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Originally Posted by al Furqaan
Those stats aren't just terrible, they're appalling. In fact, laws should be passed criminalizing strike rates above 150! JK, but you get the point.
Shahadat like many of our other players was actually better than he is now. At one stage in his career he had an average of 36 and a strike rate of 52. Right after the 2008 RSA series. Mash is the only pacer to have a similar average, but no one has had such a strike rate. At one stage of his early career he a strike rate well into the 40s. He had so much potential...
I disagree here. Quite a few other bowlers got a fair amount of chances and produced like he has been the past couple of years. Mash and Tapash played quite a bit and didn't take a single fiver. All the innings bowled by Talha, Sharif, Nazmul, Rubel, Monju, Shafiul, Shanto, Robin, etc probably at least equals the amount of overs Shahadat has thrown down and they've only produced 1 fiver (by Rubel).
That being said, I'd still go with Rubel and Nazmul as my starting pacers and I would still select Shahadat in the XV because someone is bound to get hurt or smote out of the XI and Shahadat is next best bet we've got.
More to the topic of the OP...I've been thinking about this thread for a while and the 15 guys I would pick (starting XI first) would be:
1) Soumyo Sarkar
2) Tamim
3) Anamul
4) Mominul
5) Shakib
6) Mushfiq
7) Nasir
8) Sunny
9) Nazmul
10) Enamul
11) Rubel
x) Shahadat
x) Gazi
x) Nazimuddin
x) Naeem Islam
Soumyo is definitely not ready, but he has rare talent and we have no one else. Soumyo is definitely going to score tons interspersed by tons of single digit scores, but in time he may mature. Regardles, everyone knows my mantra, "we have no one else". Imrul is garbage, slightly less crappy in ODIs but his low SR makes Ashraful look appetizing. Nazimuddin is a Test "specialist" and although he did well against PAK, I doubt he has the quality to sustain it. I'd rather have Ash open than Imrul and Nazimuddin. But Nazimuddin didn't really get a good run, otherwise I won't hesitate in putting Ash back in my 15.
Anamul may be out of form, but form as we know is temporary. He's taken bowlers like Merchant de Lange to the cleaners on home pitches, why do we think he can't do the same to Tino Best and Rampaul? Anamul should have been picked a year ago, we waited too long and now he's beginning to suck. If you get stuck in the NCL too long, you go bad. This ain't the Sheffield Shield folks.
Mominul was by far the best batsman in the A team. It would be as idiotic to leave him out now as it was to leave Anam out a year ago. I know I've picked four debutants, but Michigan had 5 freshman start back in 1991.
The toughest choice was between Gazi and Enamul, but I went with Enamul because if you can pick an offie to bowl to RHBs than you can pick an SLA to bowl to LHBs. Besides all of Shakib, Sunny, and Enam are different bowlers with different styles. Nasir can bowl some offies if need be. Gazi does have batting upside, and thus it was a tough decision, and it could go either way. But I'll go with Enamul who's been ripping through any side he's bowled against for quite some time now. The spot is his to lose, however.
Pace wise Rubel and Nazmul pretty much select themselves. I am totally not confident in one or both of them and thus would not be surprised to have to resort to Shahadat, whose form is decent enough.
In the forseeable future, I see Taskin Ahmed eventually phasing out one of the pacers and taking over as the pace spearhead for Tests. I think he's a very ordinary limited overs bowling, talent notwithstanding, but I think its in Tests that he can make an immediate impact and where our needs lie. Our ODI pace trio of Mash, Rubel, and Nazmul is more than settled and actually quite competant.
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