Flower urges misfiring Pakistan batsmen to show “more spine”

Reuters Published March 11, 2015

Pakistan's top order should show “more spine” if they are to progress in the World Cup, the team's batting coach Grant Flower said.

The 1992 champions will play Ireland on Sunday in Pool B to decide a three-way battle for a spot in the quarter finals. West Indies, who take on United Arab Emirates, the same day are the third team in contention for the knockout stage.

Former Zimbabwe batsman Flower, who was appointed to the Pakistan role last year, said the best was yet to come from the team's batsmen.

“They are yet to fire and I would like to think their best is still to come and if not then we wouldn't go too much further into the tournament,” Flower told Pakistani reporters in Adelaide on Wednesday.

“I expect the top order to show some more spine.”

Pakistan have crossed the score of 300 only against UAE in the tournament which has seen totals in excess of 400 breached thrice.

Captain Misbah-ul-Haq, who bats in the middle order, is their top scorer with four half centuries in five matches.

The team have been rescued by their four-man pace attack, who have successfully defended low totals in three matches, including an exciting win over South Africa last week.

Flower said that players like Umar Akmal and Sohaib Maqsood, who have failed to get big scores, needed to do more to showcase their talent.

“They showed glimpses of their talent but for such good players they are they need to show more,” Flower, who played 67 tests and 221 ODIs for Zimbabwe, said.

“They are aware that they can bat a lot better than they have.

“The signs were there against UAE and they played some positive cricket against a good South African attack.”

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Nas

Mar 11, 2015 06:41pm

He is right, can't depend on Bowling alone.

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Haq

Mar 11, 2015 06:42pm

Drop Umar Akmal and bring in Haris Sohail. That should be the only change from the previous match's 11 against SA.

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Hassan Shad

Mar 11, 2015 06:45pm

A coach whose last name is Flower translated "phool" can't do much. His last name should have been thorn translated "kanta" and he should have been on the "side" (read: thorn on the side) of Pakistani batsmen! All the pun in the world intended.

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Pak patriot

Mar 11, 2015 06:51pm

Pakistan will need a score of 300 + to beat Ireland. Since Umar Akmal is now in the team, strictly as a batsman, he better perform. If not, he should be dropped.

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Awais Ali

Mar 11, 2015 06:54pm

Flower don,t know about scrap we have in bating?

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smshariq121@yahoo.com

Mar 11, 2015 07:05pm

@ali team should be remail same. batting order required below changes 1. Shahzad 2. Sarfaraz 3. unus khan 4. umar akmal 5. sohaib Maqsood 6. Misbah 7 Afreedi 8. wahab 9.sohail 10. Rahat 11. Irfan

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Saeed Masood

Mar 11, 2015 07:07pm

What is needed is sensible cricket...not heroism ...when you play cricket with your head in contact and go with the plan you win...these days cricket is more a game of mind and guts...that is what Pakistan needs...if they do this they will become heroes naturally.

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smshariq121@yahoo.com

Mar 11, 2015 07:26pm

Guys, do you agree below batting order 1. Shahzad 2. Sarfaraz 3. unus khan 4. umar akmal 5. sohaib Maqsood 6. Misbah 7 Afreedi 8. wahab 9.sohail 10. Rahat 11. Irfan

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Naeem Ayub

Mar 11, 2015 07:27pm

@Haq I disagree. We need to drop Younis Khan & bring in Haris Sohail (extra spin option) + Yasir Shah for one seamer. Change the batting order - Ahmad & Sarfaraz as openers, Haris 3, Umar 4, Misbah 5, Sohaib 6, Afridi 7, Wahab 8 followed by other bowlers. Misbah is quite capable of hard hitting if he goes in with fewer overs left instead of strangling the run rate early in the innings

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Matrix

Mar 11, 2015 07:40pm

I think Flower himself is responsible for this embarrassing batting performance , he should quit..

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Sardar

Mar 11, 2015 07:45pm

@Haq I would say due to his technique, Ahmed Shezad should be dropped and replaced with Haris Suhail. Umer Akmal should not be touched. He is a class player.

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YORAJAA

Mar 11, 2015 07:46pm

Flower urges misfiring Pakistan batsmen to show “more spine” JO KE HAI HI NAHIN!!!

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Shabash

Mar 11, 2015 08:23pm

@Sardar totally agree with you. Umar Akmal has already been under fire just because he did keeping when his team needed him and he needs complete trust. He is one of few batsmen that can play all the shots in the book. To me he did good keeping. And ther at people were making fun of him at SA game, totally unfair.

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pakistani

Mar 11, 2015 08:25pm

agreed with flower, but if players are selected on the basis of parchis then they don't "have the spine" to showcase their talent.

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Mudassar Siddiq

Mar 11, 2015 08:26pm

With Misbah as captain, batting can never be match winner for you

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Junaid

Mar 11, 2015 08:37pm

Ahmed Shehzad no matter how talented he is should realize that he is walking on thin ice. He needs to play his natural game. slow and blocking shots is not his game. We have Mr. Tuk Tuk for that, lol. In all seriousness, Shehzad has got to rotate the strike. Take a leaf out of Sarfraz who in his first game was more positive than Shehzad playing his 5th. All Pakistan batsmen need to get on top of the ball. Misbah is the only one doing that but he is limited in his shots as he can only play on mid on and midwicket area.

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Akram

Mar 11, 2015 08:47pm

@Mudassar Siddiq are you aware that Misbah is the most successful captain in Pakistani history? even more so than Imran and Javed Miandad? He is one of the top 5 scorers in this tournament too. what a foolish comment.

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jjj

Mar 11, 2015 09:08pm

This is nothing NEW...?

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Shahriar

Mar 11, 2015 09:12pm

Drop yunus and bring in haris shoil. 1.shezad 2.sarfraz 3.maqsood 4.haris 5.akmal 6.mesbah 7.afridi 8.riaz 9.rahat 10.shoil khan 10.irfan

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NASIM KHAN

Mar 11, 2015 09:26pm

@Mudassar Siddiq i agree with you completely.

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NASIM KHAN

Mar 11, 2015 09:28pm

@Akram No that was not a foolish coment but those people who support misbah blindly they actually do not have a proper idea about the real (today's) cricket.

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Sandeep

Mar 11, 2015 09:29pm

may sound strange but Misbah brings a strange kind of defensiveness to Pakistani batting. All Pakistani batsmen I have seen in this tournament are quite good but this guy in the middle needs to play more positively. He is too old fashioned. Not sure how Pakistan can sore a 300+ score against a decent bowling attack with this speed breaker in the middle. He is useful while you need to fight back from 10 for 3 else he is just a burden.

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Saad

Mar 11, 2015 09:36pm

Sohail , umer akmal and Maqsood. The most they are capable of scoring Is about 15-39 runs the Max. Umer akmal needs some help. He's confused. At time he thinks he's abdul razzak then few balls later he' wants to be shahid afridi

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Mudassar Siddiq

Mar 11, 2015 10:19pm

@Akram. The people like you are also responsible for this sorry state of our cricket. Misbah has never made possible for any btsman to develop arround him. His intentions were probably not wrong, but the fact that he never gives breathing space for any youngster batting with him has destroyed our cricket. And when ignorant people like you praises him, it proves to be the last nail in the coffin. May Gid give some sanity to cricket fans like you.

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Haq

Mar 11, 2015 10:59pm

@Akram - You need to understand cricket better. First of all, Misbah is a successful test captain by wins not in ODIs. Different animal. IMHO, he is one of the worst ODI cricketers in the world. Because he is playing ODI as if he was playing test cricket. He is a selfish player, player for himself and his average, hence has never gotten an ODI century. He puts the pressure on all the batsmen around him by blocking deliveries and not rotating strikes and taking singles. Classic example was the SA ODI. There was no pressure when Sarfarz got out, 92/2 in 17th over with like 5.5 healthy run rate. He came and started blocking Duminy & DeVillivers (Part time bowlers), while they said Sarfarz cannot open the innings with his technique yet Sarfarz played them like he is genuine top order batsman. And then Misbah put pressure on all the batsmen who were playing with him. He is a scared batsman and not made for today's ODI cricket.

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Faisal

Mar 11, 2015 11:23pm

Well Said .. either perform or leave the space for other.

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khamkhwa

Mar 12, 2015 12:45am

to revitalize Pakistan batting, selectors must drop misbah ul haq. he may be highest run getter amongst Pakistani batsmen but the number of balls he takes to score those runs upsets the equilibrium. there are only 300 balls to score off and misbah blocks nearly 100 balls which forces other batsmen to score in the remaining 200 balls available, hence Pakistan always fails to go beyond 270. ps: I have greatest regard for misbah as a test cricketer but ODI is not his forte.

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Imtiaz

Mar 12, 2015 01:06am

@Sardar Umar Akmal is a class player and doesn't require to perform.

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Shahid

Mar 12, 2015 02:30am

There is a simple solution to it. Ask Umar Akmal and Maqsood not to play airborn shots until they have scored 40. Ask Misbah not to do tuk tuk and put undue pressure on the lower middle order. What Misbah is doing is a sweet poison. He scores runs but so slow that when Umar and Sohaib come to bat, they need to score at 10 per over from the word go, and this makes them play airborn shots very early in their innings. It gets even worst when chasing. If your asking rate is 5, Misbah will take it to 9 and then expect the others to play like Afridi.

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Jawad

Mar 12, 2015 02:59am

@Haq for a moment I thought it was my post. 100% agreed.

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Tahir

Mar 12, 2015 03:29am

@Haq Drop younis khan and Sohail khan and bring Haris and Yasir Shah, umar akmal showed signs against west indies and he is a good fielder too, on what basis will u keep Sohaib and younis if u r dropping akmal, and what have Ahmad Shahzad done.

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GREEN JAGUAR

Mar 12, 2015 03:53am

The Pakistan cricket team needs to improve their fielding, so heavy practice in this skill should greatly improve their odds of winning : )

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Mar 12, 2015 05:14am

@Mudassar Siddiq has it ever been!

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Mudassar Siddiq

Mar 12, 2015 08:44am

@Haq Well said. Lets hope that more and more people do understand the damage done by Misbah to our ODI cricket. This is important because after his retirement i.e at the end of this world cup, Younus Khan has shown his intentions to become the captain. He is even a BIGGER problem. Again, Younas is a very good Test match player but far-off from modern limited overs cricket which is all about putting pressures on the opposition by aggressive bowling and batting.

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msuhi

Mar 12, 2015 10:42am

@Sardar On what basis Akmal is talented playing more than 100 odi see where he is standing and look at Kholi same time he to started playing., As longs as Afridi remains in the team you will never find good temperament and technical batsman., Why india have best batsman due to Sachin,Dravid and Azhar,Laxman as their rolemodels, in pakistan the young generation not followed the game of Izi,Yousuf and Saeed but they followed the wrong person. in this media of pakistan is more responsible promoting and projecting the an medicore player as superstar in there tv show.

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blunt

Mar 12, 2015 12:06pm

@Imtiaz : you got a sense of humor, dude!!!

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yoni brigades

Mar 12, 2015 03:44pm

Pakistani batsman are plain scared of getting hit by the ball. Their run dates are stymied by utter fear !

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Junaid

Mar 12, 2015 07:25pm

I clearly see the lack of confidence among the top order batsmen of Pakistan team. They don't have enough tools to handle difficult bowling attack. In ODI you must score continuously while settling down as a new batsman on the crease. The best solution to that is to take singles. Looks like our team lacks the practice of taking singles. It requires a lot of physical fitness and practice, which seems to be missing and they end up getting run out as result. Secondly batsmen should practice the actual match on the nets with 10 overs for each pair to see how fast can they score in the last 10 overs. That has been a make or break for all good teams. Good Luck with Ireland !!

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shahriar

Mar 12, 2015 08:06pm

pakistan should select saad nasim

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Sam

Mar 13, 2015 02:58am

Drop Younis Khan, the under-performer, and bring Harris. Also, look into the possibility of getting Fawad Alam. Yes, God we need batsmen with spine!

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Sam

Mar 13, 2015 03:00am

@smshariq121@yahoo.com Drop Younus and bring Harris, and the nation will agree with you!

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moe

Mar 13, 2015 09:47pm

The 1992 champions will play Ireland on Sunday in Pool B to decide a three-way battle for a spot in the quarter finals.What's wrong with this line. Pak always lives in the past. You people are a waste of skin and morel decay.

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