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Old June 8, 2008, 07:14 PM
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al Furqaan al Furqaan is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Eshen
Gowza, Ashraful is not capable of playing according to situation. If I remember correctly, Harsha Bhogle once said Ashraful can pace his inning either in the first gear or in the fourth gear, there is nothing in between. He can either block or hit for boundaries, but struggles to find gaps and sneak singles.

However, I have no complain if Siddons wants Ashraful to give up his flamboyance and be a more defensive batsman.

actually, asides from sakib and alok, ashraful is best batsman we have in terms of milking singles in the middle overs with the field spread out. today ash was in terrible form. he was getting beaten almost every ball for the first couple dozen balls he faced.

ash along with aftab are capable of playing in every gear. thats why its such a waste. if they weren't capable, then no one would speak of ash and aftab failing to live up to potential because they average about as much as afridi does, who is a player with just one gear. remember dhoni when he came on the scene? 183* in just 40 overs and what not...he can't do that all the time. as a result dhoni settled down, often playing innings slow enough to irk the indian fans. that coupled with batting at 6-7 has helped him maintain a 40+ average in ODIs.

basically there are 4 gears: first which is to bat for a draw, 2nd which is innings building, 3rd which is free scoring and 4th, which is slogging. ash and aftab are capable of playing all 4 - maybe not equally well, but they are still learning the game. aftab generally bats in 4th gear, and when he doesn't he's usually in 1st. ash is an enigma because he can bat in any gear, yet throw his wicket away. this game was one where he almost did twice, but apart from that he kept himself in check. today's ash batted in 1st and 2nd gear. the 5th ODI against PAK he batted in 3rd, but threw his wicket away.

sakib is a guy who i thought could only play in 1st or 2nd, but he definitely hit 3rd against pakistan. JO was a 1st gear only player, HB was a 1-2, rajin a 1, tamim mainly a 1 or 4, with occaisional 3rd gear. etc. raqibul hasan seems to be a 1-2 guy, and SN a 1,2,3 guy who just always gets out for 25 runs or less.
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