Where are the Pakistani players with X-factor gone?

[Proud Asian]

Pakistani team was always fascinating to watch for cricket followers all over the world since the beginning. Never the most consistent of teams but the country always had players who had the ability to win matches from any situations. It used to be frustrating to watch cause the same team would lose to a ordinary team one day but could beat the best in the world the next day.

Pakistan always had player the rest of the world used to fear. Players like Hanif md, fazal mahmood, sarfraz nawaz, majid khan, asif iqbal, imran khan, javed miandad, zaheer abbas, abdul qadir, wasim, waqar, inzi, mushtaq, saqlain, saeed anwar, md yousuf, shoaib akhtar and countless others all had the ability to win a game on their own from seemingly impossible situations. Some of the greats mentioned above were more consistent than others.

Even the players one would not call a legend or does not have the best of records statistically had the fear factor eg salim malik, ijaz ahmed, moin khan, aqib javed, azhar mahmood, abdul razzak and so many others. Because on their day they could win a game with a brilliant innings or a match winning spell.

Whereas if we look at the current team there is no one with the exception of ajmal and afridi of old who is capable of magical things. You just know if the oposition score 250 in an odi pakistan would lose 95% of times. While with pakistan of old was never beaten until they actually were as they had players who were capable of out of the ordinary.

[wasoo77]

i think a lot of it comes to higher standards in international cricket currently. hence its more of a team sport than 1 - 3 people winning a match for the team. but there are the obvious exceptions like razzaq vs SA etc.

[LastLaugh_PK]

These same players are capable of the X-factor but the defensive mindset has to go. Pakistan plays its best cricket when it is playing attacking aggressive cricket. In modern era you cannot afford to play slow in the start and then explode at the end, that usually leads to failure. With a little bit of tweaking we can be the Pak team of old.

[freelance_cricketer]

X-factor went for a jail trip bro. It was too much for some players to live with in the free world.

[Proud Asian]

Originally Posted by wasoo77 i think a lot of it comes to higher standards in international cricket currently. hence its more of a team sport than 1 - 3 people winning a match for the team. but there are the obvious exceptions like razzaq vs SA etc.

i am not only talking about winning a match on your own even collectively this team never convince it can win from a difficult situation ie from a bad start especially while batting. I will give an example when irfan pathan took a hattrick in the first over of that karachi test pakistan still went on to win the match by a huge margin. There are countless other example from seventies, eighties, nineties and early 2000s.

[Proud Asian]

Originally Posted by LastLaugh_PK These same players are capable of the X-factor but the defensive mindset has to go. Pakistan plays its best cricket when it is playing attacking aggressive cricket. In modern era you cannot afford to play slow in the start and then explode at the end, that usually leads to failure. With a little bit of tweaking we can be the Pak team of old.

I am not sure its just the defensive mindset. I just don't think the players in the current team are capable of those sort of innings. I remember amir sohail used to be slow starter but had the ability to go hard from start when the situation demanded. Ijaj ahmed used to start a lot of his innings slowly but sometimes he would just start like a
express train and keep going. Look at the players now. Are players like hafeez, azhar, shafique, misbah, younis etc are even capable of scoring a 80 of 60 balls? dont think so. Is umar gul, junaind capable of turning a 100 for 1 into 180 all out. Probably not.

[Looney]

You have to be a matchwinner to have the X factor , IMO . : akhtar and the rest were or are all match winners .

[Swaraj!!]

Ajmal has enough X's factored in his skillset for the whole team. You just need the rest of the folks to be able to spell out ABCs the rest of the time. Apparently they were all suffering from dyslexia during the first innings here.

[Liberty]

Last time I checked was still playing and pulling crowds. He puts the X in x-factor.

[withlovefrom vizag]

Yeah,you guys still have Shahiiiiiid Afridiiiiiii......................and even Abdul Razzaq or Saeed Ajmal..

[ecstatic_freak]

Lack of professionalism is one of the main factors contributing to Pakistan's failure. We still believe that couple of talented individuals, who have no work ethic, no morals, no team chemistry, no responsibility can win us games.

A player may be super talented but if application, work ethic and dedication is not there, he will disappear in couple of months and thats been happening to us cause we still think that a Wasim or a Waqar can win games from hopeless positions, we are not producing that kind of talent but we do have those big egos.

[LegCutter]

The reason why we are so backwards is because of these 'X-Factor' players like Imran Nazir, Shahid Afridi, Abdur Razzaq. Scoring once in 10 matches and voila teh x-factor!

I'd rather have a workhorse like Asad Shafiq or Azhar Ali who score run consistently.

[LastLaugh_PK]

I'd rather do without the X-factor and win matches consistently.

[iZeeshan]

Originally Posted by LastLaugh_PK I'd rather do without the X-factor and win matches consistently.

Except we're not winning and actually losing because we don't have an X-factor.

it's the same, boring old slow, defensive process every game.

[LegCutter]

Originally Posted by iZeeshan Except we're not winning and actually losing because we don't have an X-factor. it's the same, boring old slow, defensive process every game.

Afridi says hi.

Razzaq was the other 'x-factor' we had and asides from that South Africa freak innings, he hasnt really been winning us matches with his 'factor'

[Myrmidon]

afridi is the last one

and he is going to be shooed away by stupid fans and me for one, i am glad because only then will people realise his worth

[iZeeshan]

Originally Posted by LegCutter Afridi says hi. Razzaq was the other 'x-factor' we had and asides from that South Africa freak innings, he hasnt really been winning us matches with his 'factor'

What in the world makes you think I was referring to them (although yes, they were pretty good x-factor players)

Fyi, Wasim, Inzi, Moin Khan were all x-factor players just to name a few

These days, we barely have any barring Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, and Saeed Ajmal

[wasoo77]

Originally Posted by Proud Asian i am not only talking about winning a match on your own even collectively this team never convince it can win from a difficult situation ie from a bad start especially while batting. I will give an example when irfan pathan took a hattrick in the first over of that karachi test pakistan still went on to win the match by a huge margin. There are countless other example from seventies, eighties, nineties and early 2000s.

yup sure i understand your point.
to be honest, even though we pretty much got slaughtered, there are so many positives one can take from pakistan cricket lately that a few hickups along the way really isn't too bad in the long run of things. i'm assuming you wrote this out of frustration from the latest match?
Anyways, our middle order is so inexperienced, you can't expect them to be the full package just as yet. I'll tell you why im not as disappointment:

1) our batsmen aren't giving their wicket away as much any more.
2) our batsmen seem to be really hard working! all our upcoming talent (azhar ali, asad shafiq and umar akmal) seem to be on the right track. I still like umar akmal contrary to what people have to say and believe he is trying.
3) there seems to be good spirit amongst the team (for the most part)

give these guys time and they will win us matches. we cannot afford to be impatient.

ps. ajmal did win us a few matchs against england.

[wasoo77]

and by the way the "x factor" is a talent someone decided to hide due to being scared to reveal whatever it is they had, but have secretly been practicing for years and years. my point being is that is all comes down to practice. and in a cricketing sense, practice + experience.

[Bilal7]

Misbah has the X-Factor!!!

In all seriousness, I don't think our team needs more than one X-Factor player and Afridi is doing an okay job at the moment.

Saeed Ajmal is world class as he performs exceptionally consistently so he is one up over a player with X-Factor.

Misbah, Azhar, Younis, Asad, Rehman, etc are all consistent players that perform well in most games.

Umar Akmal, Gul, Hafeez, etc are players that are somewhat consistent and on their day are pretty good.

We have a good balance, we just need some momentum and confidence now.

[Bullet Drive]

Players with the x-factor are usually the aggressive ones. The big names in the team. We have a few! Ajmal, Imran Nazir, Afridi, Gul, Umar Akmal & Ahmed Shehzad.. those really are the only ones from Pakistan.

[Gotham Cronie]

I thought Raza Hasan was going to be our X-Factor on the tour to India but alas, he won't be making the trip.

That being said, Irfan is being deemed as a "surprise" factor.

[Looney]

[Saqs]

Razzaq and Afridi were the last of the dying breed. They all played during an era where we had genuine match winners throughout the team.