Sohail Tanvir - From Obscurity to Fame

[Saj]

Sohail who I said when he was selected for the Twenty/20 World Cup !

I must admit I had never heard of him, didnt know who he was, or who he played for, or whether he was a bowler, batsman or all rounder.

What an introduction to international cricket it has been for this lad who is going to be 23 in a couple of weeks time.

6 wickets at the Twenty/20 World Cup at a respectable run rate of 7 and then playing in the one day series versus SA and picking up the scalps of Kemp, Kallis and Botha in the matches that he played in and certainly not showing himself up.

Then he comes up against the powerful Indian batting lineup and snared Yuvraj, Uthappa, Ganguly, Tendulkar twice, Gambhir, Sehwag and Pathan.

Now on test debut he has taken the wickets of Ganguly and Dravid to 2 superb swinging deliveries.

Now I am not saying this guy will be a legend or a Pakistani great, but what a remarkable story it has been and at only 22 I am sure he can improve, increase his pace and work on his game.

This guy has the basics and if looked after and nurtured he could be an excellent find for Pakistan. He looks as though he has a great temperament too and of course isnt a mug with the bat either.

[Geordie Ahmed]

Fully agreed - like you say he came from absolutely nowhere which i guess wasnt a bad thing, atleast there was no hype or expectation about him.

The lad has been brilliant thus far and hopefully he can continue to perform.

[sehsan]

yes so far so good but i just dont see him wicket taker in test cricket. He is bowling all outswingers to right hand batsman. He need to start bringing ball in if he want to be more efficient. Lets see and hope, he improves from here.

[PlanetPakistan]

Very interesting story

So this is how it all happened
Day 1: Akhtar smacks Asif with the bat.
Day 2 : Akhtar sent home
Day 3: M Sami isn't called in because he is injured
Day 4: Team management go for a hard hitting all rounder as he could be useful in 20 20
Day 5: He is picked in the 20-20 game against IND with a lot of PPers(including myself) livid at the team management for selecting a guy who hasn't picked a single wicket in domestic 20 20 games.
Day 6: We are all happy at the way he performed in 2020 world cup but a lot of us still don't think that he is good enough to play at the test level.
Day 7: Does well in the ODIs vs SA and IND but most of us are still not convinced.
Day 8: Starts his test career with a bunch of 70 mph lollipops and the PPers are unhappy at his performance but comes back in the 2nd spell and produces 2 fine balls to dismiss Dravid and Ganguly.
Day 9: PPers are still not convinced about his place in the test side but we are all fascinated by such a healthy progress in such a short time.

[Saj]

yes so far so good but i just dont see him wicket taker in test cricket. He is bowling all outswingers to right hand batsman. He need to start bringing ball in if he want to be more efficient. Lets see and hope, he improves from here.
well sehsan bhai, thats where the likes of Lawson and Wasim Akram need to work with this raw talent. The way he defeated Ganguly and Dravid today was a real eye opener.

The basics are there, he needs to work on some areas of his game and he is not the finished article by any means, but I see something special in this lad, something that the coaches can work with.

[lodge_boy]

yeah the guy is good inshallah he will improve

[Oxy]

Its a meteoric rise to fame for this guy.

Dint look like test bowler - needs to learn few more tricks as I only saw the one that went away.

But injury probably forced our hands.

I do like what I have seen so far - and hopefully he'll get all the support from the support staff to get a bit more pace and tricks

[Osman]

.... and might i add hopefully won't go down the same road as Mohammed Sami.

[Luton Bad Boy]

Sohail Tanvir goes in line with the Pakistan mentality of selecting a player from obscruity and at the moment he is on the crest of a wave a la Mohammad Asif. We shouldn't get too excited about him as yet, he is too early in his career and really needs someone like Geoff Lawson to use his bowling knowledge to tap into his wonderful talent.

[Amir]

Too early and I am not convinced. Great balls they were but he seems to predictable. Ball just keeps going one way.

[rizy]

ST is a very good bowler with lots OF POTENTIAL. It if be good to see if e reaches that POTENTIAL. The reason I am saying that is that whenever a Pakistani bowler arrives with a big bang but then petters out. Plus we over hype a player then after time we get the knifes out on him.

[The Godfather]

he is good in the one dayers but needs a bit more variation for the test arena but so he is performing well

[Saj]

Too early and I am not convinced. Great balls they were but he seems to predictable. Ball just keeps going one way.
I'll emphasise that he may be able to only bowl the outswinger to right handers at the moment, but that is more variation than a certain bowler we have whose only variety is either way outside off stump or down the leg side.

He definitely needs some work on his bowling, perhaps some technical changes that may even crank up his pace a bit, but as I said before he has potential and that has already been proven with the wickets he has taken.

[kashmiri]

Sohail Tanvir goes in line with the Pakistan mentality of selecting a player from obscruity and at the moment he is on the crest of a wave a la Mohammad Asif. We shouldn't get too excited about him as yet, he is too early in his career and really needs someone like Geoff Lawson to use his bowling knowledge to tap into his wonderful talent.
perhaps, the new aqram :)

[Farhad]

The way he bowled Dravid in the first innings is a replica of how Wasim dislodged the same batsman in the '99 Series once.

I hope he can score 20 or 30 odd in this knock to add to his growing reputation as an all-rounder.

[Hash]

I am very impressed with him. He has some work to do (increase his speed by 5 mph or so) and develop an inswinger into the right hangder. But he is loking very promising at the moment. We could have someone special on our hands.

I know someone (through the NGO I work) who grew up on the same street as him. His friends call him 'tukri'.

[Saj]

I've just glanced at his first class record and he has 2 centuries and 5 half centuries to his credit at an average of 35.As Farhad says, lets hope he can score some valuable runs tomorrow.

[Farhad]

To cap the obvious talent that he has, he also has the right attitude and fire in his gameplay. That was most at display in the ODI where he took 4 Indian wickets including that of the small guy.

[Sultan Yusuf]

I don't know, I still think the jury is out. For someone aspiring to be a world class new-ball fast-medium bowler, his pace is too low - he's bowling at ganguly pace.

Could you justify ganguly opening the bowling?

And apart from the surprise element, he doesn't offer much else. I suppose it is not a bad idea to have an unknown quantity initially, but I seriously doubt he is a long term option.

Reminds me a bit of Aamir Nazir - and despite impressing initially, he was soon discarded. I actually faced him about 2 years ago, he was playing in our league - certainly didn't feel like I was facing an ex-international.

[jackal786]

Rightnow Tanvir's strength is batsman struggles to pick him off his hands. He doesn't bend the ball back in. He doesn't have whole lot of variation or pace. His main strength is his awkward action ironically. That is enough for this test match. But if they figure out a stance for such kind of bowling then he will have to find new ways to take wickets.

[pakcricketfan]

Sohail has shown a lot of potential....his action deceives the batsmen...he bowls good outswingers just needs to learn the art of bringing the ball in...and he can become a dangerous bowler...he is an aggressiv batsman as well!! Now I think, his career and his performances and his grooming lie in the hands of Geoff Lawson..he already seems impressed wid him...just needs to work on him..and this young guy by playing more n more matches will become better wid experience!!!Pak needs to stick to him...and do not throw him out of the team...No bowler can improve without playing matches!!

[muhammad saad]

No bowler can improve without playing matches!!
You can not say this for every bowler.
The prime example is already playing this testmatch :>

[Uzi]

He has had a brilliant start to his international career.

I think he needs to get some tips from Wasim as it seems he can't really bring the ball back in to the right hander. Hopefully he can work on that.

[muhammad saad]

Sohail Tanvir has hit 143.xx kph /89.5mph today.