Pardon my ignorance, but what does 'sifarish' mean? Also, Hameed averages 38 as an opener against ODI standard teams. No doubt he puts runs on the board, but I can't help but feel his slow scoring doesn't sit favourably with the selectors.
Why would you want Younis Khan opening the batting? He doesn't deserve to be in the team in the first place, his average is skewed significantly by cashing in against minnows and the only real sucess he has had has been batting at #6, where he's scored 7 fifties in 23 innings against ODI class sides at an average of around 40. If he's going to be in the side at all, which I don't think he should be, it should be batting at #6 and not up the order.
Salman Butt and Yasir Hameed, there is your opening pair. Akmal has the ability to do the job, but specialists are probably a better option.
Hes an opener, tbh.
Ah, so he is. Overlooked that when I read the article.
Something that BS used in this post. I guess used to describe players that get in on political/family/random considerations with chairman, etc. Undoubtedly a sad part of cricket in Pakistan, but its the reality.
Yeah probably, although if the presence of both Misbah and Younis is insisted upon by the selectors then I probably would rather keep Butt out, especially considering the poor form he's in currently.
i agree with u
Look you have to understand this, younis khan cannot possibly be dropped at the moment and he wont be batting at No.6. You shouldnt assume something which wont happen, neither can they drop him and neither will he be batting at No.6 for the near future...the reason i was saying he should come as an opener is because firstly i believe he can atleast manage 25 to 30 odd runs (which is 100x better than say a 10/2 start) and secondly he should back, help and force the other inexperienced opener to play some intelligent cricket, inbetween overs tell him what he should avoid and acknowledge his good strokes etc.. Unless pakistan finds another proper/reliable middle order batsman they wont take the risk of dropping an experienced batsman.
Sending malik one-down is actually a nice move. Pakistan really need to back themselves to win big matches, they will never succeed with the current line-up and the lack of confidence in their batting line-up. They need to make some brave moves specially current situation demands the captain to lead from the front.
Afridi has to realise he's in the team for his bowling. I don't have stats on it, but I've always got the impression that he took his bowling less seriously when he opened the batting and believed his own batting hype. He's picked for his bowling primarily and his batting is an added bonus; that's how it should be IMO and opening up with him regularly would play havoc with his mindset. I'm still, like others, very much a fan of a top three consisting of Hameed, Butt and Malik.
Younis Khan is an experienced and proper batsman, but he certainly is not reliable in one-day international cricket. He's failed to cross 25 in 14 of his last 20 completed innings. That's stunning mediocrity. Admittedly he counts 101, 93, 55 and 47 among his 6 ventures past 25, but he also has 8 single-digit scores in his 14 "failures". Younis Khan is a very mediocre ODI batsman and should not (effectively by default) be preventing an younger, less experienced batsman from getting an opportunity.
Salman Butt isn't exactly the strokeplayer to foil Hameed though. This said as a Butt advocate.
I admit khan is a mediocre ODi batsman. But at the moment pakistans line-up is not filled with world class batters either other than Mohammad Yusuf, we havent got a Hayden, Gilchrist, Ponting, Symonds sort of batting and neither it is that consistent and this seems embarrasing but khan is our 3rd best batsman after Yusuf and Malik. So whatever his scores say in the past 8 to 10 games his place is permenant as long as a new batsman who looks much more promising and consistent and that has to start from dropping players like nazir, hafeez, butt and maybe misbah. I doubt they will drop misbah that quickly either.
Screw strokeplayers. We're in this mess right now of having no settled opening pair because we put faith in crap "strokeplayers" like Nazir. Consistently getting a start of something like 40 for one or no wickets after the first ten would be infinitely better than the situations we get ourselves in right now, even if Nazir fires 1 in 15 times and gives us a perfect start. I would back Hameed and Butt to give us that, and theres not much more we should ask of them at this point.
I understand ur point of view, i will come back to this tommarrow, i completely disagree with ur views on this. Got alot of work....as i write this guess what? pakistan have dropped hafeez and nazir is likely to be replaced by yasir hameed as i indicated.
Was drawing on this tbh:
And for the record, I know he was talking about strokeplayers in the Pakistan middle order.
A sad part indeed, and something that is very prominent in both Indian and Pakistan cricket unfortunately. I fully agree with you, I don't care how slowly Hameed scores (unless it handicaps his team), so long as he is putting runs on the board. A strike rate of 67 is a touch too slow, if he can lift that above 70 then he should definitely be selected. I'm just saying the Pakistan selectors are holding that against him, which is unfair given how terrible the rest of their openers have been lately.