Saqib Mahmood - The Thread

[jayjay]

Let's track the rise of this promising young bowler, from test debut to...well when he is dropped, or retires or this site gets shutdown for making horrible lists.

Alas, let us continue.

What a debut, 4 wickets, great figures and all while Root looked to do his best to intentionally/unintentionally sabotage the bowler. We all knew he was quick, we all knew about his old ball skills but he was effective with the new ball, barely giving away any runs at all in his first couple of spells (if you can call 2 over bursts a spell).

This is as exciting as Archer rising through the ranks, let's hope England treat him better than they have done other players from Asian backgrounds, because this could be a quality all format bowler in the making!

What say you friends?

 

[Daemon]

Much better than his older brother

 

[Magrat Garlick]

 

[Pup Clarke]

He's very good. Really should have been blooded sooner in all honesty. He was in the squad in New Zealand pre-Covid

 

[jayjay]

He's very good. Really should have been blooded sooner in all honesty. He was in the squad in New Zealand pre-Covid

Yeah, I agree. His urn for Lancs and his limited overs form should have had him play test matches earlier. I was all for him in the Ashes, at leat a test or 2 as part of the rotation policy. Very much looking forward to seeing all 3 of Eng's premier quicks in the same side.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

He got the ball to reverse around the 50th over in the first innings…

Could have been interesting if Root let him loose in the last hour

 

[grecian]

He's not played for England before, because of chronic injury problems, let's wait and see if he can stay fit for more than five minutes, 26 FC matches in 6 years, didn't exactly give the selectors much to go on, and also might be why Root didn't want to overbowl him. Yet he did have a decent match, so we'll see.

 

[honestbharani]

His urn for Lancs

So he cant play anything but The Ashes?

 

[honestbharani]

also might be why Root didn't want to overbowl him

If he got Root to realize this, he has already done more than any other England seamer this generation.

 

[jayjay]

So he cant play anything but The Ashes?

"run for Lancs"

My bad, I mean the time he has had for Lancs so far.

 

[jayjay]

He's not played for England before, because of chronic injury problems, let's wait and see if he can stay fit for more than five minutes, 26 FC matches in 6 years, didn't exactly give the selectors much to go on, and also might be why Root didn't want to overbowl him. Yet he did have a decent match, so we'll see.

He has played LO cricket I'm pretty sure and the low number of FC matches are book ended by covid and not to mention he has played a fair bit of T20 and sadly was pigeon holed as a T20 cricketer. No different to Jimmy debuting as a flash in the ODI side of the game and written off.

If a player with talent and skill is given time to develop, the same way Jimmy, Freddy, Bell et al were they can succeed. They just can't be discarded with.

 

[theegyptian]

Yes Mahmood's injury record isn't too bad - He's fairly durable. Fisher of the two who debuted in the last test is the one who has been beset by injuries and not just your typical fast bowler back and side injuries.

 

[jayjay]

Yes Mahmood's injury record isn't too bad - He's fairly durable. Fisher of the two who debuted in the last test is the one who has been beset by injuries and not just your typical fast bowler back and side injuries.

Yeah, I didn't understand the injury comment. Clearly the guy doesn't watch cricket.

 

[grecian]

What are you on about he's clearly missed huge swathes of cricket. You can talk all you like about limited-overs, it's 26 first class games in 6 years.

Hey I hope I'm wrong, but to say he's durable, is slightly odd. Hey maybe he's become durable in the three months he seems to have remained fit this year.

Who said he should be discarded, very odd stuff in here, but hey time will tell.

 

[jayjay]

What are you on about he's clearly missed huge swathes of cricket. You can talk all you like about limited-overs, it's 26 first class games in 6 years.

Hey I hope I'm wrong, but to say he's durable, is slightly odd. Hey maybe he's become durable in the three months he seems to have remained fit this year.

Who said he should be discarded, very odd stuff in here, but hey time will tell.

Did he miss matches due to injury or just not being picked for FC games? He's been in and out of Eng squads for a couple of years but never picked for a test whereas guy who are dibbly dobblers have been picked over him.

And you keep talking about low number of FC games but guys have been picked like this before, it's not the be-all and end-all. Plus we go off of performances and just look at how well he has bowled and the extra dimension he brings to the Eng set up.

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

Did he miss matches due to injury or just not being picked for FC games?

Mostly the latter, though there was one season a few years back I think he had a bad injury and missed a lot of games. He debuted as a teenager and was definitely 'promising' more than he was 'good' for several years from there. 'Young, quick but inconsistent' isn't a great bowling fit for the County Championship where an experienced medium pacer likely gets you better results so he played more white ball cricket for Lancs than FC.

I think his bowling has been much improved over the past 3 seasons but even then he hasn't had an extended run in the Lancs FC side for various reasons (being in and around the England white ball squads affects his availability, plus he often seems to be rotated even when available - England have had him on a development contract the past couple of years so they get a say in managing his workload).

So yeah, not fair to say that he's injury prone, but you could definitely say he's 'unproven' in terms of red ball durability.

 

[grecian]

Did he miss matches due to injury or just not being picked for FC games? He's been in and out of Eng squads for a couple of years but never picked for a test whereas guy who are dibbly dobblers have been picked over him.

And you keep talking about low number of FC games but guys have been picked like this before, it's not the be-all and end-all. Plus we go off of performances and just look at how well he has bowled and the extra dimension he brings to the Eng set up.

I keep on mentioning the low amount of first-class games, as it proves he wasn't fully fit. I'm pretty sure Lancs would have picked him. Look Covid and Limited overs have played a part, not saying they haven't, but it's still very few actual times he's put himself on the park. It's certainly not a reason to not pick him now, and I hope he has put his injury problems behind him, but to deny he has had them just seems odd.

So clearly I disagree with RIS as well, I am going by quite a few Lanky's who say he's had small but persistent injuries, not read anywhere anyone from lancs saying they didn't think he was up to first-class cricket, but maybe I've missed it I often do.

Look we've been here with young fast bowlers for decades now, they start well we talk about them being World-beaters they end up broken messes. Headley, Foster, Tudor, Jones, Tremlett, Finn, gawd the list is endless. Even the likes of Fraser and Flintoff who did have decent careers never quite achieved what they should have because of injury.

TBH, if you wanted slavish devotion, you should have started an appreciation thread, I've started a few in my time. Edit 2 actually for the Erstwhile Jos Buttler and Rashid Khan, I also did the "I Don't actually hate Bopara" thread, which obviously was an highlight of my time here.