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Old February 1, 2016, 10:56 AM
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MHRAM MHRAM is offline
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Join Date: April 30, 2013
Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh
Favorite Player: Sangakkara, Mike Hussey
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Well a grafter like Saif Hassan is important in tests, but absolutely needless in modern cricket.

Do you know which is the most unsuccessful LOI team off late amongst the top sides despite playing full strength? Yes no big deal, the answer is Pakistan. And they open with two batsman -Azhar Ali and Shehzad both who struggle to rotate the strike and usually plays a lot of dot balls. Hence, Pakistan are always struggling to score much even on flat wickets. Look at BD, India, SL, Aus, Eng all the current ODI sides have aggressive batsman opening. Forget opening the batting, no teams usually field a batsman like Misbah, Chanderpaul, Dravid anymore.

Playing at a SR of 45-50 will not win you matches unless there is a collapse even then you need to be able to get moving otherwise you will result in the further pressure down the order. Today NZ was 45-4 chasing 216 against Ireland, regardless of the opposition, they did really well to chase down that 216 with plenty of overs to spare.

I am sure Hassan is talented and has a lot of shots in the book. I am fine with him playing a slow innings, But, he needs to play it smart, find the gaps when needed, run hard.
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