Time to give Azhar Ali his due

[Gollum]

1 hour ago, Pakistani said:

He generally plays with almost same strike rate as the likes of pujara and cook do but the problem is their other players play with better strike rate which evens out the situation but its not the case with our team cz our players are monotonous which results in the form of us always end up 100 runs short most of the times

Pujara's SR is 48, Cook's is 47 while AA's is 42. And I believe AA has the potential to outscore both Che and Chef. At least having watched a lot of Pujara's batting I can attest to the fact that he is a very limited strokeplayer and because of his dodgy knee his running between the wickets is sluggish. Hence he could never find a place even in our IPL teams, AA is a bit better than him in that regard. If he can maintain a SR of 48-50, no one can raise a finger at him. The era of Sunny/Boycs/Hanif type opening batsmen is well and truly over and those legends faced much tougher pace bowling attacks, often without helmets in ancient times when 2 rpo was acceptable. 

[Ultimate_Game]

The only decent Test batsman Pakistan currently has but he needs to be a bit more aggressive when he settles in.

[sandeep]

33 minutes ago, Ultimate_Game said:

The only decent Test batsman Pakistan currently has but he needs to be a bit more aggressive when he settles in.

He's the new Misbah - applies himself really well and picks off his runs off the bad ball.  Poor man's Murali Vijay.   Is doing really well for a team that badly needs decent batsmen.

[CG]

Pujara's SR is 48, Cook's is 47 while AA's is 42. And I believe AA has the potential to outscore both Che and Chef. At least having watched a lot of Pujara's batting I can attest to the fact that he is a very limited strokeplayer and because of his dodgy knee his running between the wickets is sluggish. Hence he could never find a place even in our IPL teams, AA is a bit better than him in that regard. If he can maintain a SR of 48-50, no one can raise a finger at him. The era of Sunny/Boycs/Hanif type opening batsmen is well and truly over and those legends faced much tougher pace bowling attacks, often without helmets in ancient times when 2 rpo was acceptable. 

 

Pujara has improved his strike rate and nowadays after getting settled he picks up his strike rate.I absolutely despise Pakistan style of batting.It has no place in modern game.Against good attacks you will always be exposed if you go to shell.

[Gollum]

37 minutes ago, CG said:

 

Pujara has improved his strike rate and nowadays after getting settled he picks up his strike rate.I absolutely despise Pakistan style of batting.It has no place in modern game.Against good attacks you will always be exposed if you go to shell.

Pujara's Ranchi 200 was very slow man. And we need to see his SR in the next round of overseas assignments, his low SR was one of the reasons behind his failure in 2014-15.

[Autonomous]

1 hour ago, sandeep said:

He's the new Misbah - applies himself really well and picks off his runs off the bad ball.  Poor man's Murali Vijay.   Is doing really well for a team that badly needs decent batsmen.

An average of 47 vs 39?

[Gollum]

15 minutes ago, Autonomous said:

An average of 47 vs 39?

Till 2016 I would say Vijay was better, mainly because of his overseas exploits. But last year, AA has shot past him, in fact AA is better than even Cook and Warner right now. 

[Autonomous]

26 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Till 2016 I would say Vijay was better, mainly because of his overseas exploits. But last year, AA has shot past him, in fact AA is better than even Cook and Warner right now. 

Yes, AA has performed in England and Aus last year, Now in Windies. 

[Autonomous]

Moron Inzi needs to get Sami Aslam back as well...

[Vilander]

impressive whom did he play against ?

[sandeep]

1 hour ago, Autonomous said:

An average of 47 vs 39?

Hand on your heart, and fan banter aside - which opener would you rather have batting for your team on a bowler friendly pitch against a quality pace attack?  

 

I'm not saying this to bash Azhar Ali.  He has really improved and put up strong performances, all credit to the guy.   Takes a lot of mental strength and focus to do what he does.  But I simply believe Murali Vijay is the more competent and skilled test opener.  

[sandeep]

55 minutes ago, Autonomous said:

Moron Inzi needs to get Sami Aslam back as well...

Why was that guy dropped?  I thought he did really well in England?   Aslam and Fawad Alam are 2 guys who somehow don't seem to find favor with selectors in spite of being supposedly competent batsmen?   Surely better options than the likes of Selfie Shehzadi and this Masood character?

[Pakistani]

3 hours ago, sandeep said:

He's the new Misbah - applies himself really well and picks off his runs off the bad ball.  Poor man's Murali Vijay.   Is doing really well for a team that badly needs decent batsmen.

Haha what has ur vijay done for past 1 yeae even though playing at home.Vijay and for that matter no indian comes close to him in performance for last 3 4 years and Stats are proof of it.

[Autonomous]

1 hour ago, sandeep said:

Hand on your heart, and fan banter aside - which opener would you rather have batting for your team on a bowler friendly pitch against a quality pace attack?  

 

I'm not saying this to bash Azhar Ali.  He has really improved and put up strong performances, all credit to the guy.   Takes a lot of mental strength and focus to do what he does.  But I simply believe Murali Vijay is the more competent and skilled test opener. 

I can surely tell you that Azhar has done well overseas. 

[Autonomous]

1 hour ago, sandeep said:

Why was that guy dropped?  I thought he did really well in England?   Aslam and Fawad Alam are 2 guys who somehow don't seem to find favor with selectors in spite of being supposedly competent batsmen?   Surely better options than the likes of Selfie Shehzadi and this Masood character?

He was dropped for eating Karahi apparently. Shan Masood is there due to his connections. 

 

Sami Aslam just smashed 169 off 126 in domestic and was awarded man of the match by the guy who dropped him.

 

 

[Texy]

jesus what happened to Inzi 

[Asim]

Inzi has some strange selection policies... Droppiing Sami was totally unfair... Sami and Azhar wud make soem solid opening pair...

[sandeep]

5 hours ago, Asim said:

Inzi has some strange selection policies... Droppiing Sami was totally unfair... Sami and Azhar wud make soem solid opening pair...

Sami and Azhar as opener, ideally Azhar at #3 if Selfie gets his head sorted - he's a serviceable opener for test cricket IMO.   That would go a long way in stabilizing the Pak test team -  Babar would be better at #4.  

 

Sami

Shehzad

Azhar

Babar Azam

Asad Shafiq

Fawad Alam? 

Sarfaraz

 

That's probably the best batting lineup for Pakistan - but knowing the tendencies of the selectors, I don't see them putting this team out in test cricket, maybe ever.  

[sandeep]

17 hours ago, Autonomous said:

I can surely tell you that Azhar has done well overseas. 

He has, but if you had been following Vijay's batting, you would know that he has gotten the job done in clutch situations in bowler friendly conditions - the one thing Vijay sucks at, is piling on the big runs when they are there for the taking - that's why his stats are not as healthy as they should be.  The guy makes the hard yards, and then tends to give it away.   Azhar is much better than him in that specific aspect - but If you had to pick a combined India-Pak test batting lineup - Azhar is 3rd best opener IMHO, after Vijay and Rahul.    Again, that's no knock on Azhar, he's a quality player by all means...

[Autonomous]

4 minutes ago, sandeep said:

Sami and Azhar as opener, ideally Azhar at #3 if Selfie gets his head sorted - he's a serviceable opener for test cricket IMO.   That would go a long way in stabilizing the Pak test team -  Babar would be better at #4.  

 

Sami

Shehzad

Azhar

Babar Azam

Asad Shafiq

Fawad Alam? 

Sarfaraz

 

That's probably the best batting lineup for Pakistan - but knowing the tendencies of the selectors, I don't see them putting this team out in test cricket, maybe ever.   

Selfie is not going to stick long, We have too many openers who would be looking for a test spot in 2-3 years including Imam Ul Haq, Imran Butt and Jaahid Ali. 

 

Sami and Azhar should open.