Munaf doesn’t deserve a place in the team: Gavaskar

[PaiN_KiLLeR]

Munaf has the word LOSER written all over him. He moves around like a pregnant woman and gives te impression that he is playing for his bank account and not the team. His body language is even worse than Mohd Khajuruddin's. He is a bad fielder, like many others in the Indian team... but he makes zero effort to improve that and seems to be very happy and satisfied with what he is. No I'm not blaming him for yesterdays defeat ... but a guy who shows absoloutely no pride in representing the country should be sent back to his village. Gavaskar is spot on.

[Mr. Wicket]

One should not forget the background he has come from and the difficulties he might be facing in a world where everything moves so fast. Will you discard a natural talent because he is from village and did not take fielding as carefully in his formative years? It'll be ridiculous!

What about the complete lack of effort he seems to put in at times? The problem is that a couple of years ago, he was among India's best bowlers and was being nurtured as such. He became complacent, did little work on his fitness/fielding/other skills and got injured and lost pace while other bowlers have gone well past him. In the pecking order, Zaheer, RP, Ishant, Sreesanth and now even Pathan are ahead of him. Yes, he's a very talented cricketer - but half-assing it is not going to make a successful cricketer out of him.

[mhr123]

P Kumar is 100 times better than Munaf , P kumar is a better batsman and has amazing capability of swinging the ball.Seen him at domestic circuit bowling on barren pitches.

[Chandan]

What about the complete lack of effort he seems to put in at times? The problem is that a couple of years ago, he was among India's best bowlers and was being nurtured as such. He became complacent, did little work on his fitness/fielding/other skills and got injured and lost pace while other bowlers have gone well past him. In the pecking order, Zaheer, RP, Ishant, Sreesanth and now even Pathan are ahead of him. Yes, he's a very talented cricketer - but half-assing it is not going to make a successful cricketer out of him.

He might not become a successful bowler to end with 200+test wickets or even ODI wickets. But he is a very useful back-up to have in an age where half the seamers are injured for one half of a season. To say that he doesn't deserve to be in the team is wrong. Yes, he might not be even the 5th choice if all these 6 seamers are fit and available for selection. But he came here only because of the injury to frontline seamers. And you just don't discard a talented bowler like this. The coach has to work hard with him.

[fineleg]

And you just don't discard a talented bowler like this. The coach has to work hard with him.

Talent is worth squat! when MP has such a lazy and loser attitude. There are many cricketers who are not from Metro main cities...Dhoni, RPSingh et al. They are not as lazy as MP...why shud we accomodate this unenergetic Grandpa-at-24 player?

[Mr. Wicket]

I think it's a stretch to say 'talent is worth squat'... but there are plenty of outstanding cricketers over the year who've had decent but not outstanding reserves of talent, and have overachieved relative to that through sheer dedication, discipline and hunger. Munaf lacks those three. If he had the dedication of a Boycott, hunger of a Gary Kirsten, discipline of a Mark Richardson, Chris Tavaré or Allan Border, he'd be one hell of an asset. Sadly he's nowhere near those men in terms of ticker and guts.

[fineleg]

i meant talent is useless if right attitude is not there.

[King Tendulkar]

He is a decent bowler but he is worst fileder i have ever seen. He also has no heart. Sunny is right he needs a big boot up the arse or be booted out. Need players who play at least with some pride.

[Kartikey]

One of the most funniest things i heard was nasser hussain saying and i quote "munaf patel is one of the better fielders in this Indian team" in the match against England at Bristol back in August when he actually held onto a catch. :haha::haha::haha:

[msb1991]

I think I remember that, lol. Munaf Patel's bowling is more talented than all of the Indian bowlers put together. However, people must end this ridiculous dillusion that he was ever an express pace bowler. The highest that he has been timed at is about 145kph and (after several injuries put him down to 125kph), he is back to pushing that mark, when in his stride. I have seen clips from his first Test series and he spent most of his time around the 135kph mark. When Munaf gets it right, he rips line ups apart. For example, his 5/25 in the second innings of the Irani Trophy. However, when he gets it wrong, he costs his team a match, for evample, his 0/96 in the first innings of the same match. I think that his problem is partially fitness related (ie. the ability to consistently leap to the crease), but that the main problem is the lack of use of his front arm. Like Sreesanth, or Shoaib Akhtar, he does not use his front arm in the traditional sesne in that he puts it there rather than using it in a circular motion. The use of the front arm has long been associated with consistency and I think that it is the case here too. I think that Munaf's fielding is also not a lost cause and that sticking around the Indian setup with Robin Singh may be a way to help this. Remember how Monty Panesar's fielding has improved - Munaf's can do the same. However, it will take an insatiable desire to improve though, something that I am unsere whether Munaf has. As for his batting, I think the he should just bat like Murali and try and hit the ball as hard as he can :yay:

[Kartikey]

I think I remember that, lol. Munaf Patel's bowling is more talented than all of the Indian bowlers put together. However, people must end this ridiculous dillusion that he was ever an express pace bowler. The highest that he has been timed at is about 145kph and (after several injuries put him down to 125kph), he is back to pushing that mark, when in his stride. I have seen clips from his first Test series and he spent most of his time around the 135kph mark. When Munaf gets it right, he rips line ups apart. For example, his 5/25 in the second innings of the Irani Trophy. However, when he gets it wrong, he costs his team a match, for evample, his 0/96 in the first innings of the same match. I think that his problem is partially fitness related (ie. the ability to consistently leap to the crease), but that the main problem is the lack of use of his front arm. Like Sreesanth, or Shoaib Akhtar, he does not use his front arm in the traditional sesne in that he puts it there rather than using it in a circular motion. The use of the front arm has long been associated with consistency and I think that it is the case here too. I think that Munaf's fielding is also not a lost cause and that sticking around the Indian setup with Robin Singh may be a way to help this. Remember how Monty Panesar's fielding has improved - Munaf's can do the same. However, it will take an insatiable desire to improve though, something that I am unsere whether Munaf has. As for his batting, I think the he should just bat like Murali and try and hit the ball as hard as he can :yay:

The problem Munaf's got is that there are so many other talented bowlers around. The selection for the 1st Test against SA will be hard, Zaheer and RP will probably be back from injury, and there will be Irfan :two_thumbs_up:, Ishant and Sree. Irfan has to play, RP and Zaheer have been magnificent but so has Ishant. Munaf is a one dimensional cricketer, he can do very very well sometimes, but other times he is a huge liability. And his consistency is awful.

[msb1991]

Munaf is a one dimensional cricketer' date=' he can do very very well sometimes, but other times he is a huge liability. And his consistency is awful.[/quote'] His consistency is awful, but he is a match winner. You mustn't give up on a player because they are inconsistent, you must isolate the cause and try and work at it.

[msb1991]

P Kumar is 100 times better than Munaf ' date=' P kumar is a better batsman and has amazing capability of swinging the ball.Seen him at domestic circuit bowling on barren pitches.[/quote'] I have to agree with the fact that Kumar may be better in swinging conditions (and pretty much all others). But I'd rather Munaf Patel, seven days a week on a fast, bouncy batting track or a slow, low track.

[fineleg]

Grandpa a match winner in Intl matches :hysterical: - all that is over, no more. Even Agarkar will be better (Sorry Salil :D)

[talksport]

Monty Panesar the worst fielder to ever play Test Cricket when he made his debut in international cricket has put in an extra one hour every day since then to improve his fielding..... If Gavaskar/Dhoni is talking lack of effort they are spot on..sometimes our cricketers need to be told in public I feel.