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Old December 21, 2006, 01:47 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by al Furqaan
well, yes you are correct. but i guess what i was trying to say was that rajin is a fighter. we never expected him to be one of the most consistant batsman in the aussie series yet he did that (only SN showed similar reslove). that being said, i don't believe that we have seen all that rajin saleh can bring to the table. if he can be half of rahul dravid (why not?), then the #3 spot is a shoe in. look at it this way, if bashar can be the #3, rajin can.

i don't see why rajin needs aggressiveness to succeed in Tests. rather thats been the problem with all our batsman even and especially bashar, but extending down to aftab, and ashraful as well. they bat too fast far too many times. if they slowed things down and scored the same number of runs, then many if not all of our matches would progress well into a 4th day.

if we get a better #3, i'm all for it...but for now rajin is the man.
I do like Rajin Saleh in our test team. He has the mental aspect that not many posses at the moment apart from SN. He specially seems to do well right after he gets dropped ( and he has been dropped before ) and comes back to the team as a result. That tells me that mentally the kid is tough. Thats the good part .

Now the bad part, and that has nothing to with mental aspect of the game, but the technical aspect. He is not good at all against quality pace or pitches that help seamers. All of his good knocks have come in BD in dead-pan picthes and mostly against Zim. Yes, he was good against the Aussies, and that was the reason why I said that he should play in our next test series based on his last performance. But, not as no.3. I will explain why, later.

Before the Aussie series, only notable series he had was in his debut series in Pakistan. In between, he has been dropped against England ( home and away ), India, in and out against NZ, ok in WI, did well in home series against Zim ( surprise ! ), then dropped in England ...you get it right? Most recently he didn't play against SL at home. But as usual, he has done well in his come back series against Australia. And, in his entire career ( so far ) he has batted maybe once at no.3 and opened may be once or twice ( if my memory serves me right ) only because JO was retired hurt or something. I don't quite understand how you can say that he is a shoe-in at no.3? That is streching the imagination a bit. Contrary to popular belief, he is not good at all with the newer ball, seaming and zipping, as he gets frozen in his track with nominal footwork. No.3 must face a lot of new balls ( BD opening in the past meant no.3 is there after four/five overs or worse ) and if you are not technically that gifted, your only way out is by attacking ( Bashar for good example ), so the latter batsmen can work on that foundation. Say what you say about Bashar, but his test contribution at no.3 has been mammoth by our standard, and whenevr we had success in scoring a good/decent total, it has been almost always on the back of Bashar's knock. Rajin does not have that quality. Sure, his steel is needed, but later in the order ( preferably at no.5 with the old ball ) so he can bat with lower middle to lower order batsmen.

With his ultra negatice approach at no.3, he will be sorrounded by opposing fielders and they will get him out knowing he is not going to attack. Can't do that. Sure we would like to have a Dravid . I mean who wouldn't? But, not many in the world scene has his technical gift. He is literally the ideal no.3. But, look around and you will see that among all the test playing nations, the respetives no.3's are also their best batsman, all attacking by nature , but not necessarily technically the most gifted in the team, yet sound. Ponting, Vaughn, Dravid, Flemming, Sarwan ( Lara is a freak and doesn't apply ), Younis/Yosuf, Sangakkara..all..all of them has one thing in common. They take there time to settle ( rajin does that ) and then get on top of bowlers to build the platform ( rajin doesn't do that ). And he is not the best batsman in the team. Bashar and Ashraful are the best two and they should bat at 3 and 4.

We also need to understand the diff between aggressiveness and positive intent. You are correct when you say that all of our batsmen are aggressive. I agree. They don't know how to attack. They play low percentage shots in test cricket and get out. Rajin is not guilty of that. He will try hard not to gift his wkt away. But, at no.3 they will pry his wkt away simply because he won't back em off. He won't play attacking, high percentage shots , when its needed. You are right when you say that we haven't seen the end of Rajin. I would very much like him to succeed at no.5 . He plays within his limitation and there is nothing wrong with that. But we will be doing a disservice to him and to us if he ask him to bat at no.3. What I have seen SO FAR, doesn't indicate that he has what it takes to be a no.3 in tests. He needs to improve his footwork, technique against quality pace in or outside the country, and above all develop a little more range of shots, high percentage ones. Mentally, he is Ok, but a bit too negative in his approach...
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