Hapless bowling from Pakistan - Part 2 - Opinion
Continued from Part 1...
Yet the fact of the matter is that Pakistan's bowling is a grave matter of concern for a team that has historically bowled beautifully in the shortest format of the game. In fact, the bowling department was the only reason why Pakistan had managed to win
T20 games in the recent past, with the series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 in the Emirates being a prime example of how small totals were defended with assurance. Not a single batting performance managed to secure victory for Pakistan in that series, where the last T20
in the lead up to the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 World T20 exposed a hapless line up to quality Australian seam bowling, which left the team in disarray. Yet with the bowling not firing in this year’s ICC World T20 of 2012, Pakistan would need to be wary over how long their batsmen
can sustain the pressure up front, and rescue the side from precarious situations.
The bowling attack on paper consists of a powerful set of bowlers, which includes spinners which have the ability to carve through batting line ups with consistency. The fast men are known to produce some amazing spells against an array of top quality oppositions
as well. The problem for Pakistan however, has been the poor line and lengths that most of their bowlers have bowled, despite their reputation. The skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Hafeez-c76898 for example, is known for his accuracy to the left handers, but against the right handers
in this tournament so far, he continued to bowl half trackers to the Kiwi and Bangladeshi batsmen and was punished severely as a result. Similarly, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sohail-c90628 Tanvir’s inclusion into the team has become a matter of concern, where his once difficult to pick whippy
action, has now become susceptible to being scored off, with the batsmen easily adjusting their stroke play accordingly. Tanvir’s performance against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Tamim-Iqbal-c2640
and was one of the prime reasons why the Tigers managed to post a formidable 175 for 6 in 20 overs. Much to Pakistan’s relief however, the batsmen were once again ruthless in their approach, and gave little room for the Bangladeshis to get back into the game,
let alone win it.
Some dark realities regarding Pakistan’s bowling can be attributed to a number of factors. Firstly, there is an over reliance on http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Saeed-Ajmal-c87859 to perform on a consistent basis, where his status as a genuine match winner is making way for being the only ‘match
winner’ for the country. Similarly, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-c89347 Afridi’s reputation as one of the stars of the T20 format has been laid to rest by opposition batsmen, who have begun to read him on a consistent basis, where plenty of deliveries from the leg spinner which were dropped
short or wide outside of the off stump, were hammered. The warm up clash against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/RG-Sharma-c2309 managed to feast on Afridi’s terrible bowling by depositing him out of the ground.
He has not improved since then, as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 continues to gift away runs against oppositions that they have historically had an upper hand over.
In a nutshell, Pakistan would need to address their hapless bowling in two ways. They could acknowledge that the quality of their attack is unquestionable and they would need to pull up their socks. The other way to address this problem of leaking runs could
be to reign in a few changes into the bowling by resting those bowlers who are off color. For a team like Pakistan however, which can sway like a reckless rickshaw, the first option seems like a fair call as the team would be facing more formidable batting
line ups in the Super Eight stages of the tournament.
Disclaimer: Any views and opinions expressed in this article are solely of the author and do not represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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