Mohammad Ashraful – An Underachiever or Overrated?

[a massive zebra]

Rated as possibly the most talented young batsman in Asia for several years, many believe that Mohammad Ashraful has displayed a glittering capacity to play virtuoso innings of genius, but these sparkling performances, so far, have come as little but occasional ununified oddities in an otherwise perpetual sea of failure.

The inconsistency which has so far plagued Ashraful's career was initially put down to inappropriate shot selection brought on by an immature and impatient temperament. However, one might expect temperamental deficiencies to at least improve with experience, but Ashraful has shown a distinct inability to learn from his mistakes and despite playing at the international level for over 6 years with over 130 international appearances, he still regularly succumbs to disgraceful rushes of blood at completely inappropriate times.

With Test and ODI averages still languishing in the low 20s, can (and will) Mohammad Ashraful finally turn his career around and fulfil the potential that so many people claim he undoubtedly has, or have the cricketing world, misled by the fact that he is young and plays a lot of shots, been guilty of indulging in a praise of folly?

 

[Sanz]

Watched him bat against India in 2004 (?), IMO he is an Underachiever, mostly because of the huge expectation out of him and virtually no one to guide him through when he struggles in the middle.

With time and experience he will be one of the more successful BD batsmen.

 

[Jono]

I think he's an underachiever, but at the same time I do think he gets pumped up too much because of the fact that he walked in the Bang. team when they were still so far down the chain, and he represented the "future" so to speak, simply through the way he played his strokes. His ability to hit unbelievable shots made people think "hang on, this kid has talent and perhaps there are others out there in BD who will be able to do the same in a few years." In a way his results were ignored for at least 2-3 years, and only now people are starting to realise he's far from the lynch pin in the Bangladesh batting line-up, let alone close to being one of the world's best.

He's definitely extremely talented, and will get better (he's still hit two of my fav limited overs knocks. His ton vs. Aus in 05 and his knock vs. SA in this year's WC were both great viewing). Whether he'll be as good as people thought he would (or as I'm trying to point out, more wished then thought[/b])... well I seriously doubt it.

 

[Swervy]

I am going with underacheiver. No-one who can bat like he has shown (ie vs SA in the WC) should have such a low average. Its obvious the talent is there in abundance

 

[open365]

Bit of both tbh, like Swervy said no one who can play innings like the on against Australia or the one V SA in the WC should average what he does.

However, i don't think he's as potentialy good as people say he is and i think this is because he's from a minnow nation, if he played for any other country no one would say a thing.

 

[Spitfires_Fan]

Underachiever - from what I've seen of him, which isn't much but enough to tell IMO, he's got talent in bucketfuls. A combination of youthful exuberance and immaturity and the fact that no one else has been in his league and able to stick with him has contributed to his low average.

On a side note, when are they going to say goodbye to Bashar and appoint a new captain? I think Bashar is just holding them back at the moment.

 

[roseboy64]

He's the only one with lots of experience left.

 

[Richard]

Rated as possibly the most talented young batsman in Asia for several years, many believe that Mohammad Ashraful has displayed a glittering capacity to play virtuoso innings of genius, but these sparkling performances, so far, have come as little but occasional ununified oddities in an otherwise perpetual sea of failure.

The inconsistency which has so far plagued Ashraful's career was initially put down to inappropriate shot selection brought on by an immature and impatient temperament. However, one might expect temperamental deficiencies to at least improve with experience, but Ashraful has shown a distinct inability to learn from his mistakes and despite playing at the international level for over 6 years with over 130 international appearances, he still regularly succumbs to disgraceful rushes of blood at completely impropriate times.

With Test and ODI averages still languishing in the low 20s, can (and will) Mohammad Ashraful finally turn his career around and fulfil the potential that so many people claim he undoubtedly has, or have the cricketing world, misled by the fact that he is young and plays a lot of shots, been guilty of indulging in a praise of folly?

The latter, emphatically. See it sooooooo many times. Just because he plays the odd good innings (most obvious being the Australia game in 2005) people think he's God's gift because he's (relatively) young and plays lots of shots.

People need to learn the difference between that and talent, but history shows there are many who are incapable of doing so.

 

[Richard]

No-one who can bat like he has shown (ie vs SA in the WC) should have such a low average. Its obvious the talent is there in abundance

Anyone can bat like that with let-offs. Even Shahid Afridi.

 

[Swervy]

Anyone can bat like that with let-offs. Even Shahid Afridi.

even with let offs, there was an undoubted class to his batting against SA, certainly not the shots of someone who averages 20.

 

[Pup Clarke]

certainly not the shots of someone who averages 20.

Problem is the more shots you play the more likely you will often get out for low scores which has inevitably happened in Ashraful's case.

 

[Richard]

even with let offs, there was an undoubted class to his batting against SA, certainly not the shots of someone who averages 20.

Why not? I can play classy shots if you throw the ball at me.

Judging a player by how good he looks on an occasion where he happens to come-off is one of if not the worst ways to judge a player.

 

[Swervy]

Why not? I can play classy shots if you throw the ball at me.

Judging a player by how good he looks on an occasion where he happens to come-off is one of if not the worst ways to judge a player.

no seriously classy shots. You can tell the difference a player with a lot of talent and one of average talent, and this guy has a lot of talent.

Obviously there needs to be a lot of work done as well, and I doubt he will ever be someone who is going to churn out hundreds galoree, however I reckon he could certainly become a very good ODI player

 

[Richard]

Talent to do what? Play attacking shots? Yes. Play the right shot? No, IMO. He's been around for ages now and, as amz says, played loads of innings, and he still hasn't made any improvements to his game. That suggests to me that he won't.

The diehard Bangladeshi fans like George on this board have pretty well given-up on him - it's only loosely-watching neutrals who catch the odd innings like that one against Australia in the NWS of 2005 that still seem to hold-out hope.

 

[Swervy]

Problem is the more shots you play the more likely you will often get out for low scores which has inevitably happened in Ashraful's case.

absolutely, and its something he needs to just pull back on a bit, but there is a spark to his batting, which has been evident just a few times, but it suggests there is a lot to work with, and he really does have a potentially fine future

 

[Swervy]

Talent to do what? Play attacking shots? Yes. Play the right shot? No, IMO. He's been around for ages now and, as amz says, played loads of innings, and he still hasn't made any improvements to his game.

The diehard Bangladeshi fans like George on this board have pretty well given-up on him - it's only loosely-watching neutrals who catch the odd innings like that one against Australia in the NWS of 2005 that still seem to hold-out hope.

He is still only 22 years old...and yes mentally he needs to come to terms with the reality of top flight international cricket. So yeah play the right shot at the right time, and his consistancy would improve. Rememeber when evryone was on Flintoffs back for playing the wrong shots at the wrong times...he matured and developed his knack for shot selection (he problems now are a complete lack of form through a drop in confidence,and some glaring technical deficiencies, which can be ironed out). But ashraful looks like he has the potential to exceed someone like Flintoff as a one day batsman, which isnt aspiring for the top, but is aspiring to be a player worthy of respect.

There COULD be a real comparison with someone like Jayasuriya, who after about 100 or 110 ODIs only averaged in the low twenties (having had a look, after roughly the same number of games as Ashraful, Jayasuriya average 2 runs LESS than Ashraful). But something clicked with Jayasuriya and he then became one of the most dangerous batsmen on ODI history. The potential is there for Ashraful to have that type of career, without ever really looking like he will break into the +40 average type of player

 

[Pup Clarke]

and he really does have a potentially fine future

How long have people been saying that...

 

[Swervy]

How long have people been saying that...

as I say, he is still only 22

 

[UncleTheOne]

haven't seen tons of him, but from what people are saying on this thread, he sounds like michael clarke of 2005, loads of good shots, rarely the right one.

 

[Richard]

He is still only 22 years old...and yes mentally he needs to come to terms with the reality of top flight international cricket. So yeah play the right shot at the right time, and his consistancy would improve. Rememeber when evryone was on Flintoffs back for playing the wrong shots at the wrong times...he matured and developed his knack for shot selection (he problems now are a complete lack of form through a drop in confidence,and some glaring technical deficiencies, which can be ironed out). But ashraful looks like he has the potential to exceed someone like Flintoff as a one day batsman, which isnt aspiring for the top, but is aspiring to be a player worthy of respect.

Hmm. I still don't think a great deal of Flintoff's batting and never have done, even though he's undeniably had several excellent series (SA 2003, Aus 2005, India 2005\06) he's generally failed more often than not against decent bowling (SL 2003\04, WI away 2004, SA 2004\05, Pak 2005\06, SL 2006, Aus 2006\07).

Sure, he's better than he was 1998-2002, but I honestly feel his improvement is overplayed. Some people, like him, simply play too many shots for their own good. Ashraful, I feel, is similar.

There COULD be a real comparison with someone like Jayasuriya, who after about 100 or 110 ODIs only averaged in the low twenties (having had a look, after roughly the same number of games as Ashraful, Jayasuriya average 2 runs LESS than Ashraful). But something clicked with Jayasuriya and he then became one of the most dangerous batsmen on ODI history. The potential is there for Ashraful to have that type of career, without ever really looking like he will break into the +40 average type of player

With Jayasuriya, though, for ages he wasn't actually even a batsman, he was a left-arm spinner who scored some runs in the middle-order. Then in 1994 he started taking batting more seriously at the instigation of his captain Ranatunga, was promoted to open (at Ranatunga's suggestion), and became one of the great (and revolutionary) openers of the modern era.

Ashraful's case isn't really comparable, methinks.