Should we have a pincher?

[Sham]

A lot of people have been advocating pushing Rafique up the order as a pinch-hitter in the remaining one-dayers. However, I feel that this issue of whether to employ a pinch-hitter or not should be examined more closely before we decide whether we ought to employ one or not.

What a pincher is meant to do is to give the run rate a boost, to go out and have a go at the bowling without having to worry about losing his wicket. However, I think it is important that we are judicious about the use of a pincher and figure out in what sorts of circumstances, if at all, we should use one, and when we shouldnt. Let me discuss three possible scenarios.

Scenario 1: BD finds itself in the all too familiar situation of losing an early wicket, so say we are 5 for 1. Should we send in a pincher? My answer is: absolutely not! While a pincher might hit a few sixes and give the score a boost, he can just as easily get out. 10 for 2 would be as demoralizing for BD as it would be encouraging for the opposition. In such a scenario, we should send in a proper batsman to try and undo the damage by putting up a good partnership.

Scenario 2: The BD openers both click and they put up a great opening partnership, say 125 for no loss in 25 overs! Lets say they hit their share of boundaries in the first 15 and then settled down to pick up the singles and rotate the strike once the field is spread out. Should we send in a pincher if a wicket goes down at this stage? My answer: again a no! This would seem like an ideal situation to send in a pinch-hitter. But I would say, when an innings has that kind of momentum, the last thing you want to do is disrupt it. A pincher usually hits boundaries, but they also waste balls in between. If the pinching doesnt come off, it might be that the pincher faced 20 balls for 11 before skying a catch to the deep. What does that do? Kills the momentum that the innings had. Even if the pincher is successful in hitting a few sixes, the lack of strike rotation is likely to kill the momentum anyway as the batsman who was getting into the habbit of taking quick singles will be sitting around at one end watching the drama. So, I would rather resist the temptation of sending in a pincher and rather send in a batter who can maintain the momentum.

Scenario 3: BD gets off to a steady but slow start and finds itself at 60 for no loss after 16 overs, the rr a little below 4. Should we send in a pincher if a wicket goes down at this stage? My answer: yes! Obviously the rr needs a boost and a pincher might provide it. On the other hand, if he gets out, 65 for 2 doesn't seem as bad (unlike scenario 1), and even if he wastes balls and then gets out, its no big loss since the innings never had any momentum anyway (unlike scenario 2).

Thats my take on when we should send in a pincher. Would like to hear what the rest of you think.