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Originally Posted by Beamer
Very much in agreement with Bancricfan here. You sum it up beautifully. We must adjust and be flexible in our approach from here and on. A few things I would like to add to go with your analysis. I am increasingly finding this PP situation very frustrating to deal with. As it stands, we have no player capable of taking advantage of batting PP as the current team is constructed. Forget about any power hitting skills coming from the likes of Riyad, Naeem, Mushy an co- the usual guys who are there when we take the PP on the 45th. Those guys dont have that skill and its unfair to expect them to do so. If you play Dravid at no.7, hypothetically, and expect him to bludgeon the ball around in the 45th over, I think he will be failure as well. Not saying that our trio are comparable to Dravid, but, I think you understand what I am trying to say here. Lets say we stick to our plan of PP @ 45 th ( total moronic idea ), then at least play Ash at no.6, even though he doesn't do much these days, but still I would rather have him bat for the last six-seven overs than the combination of the other trio. What do we have to lose? Nothing. They are not doing the job anyway. At least, this Ash has sparked in big game situations before. I will take a 20 ball 30 over anything we have to show for now.
Since we don't have any power below no.5 in the current squad, my theory to counter the 45-50 over PP is to take it take on the 34th with the new ball ( most teams do that ), and play batsmen who has the experience of playing the new ball ( openers and no.3 batsman ). They are used to playing cricket shots for boundaries with new ball by piercing the gap. We don't have typical no.6-no.7 batsmen for one dayers in our squad. So, we have to deal with what we have in the squad. Take the PP around 34th-35th. Hopefully Sakib is still at one end. Bring in either Nafis ( who has opened or played no.3 with new ball ), or Ash ( who also played at no.3 ) and let them play as if they are opening or coming one down with the approach and mentality of that position.
I can live with Riyad-Naeem gone from the team. Riyad is good test prospect who needs time to settle in and bat. Its unfair to play him at no.7 in ODI's. Naeem just doesn't offer anything.
Next two games ( Ire and WI ) will decide our WC and we must re-adjust. Ireland is one tricky opponent and Siddons public comment about WI being below us in ranking, thus we should be able to beat them was a complete garbage moment that does nothing but give them bulletin board material. Ireland is up next and we need the added specialist spinner in Shuvo. Here will be my team for them and WI :
1. Tamim
2. Imrul
3. Zunaid
4. Mushy ( I guess we have to play him )
5. Sakib
6. Nafis
7. Ash
8. Shuvo
9. Raj
10 Shafiul ( guy will bounce back )
11 Rubel.
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99.9% agree with what you are saying. however, whatever XI we picked, we need to stick with it. we can't go around Ashraful-ing everyone ie dumping them after just one failure. Riyad and Naeem should get one more final chance to mess up. Yes I know, Riyad/Naeem have now failed in about 20 consecutive innings, but we need to be consistent in our selection and team issues.
Mushy, I don't know why anyone can criticize him. He is the perfect anchor for our top order. And if the other guys bat around him, then even with him scoring at a SR of 65 we can post solid totals in the 275-300 range. Tamim has to fire, Shakib has to fire, and if the new, de-sissified duo of Junaid/Imrul can score at close to a run ball as they each have in the last two games, then there is no reason we can't score 300 against top sides every now and then.
Our bowling, Shafiul messed it up (but i have full faith in the lad)...had he bowled tighter the opening spell, i can guarantee that Shakib, Razzak would have taken a lighter beaten as well. Grand total of 30-50 runs would have saved, meaning we could have been chasing 320-330...which given the pitch and how we did bat at 80% of our ability, we could have theoretically won the game. Wishful thinking? Sure. But still possible. So overall, bowling I won't blame anyone. Crap happens.
Batting, we batted rather well. I would have loved to see a little more intent from Junaid and Tamim, and wished Imrul could have lasted a few more overs without slowing down. But oh well.
What I cannot fathom, and what I cannot accept is Shakib's cowardice and not taking the PP when he was set with Tamim, and then the shot he played which totally contradicted his decision to not take the powerplay.
We may not have scored 320-330, but we didn't give ourselves the chance to do that. We not only lost the actual game, but lost the game within the game. From the position we were in 261-6 after 44.3 overs...even Kenya would have scored 300. I blame Shakib most of all for this callous and self-defeating decision, and it totally belies the strength of character we know that he is.
Totally agree about Ashraful, a first ball duck will hardly dent our overall RR...as opposed to the knife to heart that our RR sufffers every time Naeem/Riyad swing and miss and/or leave balls through to keeper during the batting PP.
I think Nafees should come in for one of them at 6, and Ash in at 7.
Shuvo honestly is no better with bat than Naeem/Riyad, and his bowling would have been eaten up, chewed, and pooped out by Sehwag and Kohli if he had bowled. But I think he can be a handful to every other team in the tourney barring India, SL, Pak.