batters got in, they cashed in. Ours either gave it away or switched off once set.
Captain & Coach Decision Making
I will mention 3 problems here:
-----------------------------------
Player Ratings
Khurram Shahzad: 8 wkts @ 21 - 8.5/10
Statistically the best pace bowler across both teams with the best avg & best SR. The only critique is that he loses pace and bite in his 3rd spell. He could have had a bigger impact if he played both tests.
M. Abbas: 10 wkts @ 24 - 8/10
While Nahid Rana got all the plaudits for his pace, Abbas took only 1 less wicket at a slightly better average. Once the ball goes soft, Abbas loses his threat but makes it up for being miserly.
Babar Azam: 115 runs @ 58 - 7.5/10
Looked like a million bucks when batting in both innings, it is a shame he could not convert to a bigger score, falling both times to very soft dismissals.
Salman Agha: 176 runs @ 44 - 7/10
Made two 50s, both in difficult circumstances but failed to convert both times.
M. Rizwan: 181 runs @ 45 - 6/10
Batting wise he was similar to Agha, 2 50s, one excellent 94 but I cut some points for his untidy keeping.
Azan Awais: 152 runs @ 38 - 6/10
Made a delectable 100 in the first innings and went missing since then. Still young and will improve but Test cricket has a steep learning curve.
Abdullah Fazal: 141 runs @ 35 - 6/10
Two important 50s in the first match but could not convert either one. Less orthodox than Azan but looks to have a fighting spirit.
Shaheen Afridi: 5 wkts @ 33 - 4/10
Bowled 1 or 2 good spells but other than that was very erratic and looked at sea in test cricket.
Shan Masood: 103 runs @ 26 - 3/10
Almost all his runs came in 1 innings, gave his wicket away on too many occasions and captaincy was poor in both tests.
Imam ul Haq: 47 runs @ 24 - 3/10
Made a scratchy 45, which included a few chances when batting was easiest.
Hasan Ali: 8 wkts @ 32 - 3/10
The avg may not look bad but he benefited a lot from BD giving their wickets away in search of a declaration. Apart from those periods, he lacked incisiveness and had the highest SR of any pacer in the series.
Noman Ali: 4 wkts @ 39 - 2/10
Completely ineffectual - got 3 wickets when BD was accelerating, otherwise carried no threat.
Sajid Khan: 4 wkts @ 56 - 1/10
Same as Noman, got his 3 wickets when batters were hitting out. His bowling was worse than Noman's but gets a point for the runs he made.
Saud Shakeel: 29 runs @ 7 - 0/10
Taskin Ahmed made almost double the runs that Saud did. Enough said.
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Not going to speak much about the game but good effort by Sajid and Rizwan. Rizwan missed out on a much deserved 100 but don’t think it would’ve mattered unless we won. Yet again showing he has been our longer format MVP.
Onto the aftermath, Shan has apparently resigned and that’s good that he saw himself that he wasn’t cutting it. Saw some people say just keep it with him, to that I say a rebuild should start now and not after England. If Sauds form didn’t drop off a cliff he would’ve been captain, The journalist wanted him not to long ago and Saifu would’ve made it happen. Now I feel Babar is the favourite again and I don’t know what to say about that. Ik people will say Agha but he regrets T20 captaincy so it’s safe to say he won’t take it in Tests and Rizzy would be nice if he didn’t lose his confidence in the field, Bro is mute when normally he would be shouting and talking every ball. He also is the worst at taking reviews.
Now onto the exclusions. You could make the point that half the team need to go and no one would even bat an eye. Let’s start from the batsman and go down. Openers should still stay but Imam shouldn’t ever return back. Fazal is undercooked imo but he showed something in the first test. U could maybe even put him back at 3 if he prefers that but I know that opening is his original position. Azan i’m not worried about he should get the England series. Ik we will be inexperienced but Shamyl it’s your chance of Imam. Take out one Parchi for another. Jokes aside the boy has talent and he has shown that in domestic the last two years with an average of 45.89 in 48 innings. Need ABD to become the star he looked like at the start of his career and be that Gel up top. Shan has the second batsman as of late but he still hasn’t showed much, Not captain anymore so he could be dropped, would’ve liked to see him in England but he has did this to himself.
In the Middle order. Babar has been awful for a while, Decent starts in this test but should’ve converted twice. Soft dismissal in the first and stranded down leg in the second innings which is a common dismissal for him so I wouldn’t say it’s unlucky anymore. Stays in the squad for now but if he shows nothing by the conclusion of the Eng series then he should be gone. Saud started wonderfully in his career thanks to the pitches made by Ramiz, Even scored runs away in Sri Lanka but then lost form when we changed pitches at home. Bad against pace and not that special against spin at the moment. Looks very bad and next series is in the Windies which is a death trap for him. I reckon he should be around the squad but he should be competing with someone. Agha like the rest ain’t been great as of late but he is clutch at times so he should stay. Problem is do you keep him low where he succeeds or do you move him to Sauds position whilst someone new gets an easier number. Dont want to break Agha whilst trying to blood someone new in but Agha is way too low for my liking.
If Kamran Ghulam’s red ball form didn’t fall off a cliff then he could be tried but he averaged 14 in 8 innings whilst making 108 in the most recent domestic season whilst even Saud got to 32 which is also very bad for someone of his quality. I saw tail enders with more runs than that KG. You also can’t blame that on Aqib dropping him due to fielding. As dumb as that is it doesn’t make a guy average 14. Middle order wise I don’t see much talent whereas we have a load of opener’s. We have Awais Zafar averaging 46 in the last two years we have Mohsin Riaz averaging 40.98 and both have played roughly 50 innings in the last two innings. We could also play a wicket keeper like Saad Baig in the middle. Had a great last year by scoring 1000 runs.
We probs end up playing Ghazi Ghori though. That man has somehow got into all Shaheen and emerging sides and is now in the test squad even though Saad had a much better year. Wonder why he is so pushed but he has a Aberage of 41 in 46 innings which is good.
Onto the pace bowlers. Hasan Ali is like Imam, He comes back but it never works out and enough is enough. Thanks for the memories but you should just play domestic, county and leagues. Shaheen it ain’t over and you will most likely retire a Pakistani legend but you need a break from tests to regain pace and build up fitness to bowl longer spells. At the moment he is a 4 over bowler and that is an issue. He also shouldn’t play every white ball game. Khurram Shehzad and Abbas should stay for now they ain’t the fastest but they take wickets and they need an enforcer or two around them.
I’ve seen people mention Saqib Shah who ain’t the fastest either but he does take wickets but i’d say we have that in Abbas and Khurram, Ali Raza is getting pushed but I don’t want to break him. If they treated him right and got him to bowl 3-4 over spells 3-4 times in a day then that’s fine but we won’t. He ain’t built his body and he has only played 6 FC games. If Naseem got fit and regained pace he could play as he seems a longer format bowler, I really want Dahani to play red ball but we don’t really have a consistent 140 bowler who has wreaked havoc in domestic. Such a sad decline.
In the spin department we have Sajid and Nomi. Nomi thanks for everything but it’s time to go. We need to replace him for someone younger. Ali Usman is the same as Sajid and he is a left arm spin bowler who has 100 wickets in the last two years at the average of 24. He has someone who has deserved a call up for a while. If that’s too old and you want to get rid of both spinners then there is Mubasir who has a decent record but he is more a bat than a bowler. Basically like Agha. Averages 39 with the bat but 34 with the ball. Wouldn’t be enough to get in imo. The better spinners tend to be older. There are 3 younger left arm spinners who most definitely can get in. Mehran is my N1 option but he doesn’t have the best bowling average. It’s 30 but imo he has the most talent and his batting skill is still developing. Ahmed Safi is another who averages 28 with the ball and last is Asghar who everyone rated once upon a time who averages 31.
It’s time to go young and not look back. We are losing every series anyways so it’s time for a rebuild it may take time it might be quick but it will be better than the crap we watch now.
As we once again lose a Test series to Bangladesh 2-0, the reactionary takes come out from Pakistan Cricket fans, and here I am with one. Honestly this result was always on the cards, because Pakistan had lack on proper planning, players flew to Bangladesh just after playing PSL, and they had no proper match practice in red-ball cricket, our pacers lacked the pace or the skill or the ability to take wickets (I am talking about Shaheen Afridi and Hasan Ali here), despite having better numbers than their Bangladeshi counterparts (mainly because of Abbas and Khurram). Our batsmen got the starts, but they failed to convert it into a big innings, and that problem has to be solved before we play the remaining 9 Test matches of this WTC cycle.
I have a few questions along with their answers, and a few proposals.
First question: Does Shan Masood deserve to lead this team to West Indies, on the statistic, that Shan Masood hasn’t won a single Test match outside Pakistan, his batting was good in the second innings at Sylhet, but as captain, he was very poor with captaincy, his field placements, his decisions to rotate his bowlers, his IQ at the time of taking review was very poor. He has won just 4 Test matches out of 16 in his captaincy, with a win percentage of 25%, and 75% loss percentage. Out of these 16 matches, 9 were played in Pakistan, and Pakistan won just 4 at home. Pakistan lost 5 Test matches at home. So in my opinion, Shan Masood, should be immediately removed from Test captaincy. I hope that Shan resigns from his post himself.
Second question (follow-up): If Shan Masood should be replaced, then who should be Test captain? We have four other seniors who regularly play in red-ball cricket, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, and Salman Ali Agha. Babar Azam looked very positive and good in the only Test match he played, I don’t want the board to burden him with the additional responsibility of captaincy, that too in red-ball cricket. Mohammad Rizwan, he too looked good with the bat in the 2^(nd) innings of the 2^(nd) Test, but don’t make him Test captain, he isn’t at his best in international cricket, therefore there is no need to give him the additional captaincy duties. Therefore, in my opinion, Salman Ali Agha is the only good option as Test captain. He is known as a street-smart captain in Pakistan’s domestic setup, he seems to be the only safe option right now.
Third question: Should we move on from Saud Shakeel now???
Saud Shakeel is the Pakistan Test team vice-captain, Saud Shakeel’s performance has become mediocre since he was made captain of Quetta Gladiators in last year’s PSL edition. Pakistan played only 4 Test matches after PSL 2025. And Saud has failed in every single of these games, he hasn’t been good in the first-class cricket he has played, and he is not a good player of pace, (he was reputed to be a very good spin player but he failed against spin too). Therefore, he should be dropped from the team for the upcoming West Indies Test tour, and Kamran Ghulam should be the direct replacement for Saud Shakeel.
Fourth question: What should be our pace attack for West Indies and England Test series??
My suggestion is to continue with Mohammad Abbas, Khurram Shahzad, but add a few names, Mohammad Ali, Mir Hamza, Musa Khan, Afaq Afridi, Saqib Khan, Akif Javed, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Faheem Ashraf and Aamer Jamal. Not every player needs to play, but obviously a red-ball camp will be held before the West Indies series, and therefore, names like those I have suggested should be included in the team, because they offer pace, swing, for pace greater than 140 kmph, we have Musa Khan, Wasim Jnr, Mohammad Ali and Akif Javed. For swinging the ball on green top wickets, we have Mohammad Abbas, Saqib Khan and Afaq Afridi. Mir Hamza and Khurram Shahzad are also specialist red-ball pacers and can prove important. In the all-round pace options, I have added Faheem Ashraf and Aamer Jamal, Aamer Jamal has got the pace and the fighting spirit, while Faheem Ashraf has the ability to bowl cutters and has a lot of variations, and provides support to the pace attack while adding value with the bat too. He bowled over 140 kmph a few times in last PSL, so he surely has got the pace to back his skills with.
Fifth question: What should be our spin attack in West Indies and England Test series??
My suggestion is to go with both Sajid Khan and Abrar Ahmed, and add Ali Usman as back-up left-arm spinner. In West Indies, sometimes two spinners might be played, and at England, the Test matches we are scheduled to play are in late August to September, which means that it will be the near-end to the English summer, the pitches of England will be dried by then, and easier to bat, and spin will surely have a bigger role to play.
Tentative schedule of West Indies and England Test series.
· July 18 – 21: 4-day Warm-up Match (Brian Lara Stadium, Tarouba)
· July 25 – 29: 1st Test (Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain)
· Aug 2 – 6: 2nd Test (Brian Lara Stadium, Tarouba)
· Aug 19 – 23: 1st Test (Headingley, Leeds)
· Aug 27 – 31: 2nd Test (Lord’s, London)
· Sept 9 – 13: 3rd Test (Edgbaston, Birmingham)
I have a few proposals to the Pakistan Cricket Board, and I want Pakistan Cricket fans, to back these ideas. First of all, we were supposed to play a white-ball home series with Zimbabwe in June-July, I humbly present my idea, that the board should request Zimbabwe Cricket to play a one-off Test or two Test matches at Pakistan (not part of WTC cycle), where the Duke’s ball will be used, Pakistan Cricket Board uses Duke’s ball in all premier first-class competitions, and the Duke’s ball will be used in West Indies and England Tests, besides this, if there are more than two Test matches, schedule one of them as Day/Night Test at Rawalpindi, Rawalpindi may offer natural bounce and assist pacers, as well as being batting friendly, while the other Test match can be played at Muzaffarabad (obviously if logistics allow it), because the conditions here may mirror to English conditions (cloud cover, pacer friendly pitches offering swing, and would be cooler than other venues in Pakistan).
It is good to see a practice 4-day match scheduled before the 2 Test matches with West Indies at Trinidad, I would request the PCB to arrange two 3-day games or a single 4-day game before the England Test series, there is an empty window of 12 days, and this can be easily arranged, if PCB contacts ECB and request them to arrange a practice match with any county side, and they will readily arrange one. This will help Pakistan Test side to get match practice at the stadium, before actually playing a WTC Test match.
I will now present a tentative pool of players, out of which the squad can be chosen (in my opinion).
Batsmen: Abdullah Fazal, Azan Awais, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Kamran Ghulam, Saad Baig (wk), Salman Ali Agha (C), Shan Masood (can act as players’ media manager if not in playing XI) Usman Khan (wk).
Fast Bowlers: Afaq Afridi, Akif Javed, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Mir Hamza, Musa Khan, Saqib Khan.
Spinners: Abrar Ahmed, Ali Usman, Sajid Khan.
All-Rounders: Aamer Jamal, Faheem Ashraf.
Farhan and Mazz to open again.
lets just hope PCB dont slot someone new in the mix and instead persist with these two who have opened the batting last series as well
We have already seen him bowl brilliantly in SA
In this series too despite playing only one match, he had only 3 less wickets then Nahid with a way better economy(best among fast bowlers, 2nd best overall)
He has an alright list A career as well averaging less then 30 and economy under 6
Should he be considered for the ODIs especially considering the injuries of naseem and salman mirza
Every layer of PCB is incompetent and incapable of self reflection. No amount of blaming the players is going to achieve anything. Our players are playing without planning or any support from the board while others are professionalizing at a rapid rate.
An honest discussion thread:
Just as there is public pressure to remove certain players or captains, what is the best way, in your opinion, for us as Pakistan cricket fans to push for technocracy within the PCB?
No matter how frustrated or biased we may be towards certain individuals, I think we are all aware that the system and administration of our board are not based on merit and are not serving Pakistan cricket well. Even if some PCB heads were arguably good cricketers, that does not necessarily make them good administrators or long term planners.
What can we, as fans, push for or do to at least start a conversation about this? All I see around me is criticism of individual players and captains, rather than discussion of the deeper structural issues within our cricket system.
What can we realistically do about it? Or at the very least, how can we encourage more people to start talking about the root causes instead of just the symptoms?
Can we fix? What to fix? when to fix? What is a realistic expectation a fan and board should have
Day 1 Results - It was more or less a 50/50 between Pengu and HMcod so I decided to add both to save a day.
- Pengu gets his opening spot as promised.
- HM will come in to bat at 8 just like his favourite player UK78.
Day 2 Results - An astounding number of you guys voted u/Ghostly_100 as the next player.
- Ghostly will now open alongside u/Pengu786
- As requested Ghostly is now also the Chairman of the PakCricket Subreddit XI whilst also being captain.
- u/PhaintaAssociate is now on the reserves on the "Damaad/Parchi quota"
Just a quick runover of the rules:
- You CANNOT vote for yourself
- You CANNOT vote for someone already in the team
- You only have ONE VOTE
- The person with the most upvotes wins
- The person MUST be in r/PakCricket
- You MUST give a reason for your choice
- You should also write what position they should play
Thankyou again to u/MoreCryptographer213 for the template
I added a bat symbol above the batters and wicket keeper icon above HMcod. I had to change the background colour to be slightly lighter so the icons are visible.
He has only 4941 runs in FC cricket. How dare he not have as many runs as Jack Hobbs? Look at that great guys stats. Over 60 000 runs!
He averages just 45. What a pleb. How about grinding it even further and averaging in the 90s like this random person named Don Bradman?
He doesn't look elegant. What's the point of having him when you have Imam putting up the most aesthetic, most pleasing(with lots of edges) 30s compared to this guy making an ugly hundred in his test debut?
He is wayy too aggressive. Imagine smashing a 60 of 30 balls instead of going into REAL Talat mode and get out for a 4(13) while batting lower down the order.
He has scored 0 runs at New York. I mean come on, that's the REAL test.
He hasn't scored a run since that WINDIES test series! What a fraud, absolute farce ngl!
Why is he not taking up the bowling role? He averages 16 in ODI cricket. It's obvious he is a failed bat!
Thank you for reading my BEST and SINCERE opinion.
Cut away, cut away for four… what an innings, what a player! Take a bow Mohammad Rizwan. The Dutch-Bangla bank series well and truly alive because of one cricketer.”