Is Nathan Waller our missing link at number 8

[jimbo]

Has Bowled very well in this match and seems to be an explosive batter on his day. With a possibly returning Brendon Taylor possibly pupping mood for the W/K and batting role Nathan Waller would give us more options.
It would allow 4 bowlers to be used while still keeping a strong batting line up with him coming in at 8 down
Thoughts?

[sloandog]

Is he quick enough, though? Alright we could argue the same for Keegan Meth, but he moved the ball considerably both ways and was a genuine batter.

I like Waller, I always have. I've always said he's going to be a very good addition to the ODI side, but i'm not sure he has the pace or atleast supplementary movement with the ball to cause real problems. However, he had an x factor about him with the bat. Scoring a rapid century against a county 2's attack says it all, really.

[jimbo]

Seen him bowl and he is brisk without being Brett lee proportions. With an attacking 60 and 4 wickets has done himself s lot of good

[jaybro]

Our ODI side is crying out for a No.8 who bowls medium pace ( I started a thread about it ). Waller seems to fit the bill especially if BRMT returns we could see Moor drop out with either Malcolm Waller or Musakanda.

I'd actually prefer Jongwe but seems he's out of favour.

[pariah]

Zimbabwe simply does not have enough quality to afford not to go into ODI without four quality frontline bowlers. Sides like ENG(Woakes, Ali) and SA(Morris, Parnell, Phehlukwayo, Pretorius) can do that.

There was a time when Zimbabwe used to get that point. What happened? Utseya, Price, Cremer plus a seamer (e.g. Mpofu) used to be Zimbabwe's best approach. Everyone understood that you don't mess with International cricket. Zim were doing that whole 4+1 which Streak vowed to break-up in his fast bowler search (except he ended up killing off slow guys like Mupariwa who were delivering - AUS kep Bracken, ans SA kept Rusty Theron ).

Yes Elton(who can bat extremely well), did bowl, but as everyone has seen, his stats were very much up there at the time. Even when risks were taken with guys like Greg Lamb in the attack, he was doing well against full strong sides in the CWC, as well as bilaterals like WI, IND, SL and SA - not flopping against Afghanistan and weak SL and WI sides.

The point is, as much as Mire, Hami, Chamu, Williams, Raza and Malcolm are not good enough to be one of the 4 bowlers in an ODI attack, only good enough to make up the 5th bowler, same applies to Nathan Waller. Except Nathan Waller will NEVER be good enough to bat in the top six for Zimbabwe ahead of Malcolm , Hami, Vusi, Craig, Elton, Mire, Sean, Raza, Chamu, Taylor(or even Mutizwa, Musakanda and ), neither will he be good enough toovertake a lot of the seamers (Chatara, Panyangara, Shingi, Jarvis) and spinner(Cremer, Wellington, Chisoro), particularly with Zimbabwe trying to develop the likes of Ngarava and Mumba.

That's why Nathan Waller needs to choose, and hopefully develop enough to be considered ahead of Malcolm Waller for example. Cartwright did that. Steve Smith did that. Even Afridi did that - in the end he simply said I'm a bowler and outbowled the competition! Shoaib Malik failed to do the same and he was very often left out of the XI. Maxwell is going through the same.

In the end I think Nathan Waller will suffer just like Mitchell Marsh - not good enough for either role, which is made worse by the absence of a good keeper-batsman. These kinds of players only succeed in their selection quests if the team has a very good keeper-batsman.

[CrimsonAvenger]

If he does not have pace, and does not have swing (that is the impression most of us have of him here I guess), he won't be of much help. We can only know if we watch him bowl. Let us see. He should at least be a Sammy type player to make the cut in ODIs. But he has a role in T20s I'm sure. Nowhere near test cricket any time soon.

[TapsC]

As I mentioned in another thread. I saw him bat on Sunday. He was decent and hitting the ball well. For me he only has 2 options. Force his way up at the top order and remove Hami by playing like Mire( although it might affect the balance up top) .the second option is to take advantage of Taylor's possible comeback by taking PJ out the team simply because he can hit the Ball just as good but will also offer a bowling option if Taylor takes the gloves. That would essentially restore the balance in the team by having a number 8 who can bowl.

So for this to work he will gave to take his batting very seriously as well. I dont think he can make the team just as a bowler. Although one can argue that he can play a Tiripano kind of role. The problem is nobody actually knows how fast he is. He mustn't give up though. Malcolm and Hami are just a few years away from retirement and I think he would be a good replacement