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Are the selectors right to include Azhar Ali for the Champions Trophy?

Are the selectors right to include Azhar Ali for the Champions Trophy?

  • Total voters
    65
  • Poll closed .
S

Saj

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For many a surprising decision by Inzamam-ul-Haq and his selection committee to pick Azhar Ali for the Champions Trophy tournament in England.

Do you think the selectors have made the right decision?
 
I am fine with that as we need a backstop in English conditions - hope he knows his role. Rest can score around him
 
Awful decision. Zero merit in his selection.
 
Pathetic decision, dont need him when we already have Shehzad and Hafeez for tuk tuk openers
 
MenInG said:
I am fine with that as we need a backstop in English conditions - hope he knows his role. Rest can score around him
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who will score around him? all are tuk-tuks, Shehzad, Hafeez, Babar, all take their time to settle before they pick up the pace.
 
If he plays aggressively how he did when he began his captiancy then yeah but no otherwise, his form dont look very convincing
 
Citizen4 said:
Pathetic decision, dont need him when we already have Shehzad and Hafeez for tuk tuk openers
Click to expand...

even babar n
& malik need their own time.
who will score quick runs?
pak will depend on sarfraz and imad for that.
sohail shouldve been their too.for some lower order hitting.
 
No I don't agree with it. His core strengths when it comes to batting make him not suitable for odi cricket.

Pathetic selection by Inzi.
 
MenInG said:
I am fine with that as we need a backstop in English conditions - hope he knows his role. Rest can score around him
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Backstop? Rest can score around him? He scores at a snails pace which isnt going to help anyone. Also english conditions? The tournament will be mid summer in june so weather should be decent and if you have watched any odi cricket in english conditions over last two years teams have been scoring 300 runs per inns for fun.. with dot ball kings azhar n shehzhad batting like snails pakistan will struggle to get off to flying starts or post big totals. What has azhar shown in his game that hes improved in odis since been dropped?
 
No. You can't have players like Azhar and Shehzad as your ODI openers in this day and age. When par scores are increasing around the world you need openers to give you fast starts which Azhar cannot as he doesn't possess the range of shots and powerhitting required.

I don't understand how Azhar was left out of the WI squad if he was in the selectors plans for the CT anyway.

He's an excellent Test bat for us, but our selectors never seem to learn their lesson about picking the right players for the each format.
 
Saj said:
For many a surprising decision by Inzamam-ul-Haq and his selection committee to pick Azhar Ali for the Champions Trophy tournament in England.

Do you think the selectors have made the right decision?
Click to expand...

Saj, maybe you should ask inzi what azhars recall has been based on? What improvements hes shown since been dropped. Inzis showing hes one of the most useless selectors to ever do the job for pakistan.
 
I wouldn't have had any objections with his selection had he also played the LOI leg of this WI tour. Since he was discarded, and now brought back with no performance in between, this comes across as a mindless selection from Inzi and co.
 
The cricket enthusiast said:
even babar n
& malik need their own time.
who will score quick runs?
pak will depend on sarfraz and imad for that.
sohail shouldve been their too.for some lower order hitting.
Click to expand...

the worst thing is Sarfraz will stay at 6 now, he was the best batsman from both sides in the last ODI series in England when he batted at 5. Now Azhar and Hafeez are guarenteed starters so no chacne that Sarfraz plays at his ideal position.
 
Amjid Javed said:
Saj, maybe you should ask inzi what azhars recall has been based on? What improvements hes shown since been dropped. Inzis showing hes one of the most useless selectors to ever do the job for pakistan.
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Inzi doesn't give clear answers ever, when he does, all of that turns out to be hypocrisy later
 
Right decision. He shouldn't start, Hafeez and Fakhar should, but if that opening pair does not work, Azhar is a good choice. We're not South Africa or Australia and an opener who averages 40+ and is capable of scoring at a run a ball on a good day is a very good squad member to have.
 
I said Yes because Inzi has also selected Ahmed Shehzad as an opener who is clearly an inferior batsman than Azhar. I would have selected Sharjeel and Khurram as openers.
 
What happened to Inzi's claim about backing the proven domestic performers Kamran & Shehzad? Just demonstrates how selection in Pakistan is mostly based on public/media sentiment rather than a thought out method. Sentiments change every couple of matches and so does our selection philosophy.

Next, we will see how Mickey reacts to this challenge. Is he going to cave and play it safe with Azhar & Shehzad or will he be brave enough to try out Zaman as an opener to atleast have one attacking option in the top 5?
 
srh said:
I said Yes because Inzi has also selected Ahmed Shehzad as an opener who is clearly an inferior batsman than Azhar. I would have selected Sharjeel and Khurram as openers.
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oh stop it - Khurram?
 
srh said:
beggars cannot be choosers. Khurram as ODI opener is better than almost all of the other Pak openers bar Sharjeel.
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He doesnt not deserve to be in the squad even with dire condition of our openers.
 
Inzi once again playing the "experience" card..! Someone please wake inzi up from his nap n let him know these experinced players are javed miandad, saeed anwar etc.. these are tried and tested failures like azhar and hafeez who have plenty of experience of failing in these conditions
 
Bilal7 said:
Right decision. He shouldn't start, Hafeez and Fakhar should, but if that opening pair does not work, Azhar is a good choice. We're not South Africa or Australia and an opener who averages 40+ and is capable of scoring at a run a ball on a good day is a very good squad member to have.
Click to expand...

the way the game is now a 35 from 20 is more valuable than a 50 from 80, especially if that 50 comes with awful strike rotation.

If we didn't have Babar on the team, maybe you would have a point, as it stands there is no good reason to have Azhar, and to do well he would have to reinvent himself
 
pakistanigoneaussie said:
the way the game is now a 35 from 20 is more valuable than a 50 from 80, especially if that 50 comes with awful strike rotation.

If we didn't have Babar on the team, maybe you would have a point, as it stands there is no good reason to have Azhar, and to do well he would have to reinvent himself
Click to expand...

He's batted at a SR of 100 plenty of times in the past. No reason he can't do it again, if he's in good nick. However, I would hope that Hafeez/Shehzad and Fakhar remain our first choice throughout the tournament.
 
Bilal7 said:
He's batted at a SR of 100 plenty of times in the past. No reason he can't do it again if he's in good nick. However, I would hope that Hafeez/Shehzad and Fakhar remain our first choice throughout the tournament.
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example ?

Most of his best innings have come against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, his highest score against England came at st 74.

Plus his strike rate is Professor strike rate. AKA selfishly play it safe till he gets to 50 then starts smashing, prior to that shut up shop, don't take singles and kill the innings. It's fake, anyone who watches the game would have a different opinion to those looking purely at the scoresheet.

Even Nasser Hussain called him out on this when we toured England.

The fact that you put Shezhad ahead of Azhar shows that you have doubts as well. On average returns, Shehzad is worse that Azhar, but we know his best is far better than Azhar's best, and despite how rare that is that hope makes us rather choose him then Azhar.

However, I do hope most of all that Fahkar and Professor open
 
Harris Sohail is a top order bat right, or is he a capable opener or one who'd be relied upon to do a better job then Azhar because that would be the only way to replace him. Sharjeel, Shazaib can't be selected for obvious reasons, how many options did the selectors have with regards to the opening position? Awais Zia, who else is there?
 
Right up there with the selection of Khurram Manzoor for Asia Cup. Baffling. This is a downgrade on Kamran Akmal's selection since Azhar just cannot bat at a good rate even on his best days.
 
shaz619 said:
Harris Sohail is a top order bat right, or is he a capable opener or one who'd be relied upon to do a better job then Azhar because that would be the only way to replace him. Sharjeel, Shazaib can't be selected for obvious reasons, how many options did the selectors have with regards to the opening position? Awais Zia, who else is there?
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Haris is a middle order bat who should play at no 3 or no 4.
Yes sadly we dont have any other opener of the caliber of Sharjeel who can play modern odi game.
From the current ones, I personally will give a shot to Umar Akmal to open. Umar is mentally weak and cant play in pressure in lat middle order. Let him open and give him free license to play his aerial shots. Lets see how it goes.
 
srh said:
beggars cannot be choosers. Khurram as ODI opener is better than almost all of the other Pak openers bar Sharjeel.
Click to expand...

Khurram proves it year after year, but selectors are blind.
A guy with supreme technique was given over 50 games, but he ended up failing miserably in ODIs:shafiq

But a guy like Khurram is not considered because he's a hack.

People have short memories, our best opener in the last few years was also a hack, but he had talent, and management trusted him, he failed several times but he did improve after all. :sharjeel

Now Khurram is being treated unfairly, even though he's scoring at a very high strike rate. Selectors cry about our brand of cricket which is ancient, they always say that domestic performance matters, but when a guy is performing and doing exactly what we need our openers to do, play big shots, he is being ignored completely. ODI is his best format and he was never given a fair run of games in this format, anyone who says he is a hack, can just ask someone what people thought about Sharjeel before that PSL 100, he was ridiculed by most people.
 
Citizen4 said:
Khurram proves it year after year, but selectors are blind.
A guy with supreme technique was given over 50 games, but he ended up failing miserably in ODIs:shafiq

But a guy like Khurram is not considered because he's a hack.

People have short memories, our best opener in the last few years was also a hack, but he had talent, and management trusted him, he failed several times but he did improve after all. :sharjeel

Now Khurram is being treated unfairly, even though he's scoring at a very high strike rate. Selectors cry about our brand of cricket which is ancient, they always say that domestic performance matters, but when a guy is performing and doing exactly what we need our openers to do, play big shots, he is being ignored completely. ODI is his best format and he was never given a fair run of games in this format, anyone who says he is a hack, can just ask someone what people thought about Sharjeel before that PSL 100, he was ridiculed by most people.
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I saw Khurrum in the Asia Cup. He was disgustingly out of his depth. A total hack who can't take the pressure. He has filthy technique with a million flaws. He is club level bully.

Shows the depths we have crawled to when we have our fans talking up club level hacks like Khurrum as international grade. There are many fans from other nations reading this and laughing at us. Have some sharam.
 
Flat_Track_Bully said:
I saw Khurrum in the Asia Cup. He was disgustingly out of his depth. A total hack who can't take the pressure. He has filthy technique with a million flaws. He is club level bully.

Shows the depths we have crawled to when we have our fans talking up club level hacks like Khurrum as international grade. There are many fans from other nations reading this and laughing at us. Have some sharam.
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Don't know why people call Sharjeel a hack.
 
Azhar is a good player but if you're dropped, then you shouldn't get back in without scoring a bunch of runs in domestic one day competition.

The problem is in Pakistan you get dropped, then all it takes is a couple of bad games for the national side and you can be back in the next series without playing any domestic cricket at all.

It's complete nonsense. Azhar benefits in this case, Umar has benefited in the past, as long as Pakistan plays cricket we will see players going through the same 'get dropped and recalled in the space of four or five games' cycle.

The issue gets exacerbated for ICC tournaments, senior players ALWAYS get recalled for these regardless of who has been playing for the last 12 months.
 
Flat_Track_Bully said:
I saw Khurrum in the Asia Cup. He was disgustingly out of his depth. A total hack who can't take the pressure. He has filthy technique with a million flaws. He is club level bully.

Shows the depths we have crawled to when we have our fans talking up club level hacks like Khurrum as international grade. There are many fans from other nations reading this and laughing at us. Have some sharam.
Click to expand...

what a pathetic and clueless post, you dont have any knowledge about the domestic cricket do you?
Khurram has been the batsman with the highest strike rate among top scorers in the ongoing Pakistan cup.
The only opener who played aggressively from the word go. T20s are not his best format so why judge him solely on that he failed in 3 t20i games, the beloved Shafiq also played 10 t20is and failed, played 60 Odis and averaged 24 with the Strike rate of 67, that's is beyond pathetic for a guy with supreme technique who was the golden boy. Who are calling a hack when Sharjeel succeeded when he thrashd bowlers with htat style and technicaly correct batsman Shafiq failed misrebly in Australia ODIs.

Azhar averages 27 runs per innings and SR of 72 in 14 innings, that is pathetic, more pathetic when he has not even played any List A game recently and he's selected for CT based n literally nothing. Umar Prince is also back with his pot belly and below par performances in the last 2 years.

I guess you love tuk-tuk TTFs who don't belong in the team and are only there because of awful politics, and dont wanna see deserving players from the domestic.
 
Citizen4 said:
what a pathetic and clueless post, you dont have any knowledge about the domestic cricket do you?
Khurram has been the batsman with the highest strike rate among top scorers in the ongoing Pakistan cup.
The only opener who played aggressively from the word go. T20s are not his best format so why judge him solely on that he failed in 3 t20i games, the beloved Shafiq also played 10 t20is and failed, played 60 Odis and averaged 24 with the Strike rate of 67, that's is beyond pathetic for a guy with supreme technique who was the golden boy. Who are calling a hack when Sharjeel succeeded when he thrashd bowlers with htat style and technicaly correct batsman Shafiq failed misrebly in Australia ODIs.

Azhar averages 27 runs per innings and SR of 72 in 14 innings, that is pathetic, more pathetic when he has not even played any List A game recently and he's selected for CT based n literally nothing. Umar Prince is also back with his pot belly and below par performances in the last 2 years.

I guess you love tuk-tuk TTFs who don't belong in the team and are only there because of awful politics, and dont wanna see deserving players from the domestic.
Click to expand...

Have you seen Manzoor's Test and ODI stats?
 
Hamza_ said:
Have you seen Manzoor's Test and ODI stats?
Click to expand...

I'm saying that Khurram deserves to play Odis, not tests or t20s. He only played 7 ODI during 2008-9 before he established himself in the List A cricket where he has one of the best record, and he deserve to stay with the ODI squad based on that record and current List A form. Dont try to act like an oaf by bringing almost a decade old small sample size. Look at the current form of the player and who he should replace, the clueless Odi batsman Azhar or garbage player Umar.
 
Citizen4 said:
I'm saying that Khurram deserves to play Odis, not tests or t20s. He only played 7 ODI during 2008-9 before he established himself in the List A cricket where he has one of the best record, and he deserve to stay with the ODI squad based on that record and current List A form. Dont try to act like an oaf by bringing almost a decade old small sample size. Look at the current form of the player and who he should replace, the clueless Odi batsman Azhar or garbage player Umar.
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If Akmal is garbage then so is Manzoor.
 
Hamza_ said:
If Akmal is garbage then so is Manzoor.
Click to expand...

yeah we saw that in the ongoing Pakistan cup where Umar got a duck and khurram got a 118* off 61 where every other batsman failed to score even a 50. You sound like an oaf. Khurram is scoring with high strike rates, better than any other top scoring batsman in PC right now, he had the best strike rate among top scorers in the last PC as well.
 
Citizen4 said:
yeah we saw that in the ongoing Pakistan cup where Umar got a duck and khurram got a 118* off 61 where every other batsman failed to score even a 50. You sound like an oaf. Khurram is scoring with high strike rates, better than any other top scoring batsman in PC right now, he had the best strike rate among top scorers in the last PC as well.
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Dont show me a one off innings. Akmal has a t20 century and has hit 30+ runs in an over, Akmal has many of such innings like what Manzoor played, Akmal even has smoked bowlers in PSL.

But both are limited players one way or another and garbage which shouldn't be recycled.
 
Hamza_ said:
Dont show me a one off innings. Akmal has a t20 century and has hit 30+ runs in an over, Akmal has many of such innings like what Manzoor played, Even Akmal has smoked bowlers in PSL.

But both are limited players one way or another and garbage which shouldn't be recycled.
Click to expand...

dont bring in old stats, if you wanna bring old stats then Khurram blows Umer out of the water in terms of List A record, go figure.
Selection should be based on current form, Khurram has been performing in list A consistently with a high strike rate since last year. Umer hasnt even done that in List A. There's nothing more ridiculous than defending Umer right now who is a lost cause with a pot belly and low IQ.
You cant defend Azhar based on any stats either he bats at snail pace and batting form is garbage too with no match practice.
 
Citizen4 said:
dont bring in old stats, if you wanna bring old stats then Khurram blows Umer out of the water in terms of List A record, go figure.
Selection should be based on current form, Khurram has been performing in list A consistently with a high strike rate since last year. Umer hasnt even done that in List A. There's nothing more ridiculous than defending Umer right now who is a lost cause with a pot belly and low IQ.
You cant defend Azhar based on any stats either he bats at snail pace and batting form is garbage too with no match practice.
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I'm not defending Azhar. Just saying that all 3, Azhar (ODI), Akmal and Manzoor are bad.

Haris Sohail and Umar Amin were appropriate selections.
 
Hamza_ said:
I'm not defending Azhar. Just saying that all 3, Azhar (ODI), Akmal and Manzoor are bad.

Haris Sohail and Umar Amin were appropriate selections.
Click to expand...

lol what? first you said ''Don't show me a one off innings." now you want these guys who have nothing to show but one off innings, Haris is still not 100% and needs to spend some more time in domestic, team is full of middle order batsmen anyways, there's no room for 2 more.
Khurram would have been a better choice than Azhar as an opener that why I brought his name up, it would have been wise to cash in on current form instead of openeing with garbage ODI opener Azhar.
 
Pathetic decision. He is unsuited for shorter formats; bats too slowly. He would have been ideal if it was the early 1990s.
 
Citizen4 said:
lol what? first you said ''Don't show me a one off innings." now you want these guys who have nothing to show but one off innings, Haris is still not 100% and needs to spend some more time in domestic, team is full of middle order batsmen anyways, there's no room for 2 more.
Khurram would have been a better choice than Azhar as an opener that why I brought his name up, it would have been wise to cash in on current form instead of openeing with garbage ODI opener Azhar.
Click to expand...

I have always rated Umar Amin, So will want him to open.

For Haris Sohail it's not a ONE OFF innings, He is a proven performer, Also has scored for PakU23 and consistently now in Pakistan Cup.
 
Him and Shehzad are the same? Why is Shehzad back in the squad again?
 
How did he perform in the ODI series against England in England last year? Can someone post his stats in that series?
 
Bhaag Viru Bhaag said:
How did he perform in the ODI series against England in England last year? Can someone post his stats in that series?
Click to expand...

If you talking about Azhar ali, he did score 2 half centuries. If i remember.

Azhar Ali can out perform most of the batsmen in Pakistan line up.
 
We can't have Azhar Ali AND Ahmed Shehzad in the team. If you asked me I'd rather have Azhar in than Shahzad. However, that said, Azhar should either have been included in the ODI squad for the WI tour or not picked at all. It's a bit silly to arbitrarily pick players like this
 
lahoriyah1234 said:
If you talking about Azhar ali, he did score 2 half centuries. If i remember.

Azhar Ali can out perform most of the batsmen in Pakistan line up.
Click to expand...

he is another Professor, his scores look good on a spreadsheet but more often than nought are inheritably selfish, ie plod along at a strike of 60 to get a half century then start slogging
 
To answer the OP I think it's a rational choice to include Azhar Ali in the squad, given the context of who is available. It's probably not a good idea to pick new/relatively inexperienced batsmen to play a major tournament in England. Instead Ali provides experience and some mature temperament; and he could be seen as someone to plug the gap left by Misbah. We should remember that Azhar's batting faired well compared to the others during last years tour of England.

ODI's are a long game so I still feel we need one or two batsmen who can play the long innings albeit at a lower SR. The problem I feel we have is too many of our batsmen inherently play this role and are unable to up the ante when needed to.

However from the squad selected I would say a balanced playing XI would be

M Hafeez
A Shehzad
B Azam
U Akmal / A Ali
S Malik
S Ahmed c wkt
I Wasim
M Amir
W Riaz
S Khan
A Hassan

I would favour U Akmal as a more aggressive option to Azhar. I feel he too can play the long innings and often finds himself coming into situations where he needs to get going quickly, something which he isn't very good at. So at 4 he should have ample time to build an innings and aggress towards the end, especially as our openers are unlikely to last long :P
 
He should do well in England , suits his batting style .
if Azhar is in form he will not find it difficult to maintain 100+ SR in English conditions .
 
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