Thursday, August 25, 2016

England v Pakistan, 1st ODI, Southampton - I have fallen in love with Jason Roy's stroke-play


I have fallen in love with Jason Roy’s stroke-play. He is not a Twenty20 or limited-overs stuff, but technically he is very sound enough to feature in the Test team. His ability to time the ball perfectly and playing it through the gap either by shifting the balance on the front or back foot, increased my love more. His batting is about pristine timing rather than brute-force. He plays with a straight bat and possesses a sound defence and high back lift.

And he is graceful as well. I love such stylish batsmen. I want to see him bat in Test cricket along with Alastair Cook. England have wasted time by using Alex Hales and James Vince, whereas, they have brilliant players to make the Test team stronger.

It was good to see Mark Wood and Ben Stokes in action. Even in limited-overs format, Mark Wood doesn’t shy to use his attacking line-and-length with deceptive pace. It was a belter of a track and Wood didn’t think of bowling a mechanical-style-of-bowling, but banged in short and swung it in-and-away wat pace even when a lone slip and gully was in place and no leg slip in support.

Batting at number five is the ideal position for Ben Stokes. Rain had cut short his display, and I think, he will show his ture colours in the future games.


I was never confident with Pakistan’s ability in the 50-over format. If they think, carrying on the legacy of Misbah in limited-overs format will do better then, they will remain stuck in the past when a score of 250-plus was regraded enough. In the age of dynamic cricket, one needs to be dynamic enough to challenge the opposition and, I think, Azhar Ali is not ideal choice to lead the Pakistan’s limited-overs team. I am not writing him off at the moment, but he needs to change his style and shun pragmatism.    

Thank You
Faisal Caesar 

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