New FP article: Time for a Spinner Hunt

[AsifTheManRahman]

Is spin our ultimate weapon? Is an SLA infested attack the way to go? Jeeshan Mirza dwells on the significance of spin bowling in the context of Bangladesh cricket and whether a spin-heavy attack is indeed what we need to conquer the world.

In economics, the theory of comparative advantage explains a country should specialize in making and exporting goods and services that it can produce most efficiently. In a way this idea can also apply to sports like cricket. Every cricketing nation seems to have the ability to unearth talent in certain areas much more easily than others. India has the ability to produce run scoring machines, Pakistan unearths skillful swing bowlers with ease, South Africa is known for their world class all-rounders and fielders, while Australia has always been good with genuine fast bowlers. Bangladesh too seems to have the ability to produce a category of players with ease - slow left arm spinners (SLA’s).

More

[Zunaid]

Very well written article. Love it.

[MohammedC]

First to share on BC's FB. Very good article.

[zinatf]

Very nicely written and well analysed.

[KaaL-PurusH]

very well written

[ahnaf]

Well written Zee bhai..

Posted via BC Mobile Edition (Opera Mobile)

[Zunaid]

Originally Posted by ahnaf
Well written Zee bhai..

Posted via BC Mobile Edition (Opera Mobile)

Jee... Not Zee.

[Rifat]

Amazing Article, Congratulations Jeeshan for a top class article. Alhamdulillah! Made my day
I loved the example of the Asia Cup final(Shahadat Hossain)!

[BANFAN]

Very well thought and nicely written... Weldone GB/ZM/JM

[Zeeshan]

Originally Posted by BANFAN
Very well thought and nicely written... Weldone GB/ZM/JM

No seriously, it's Jeesh from Colombo, Sri Lanka. And it was really written well by him.

[BANFAN]

Originally Posted by Zeeshan
No seriously, it's Jeesh from Colombo, Sri Lanka. And it was really written well by him.

Really !! Thanks, didn't read the Author part before. I thought there was only one ZEESHAN/JEESHAN in BC...


Well that post can still Be valid for JM; "To whom it may concern". ..

[Gowza]

not many spinners are on the level of murali and warne, strike rates of under 60 in tests as spinners, not many can compare to that. saeed ajmal is potentially a great, his first few test matches weren't so good but since then he's been right up there, swann over 44 matches still has a strike rate of under 60 so he's up there to, and herath has been fairly decent to since murali's retirement.

a spinner hunt would be awesome!

[BengaliPagol]

fantastic read. It made all of us realise that forcing to put 3 pacers is not the way to go and we need to accumulate our strengths instead of risking the options of Shafiul etc.

[playmaker]

We desperately need some good off-spinners and leggies. seeing the dying art in leggies, even a quality off-spinner would do nowadays. We really need an off-spinner who can bowl like hafeez or johan botha, swann and ajmal are too good for now.

[RazabQ]

Nice. Well put argument for having a spinner hunt but dunno if I agree that we should go with 3 spinners. Our "part-timers" aka Riyadh is a capable bowler.

[BengaliPagol]

Originally Posted by RazabQ
Nice. Well put argument for having a spinner hunt but dunno if I agree that we should go with 3 spinners. Our "part-timers" aka Riyadh is a capable bowler.

The problem is the captain doesnt let Riyad bowl that much. I say the bowling department in Odis should be

5. Shakib Al Hasan
7. Mahmudullah
8. Mashrafe Mortaza
9. Abdur Razzak
10. Elias Sunny
11. Nazmul/Rubel

4 spinners, 2 pacers. We would absolutely choke the opposition.

[Rifat]

We should definitely always have a varied bowling attack, a surprise bowling attack, depending on the pitch and conditions, we can go with three pacers or two pacers.

[Gowza]

I think in one-dayers mash, nazmul and rubel are a solid attack with shaking and razzak/sunny. If we take only 2 pacers we need to gave a pace all rounder in the side

[BengaliPagol]

Its convinced me that from the article we dont need to have extra pacers which isnt our strong suit. I think 2 pacers is good because we need to set up a strategy to win the game. Having more spinners in the team will make us a stronger team because the spin department is our strong suit. No more following the rest of the other countries and having 3 pacers. Lets mix it up and play our own style of cricket. The style in which we are strong at. The more spinners the better.

[jeesh]

Thank you all for your kind feedback and comments. To win we need to utilize our strengths, spin is one of them. Just reminisce about our attack featuring Rafique, Razzak and Shakib in WC 2007. We even strangled India. http://www.espncricinfo.com/wc2007/e...ch/247464.html, http://www.espncricinfo.com/wc2007/e...ch/247490.html

Having two good seamers is good enough. The tendency to think we need 3 pacers is a mindset issue which we need to overcome. Even if the wicket is conducive for pace bowling, the limited skills of our pacers mean they will never be able to exploit it (Anyway it is rare to see three seamers finish their quota of 30 overs). So we might as well play three quality spinners. Actually we are lucky because Shakib and is an allrounder we will be able to field such a combination. If you are still not convinced learn from Pakistan. They have enough of pace bowlers to play 3-4 of them in a game. But why wont they do that? Because they know other teams will stutter against their spin- Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Hafeez, Afridi. So they play 3 spinners in most games-ODI, Test or T20.

So maybe this is a lineup we should focus on developing-if we want to win i.e, not just compete

Tamim
Imrul
Jahurul/Rakibul/Junaid
Mushfiq
Shakib Specialist Spinner
Mahmudullah Part Time Spinner
Nasir Part Time Spinner
Mashrafe Mortaza
Abdur Razzak Specialist Spinner
Elias Sunny/Shuvo/Any Other Prospect Specialist Spinner
Nazmul Hossain/Rubel Hossain/Shafiul Islam

Pretty strong lineup dont you think?

[playmaker]

Originally Posted by jeesh
Thank you all for your kind feedback and comments. To win we need to utilize our strengths, spin is one of them. Just reminisce about our attack featuring Rafique, Razzak and Shakib in WC 2007. We even strangled India. http://www.espncricinfo.com/wc2007/e...ch/247464.html, http://www.espncricinfo.com/wc2007/e...ch/247490.html

Having two good seamers is good enough. The tendency to think we need 3 pacers is a mindset issue which we need to overcome. Even if the wicket is conducive for pace bowling, the limited skills of our pacers mean they will never be able to exploit it (Anyway it is rare to see three seamers finish their quota of 30 overs). So we might as well play three quality spinners. Actually we are lucky because Shakib and is an allrounder we will be able to field such a combination. If you are still not convinced learn from Pakistan. They have enough of pace bowlers to play 3-4 of them in a game. But why wont they do that? Because they know other teams will stutter against their spin- Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Hafeez, Afridi. So they play 3 spinners in most games-ODI, Test or T20.

So maybe this is a lineup we should focus on developing-if we want to win i.e, not just compete

Tamim
Imrul
Jahurul/Rakibul/Junaid
Mushfiq
Shakib Specialist Spinner
Mahmudullah Part Time Spinner
Nasir Part Time Spinner
Mashrafe Mortaza
Abdur Razzak Specialist Spinner
Elias Sunny/Shuvo/Any Other Prospect Specialist Spinner
Nazmul Hossain/Rubel Hossain/Shafiul Islam

Pretty strong lineup dont you think?

Ans: NO

[Zunaid]

Originally Posted by playmaker
Ans: NO

Why? .........

[BengaliPagol]

Originally Posted by playmaker
Ans: NO

How about you name us a better lineup.

[BANFAN]

Originally Posted by jeesh
.......

So maybe this is a lineup we should focus on developing-if we want to win i.e, not just compete

Tamim
Imrul/Ash
Jahurul/Rakibul/Junaid
Mushfiq
Shakib Specialist Spinner
Mahmudullah - Specialist Spinner
Nasir Part Time Spinner
Mashrafe Mortaza
Zia - Medium Pace Allrounder
Abdur Razzak Specialist Spinner/Elias Sunny/Shuvo/Any Other Prospect Specialist Spinner
Nazmul Hossain/Rubel Hossain/Shafiul Islam

Pretty strong lineup dont you think?

Now, There are 3 specialist spinners and 2 part time spinners if you include Ash. While we have only 2 specialist pacers and no part timers... So the pace department is too vulnerable. Bowling will look too one dimensional. If we can have one part time medium pacer/ Alrounder, that would make this line up stronger. Because he can be an option if another pacer has a bad day or injury during match.

While I completely agree that we should have 3 specialist spinner and spin should be our main attack to win matches. Bcoz that's what we have in abundance.

Zia could be that Medium pace Allrounder.... Kapil dev of the team... Mullah is as good as Razzak with ball, if not better at times. He should be used as a specialist spinner. So it's between Razzak/Sunny to chose the third specialist spinner.

[Gowza]

Originally Posted by BANFAN
Now, There are 3 specialist spinners and 2 part time spinners if you include Ash. While we have only 2 specialist pacers and no part timers... So the pace department is too vulnerable. Bowling will look too one dimensional. If we can have one part time medium pacer/ Alrounder, that would make this line up stronger. Because he can be an option if another pacer has a bad day or injury during match.

While I completely agree that we should have 3 specialist spinner and spin should be our main attack to win matches. Bcoz that's what we have in abundance.

Zia could be that Medium pace Allrounder.... Kapil dev of the team... Mullah is as good as Razzak with ball, if not better at times. He should be used as a specialist spinner. So it's between Razzak/Sunny to chose the third specialist spinner.

this is what i meant when i said if we only take 2 specialist pacers going in you need an allrounder or one of your batsmen to be a capable enough pacer to fill in if needed.