Pakistan has the most resilient lower middle-order in the world

[RyanRyan10]

Pakistan have not produced many positive results in the recent times and due to this the contributions of their lower middle-order (no.6 to no.9) has been overshadowed.

We have seen travelling teams falling like ninepins when their top order fails but Pakistan's lower middle-order has always shown great resilience. Anyone can score in home conditions and when the team is on the top but it's only Pakistan's lower middle-order which excels in away matches too on consistent basis.

The likes of Rizwan, Shadab & Faheem have all been excellent for the team. Even Yasir has a test century in Australia. And now debutant Zafar Gohar impressed on his debut.

The fight shown by Pakistan's lower middle-order in recent times is a sign of great team spirit.

[Thunderbolt14]

Not sure if it’s the best in the world, but it’s very good. Add in Babar at 4 and the overall lineup is decent, even with a horrible top 3.

Our bowling is the let down - give us Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj to partner Shaheen and I think we could have won this series 1-0.

[Ab Fan]

It is a pretty solid middle order IMO.

1)Azhar, 42 averaging very good batsman
2)Babar, 50+ averaging great batsman
3)Rizwan, 40 averging wicket-keeping all-rounder
4)Faheem, genuine pace bowling all-rounder
5)Shadab, genuine leg spin bowling all-rounder
6) Shaheen, genuine world class bowler who potentially can be a bowling all-rounder in second half of his career
7) Yasir, genuine leg spinner who is a Kumble/Warne level batsman

[MHN1293]

On this tour yes it was. However when pakistan plays a home series faheem and shadab wont get selected and the lineup would look like rizwan,yasir,naseem,abbas,shaheen.

[Buffet]

Not sure about the most resilient and all that, but they have added runs.

Pakistan's main problem is openers and bowlers.

[Majid Khan]

Back when I was at school , the word resilient meant something different - quite the opposite of what you see when Pakistan is batting (ie, spineless, brittle, fragile to think of a few synonyms) but then that was a long time ago.. maybe the English language has evolved quite a bit since.

[RyanRyan10]

Pakistan lower middle order rescues them again.


109 for Fawad
64 for Faheem
33 for Rizwan

Pakistan have reached from 121-5 to 308-8

I have been proved right again

[Thunderbolt14]

Pakistan lower middle order rescues them again.


109 for Fawad
64 for Faheem
33 for Rizwan

Pakistan have reached from 121-5 to 308-8

I have been proved right again

You may be onto something but many Pakistanis including me are averse to praising too much as things begin to go wrong as soon as we do

[Slim]

Pakistan lower middle order rescues them again.


109 for Fawad
64 for Faheem
33 for Rizwan

Pakistan have reached from 121-5 to 308-8

I have been proved right again

Rock solid but dont wanna jinx it.

[Babar_Azam_fan]

It’ll be a decent lower order only if they go with this line up

#06. Mohammad Rizwan +
#07. Shadab Khan/ Agha Salman
#08. Faheem Ashraf
#09. Hassan Ali
#10. Yasir Shah/ Nauman Ali/ Sajid Khan
#11. Shaheen Afridi

[aqeelPK]

Minnows usually do have resilient lower order batting.

[freelance_cricketer]

One of the best and most beautiful tails in world Cricket

[Pakhs]

Effect of playing at home, Players like Fawad alam are always likely to score at home where they have been churning out runs for last 2 decades. When you start playing at home selectors job become so much easier just pick the players who are scoring on very same grounds you cant go wrong with that.

Now that Pakistan are back playing home all batsmen records will improve.

[Firebat]

Imagine what we could score if our top order was able contribute more than 30 between them.

[Hyperion66]

Not sure about the world but amongst Asian teams they surely do. Even Yasir Shah got a friggin hundred in Aus. However if we include Ash, Jaddu, Sundar and Thakur all of them in the same XI then ours will be better but that will significantly bring down the pace bowling quality so I don't think that we will ever see them playing together unless extra ordinary circumstances like what happened in Aus.

[Thunderbolt14]

Not sure about the world but amongst Asian teams they surely do. Even Yasir Shah got a friggin hundred in Aus. However if we include Ash, Jaddu, Sundar and Thakur all of them in the same XI then ours will be better but that will significantly bring down the pace bowling quality so I don't think that we will ever see them playing together unless extra ordinary circumstances like what happened in Aus.

I guess in terms of first choice bowling attack, this is my ranking of the numbers 5-10 of all the teams.

1. England (Stokes, Buttler, Woakes, Bess, Broad, Archer)
2. New Zealand (Nicholls, Watling, Jamieson, Santner, Southee, Boult)
3. Pakistan (Fawad, Rizwan, Faheem, Yasir, Hassan, [Gohar/Nauman])
4. India (Vihari, Pant, Jadeja, Yadav, Ashwin, Shami)
5. Australia (Green, Paine, Cummins, Starc, Lyon)
6. Sri Lanka (Chandimal, Dickwella, Mendis, Perera, Lakmal, Embuldeniya)

India’s is actually very good, to be honest. After those knocks by Pant I think it should have leapfrogged to number 1, but would like to see that more often as the lower middle order also couldn’t prevent the 36 all out which lowers the ranking a bit.

Pakistan’s lower middle order is pretty bad, it’s just carried by Fawad, Rizwan, Faheem, all finding batting form at the exact same time.

Rizwan now has 5 back to back 50s in his last 5 innings before the 30 in his most recent innings. Fawad has two centuries in two Tests, Faheem also has 3 50s in 3 Tests and all of them were in the 60-90 range I think. Yasir played a blinder to make a century in Australia which I don’t think he’ll ever do again, then hit some fireworks against England. Zafar Gohar made some valuable 30s in his only Test for Pakistan.

So it looks better than it really is. Hassan’s addition is a good sign though, and all the available spin options to accompany Yasir (Nauman and Sajid) have some prowess with the bat. Nauman has 10 FC fifties, while Shaheen can stick around and hit a bit at number 11.

There’s some posters here who believe Shaheen can become an all rounder but I’ll be happy if he becomes a good number 10.

Truth is, none of this stuff matters if our top order isn’t firing, which makes this scary. Azhar and Babar being present give some mental peace of mind, but we have 0 openers available in the country who aren’t walking wickets. This means Azhar and Babar almost always face the new ball.

I guess this thread is also a bit of a troll, poking fun at how dependent we are on our bowlers to score runs over our batsmen

[Abdullah]

we need to get the lead to 150 tomorrow. 20 runs each boys!!!

[PakPremi]

Pakistani Head need to follow the steps of their Tail.

[shamaan]

Good to see the resilent lower order batting performaning consitantly epic stuff

[shamaan]

Not sure about the world but amongst Asian teams they surely do. Even Yasir Shah got a friggin hundred in Aus. However if we include Ash, Jaddu, Sundar and Thakur all of them in the same XI then ours will be better but that will significantly bring down the pace bowling quality so I don't think that we will ever see them playing together unless extra ordinary circumstances like what happened in Aus.

thats a close call

[RyanRyan10]

Another great effort from the most resilient lower middle-order in the world bailing team out of trouble

Fawad Alam 45
Mohammad Rizwan 18
Faheem Ashraf 78*

[Saj]

They have to be resilient as most of the time Pakistan are 20/2 or 30/3.

[Mean&Green]

We have no other choice lol because we are 9/10 times 20-2 or 33-4

[Ami]

Still think Hasan and Yasir bat like no 11s...

[Deewana Mastana]

The indians here are having a laugh basically calling it "best in the world" not yet and neither they look a competent unit yet either.

[RyanRyan10]

The indians here are having a laugh basically calling it "best in the world" not yet and neither they look a competent unit yet either.

Fawad, Rizwan and Faheem have been very consistent

Pakistan may not be a top 3 side right now but they do have their strengths. Openers are a problem but Middle order is competent. Pacers have been off colour for a while but Yasir has done well in favourable conditions.

[Deewana Mastana]

Fawad, Rizwan and Faheem have been very consistent

Pakistan may not be a top 3 side right now but they do have their strengths. Openers are a problem but Middle order is competent. Pacers have been off colour for a while but Yasir has done well in favourable conditions.

It has only been 2-3 tests so far and it is just too early to call it anything but yes it is good to see that they are showing some sort of consistency when it comes to Fawad, Rizwan and Faheem.

[Ab Fan]

Fawad Alam is an upgrade over Shafiq. Earlier, Shafiq used to fail in 5 innings and score a match losing 100 in 4th inning in the 6th game. In contrast, Fawad scores runs consistently. Bigger runs would help more but atleast he is getting the runs for now.

Rizwan is also an upgrade over Sarfaraz both with bat and gloves.

Faheem looked like a bowling all-rounder to me at the start but has emerged as batting all-rounder in past 5-6 games he played.

[Firebat]

From 76/5 after 35.1 overs, to 298/10 after 102 overs.

Once again the middle and lower order bails out the "specialist" batsmen.

[Ab Fan]

Without a doubt.



3)Rizwan, 40 averging wicket-keeping all-rounder
4)Faheem, genuine pace bowling all-rounder
5)Shadab, genuine leg spin bowling all-rounder
6) Shaheen, genuine world class bowler who potentially can be a bowling all-rounder in second half of his career
7) Yasir, genuine leg spinner who is a Kumble/Warne level batsman

[Saj]

Pakistan's middle and lower-order bailing out the top order in this series:

1st Test - 27/4 to 378 all out
2nd Test - 76/5 to 298 all out

[RyanRyan10]

Another brilliant performance from the best and also the most underrated lower middle-order in the world.

These guys are the biggest reason why Pakistan is still a competent test side.