I wrote in an earlier thread that one very dangerous feature in geriatric batsmen comes when they start to reach a point where their average looks misleadingly good because they have rare huge innings interspersed with much more frequent failures.
This happened to both Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan in away Tests from 2012-17, and put the team under huge pressure, resulting in a SENA output of 2 Tests won and 8 lost.
Unfortunately both Azhar Ali and Fawad Alam have slipped into precisely that routine. In the last 12 months, these are their outputs:
Azhar Ali
34
0 and 18
20
141* and 31
5 and 38
93 and 37
51 and 31*
0 and 33
Fawad Alam
0
21 and 0*
9 and 102
2 and 16
109 and 4*
45 and 12
On the face of it, Azhar Ali is averaging 44.33 this last 12 months and Fawad Alam is averaging 35.56. But the reality is much worse:
Scores under 10:
Azhar 3/14
Fawad 3/11
Scores under 20:
Azhar 5/14
Fawad 5/11
Scores over 40:
Azhar 3/14
Fawad 3/11
When a Test batsman gets out for less than 20 he basically drops his team into trouble. And both Azhar Ali and Fawad Alam are doing this with great regularity.
I'm not suggesting that the answer is someone like Imran Butt. What I am saying is that it's totally useless to deliver 2 centuries in 11 innings like Fawad Alam if you also get out for 21 or less in 7 of those 11 innings.
When Gordon Greenidge was dropped forever one Test after making his highest Test score of 226, the West Indies selectors explained precisely why. They could not carry on picking several veteran batsmen (Greenidge, Haynes and Viv Richards) who were now no longer reliably reaching 30 in at least 50% of their innings.
Pakistan now has a similar problem of their own making.
Azhar and Fawad are two very good batsmen who are in that end-of-career stage in which they keep their averages largely intact but drop their team in trouble on half the occasions that they go out to bat.
This happened to both Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan in away Tests from 2012-17, and put the team under huge pressure, resulting in a SENA output of 2 Tests won and 8 lost.
Unfortunately both Azhar Ali and Fawad Alam have slipped into precisely that routine. In the last 12 months, these are their outputs:
Azhar Ali
34
0 and 18
20
141* and 31
5 and 38
93 and 37
51 and 31*
0 and 33
Fawad Alam
0
21 and 0*
9 and 102
2 and 16
109 and 4*
45 and 12
On the face of it, Azhar Ali is averaging 44.33 this last 12 months and Fawad Alam is averaging 35.56. But the reality is much worse:
Scores under 10:
Azhar 3/14
Fawad 3/11
Scores under 20:
Azhar 5/14
Fawad 5/11
Scores over 40:
Azhar 3/14
Fawad 3/11
When a Test batsman gets out for less than 20 he basically drops his team into trouble. And both Azhar Ali and Fawad Alam are doing this with great regularity.
I'm not suggesting that the answer is someone like Imran Butt. What I am saying is that it's totally useless to deliver 2 centuries in 11 innings like Fawad Alam if you also get out for 21 or less in 7 of those 11 innings.
When Gordon Greenidge was dropped forever one Test after making his highest Test score of 226, the West Indies selectors explained precisely why. They could not carry on picking several veteran batsmen (Greenidge, Haynes and Viv Richards) who were now no longer reliably reaching 30 in at least 50% of their innings.
Pakistan now has a similar problem of their own making.
Azhar and Fawad are two very good batsmen who are in that end-of-career stage in which they keep their averages largely intact but drop their team in trouble on half the occasions that they go out to bat.
