Azhar Ali and Sami Aslam are the best Test openers we've had in decades

[marlonbrowndo]

Azhar and Sami have shown their ability to see off the new ball and survive in difficult conditions. There are obviously areas in which they can improve but we have found a very solid opening combo even for non Asian conditions. Should be our long term opening partnership. They have rightfully received criticism for not scoring quick enough but the truth is that there is no better opening partnership in Pakistan. Played beautifully in difficult conditions at Edgbaston and have again played really well today. Some areas like running between the wickets and scoring rate do need to improve though.

 

[KingKhanWC]

They are by nature defensive batsmen but in test cricket this is totally fine. Both have excellent techniques and considering Azhar has moved up and Sami is only 20 they have done very well. It's the middle order which needs to be more productive.

 

[Major]

This is one of the best azhar ali innings. Uneven bounce and yet he has batted through with sami

 

[Suleiman]

Threads before today:

"Azhar's low strike rate in tests"

"Azhar's batting is a concern"

"Sami Aslam's decline"

Threads after a 95* partnership between Azhar and Sami:

"Azhar Ali and Sami Aslam are the best Test openers we've had in decades"

 

[Dr_Bassim]

The pitch is way too easy for them to be judged.

No swing or seam, just some uneven bounce.

And who are they competing with in the last decade?

Hafeez?

Farhat ?

Butt?

Not hard to better them.

 

[MMHS]

Definitely two of the better ones. They have everything (apart from 12 years age gap) to build on. Because of the age gap, I thought Sami-Babar opening pair could have been a great investment.

However, their next target should be to add a 2nd dimension in their game. Now, they are good at playing out time, which is fine because PAK is playing underdog here; but this game won't help when team is in dominating position or trying to enforce the issue.

 

[Major]

Was this one of our best opening partnership in Test cricket?

Looking at the way there was uneven bounce on the pitch, azhar and sami have scored a 100 on a day 5 wicket while chasing.

What was more interesting was the way he batted on this pitch, where the ball either jumped up, stayed low, or did nothing at all

 

[Major]

The pitch is way too easy for them to be judged.

No swing or seam, just some uneven bounce.

And who are they competing with in the last decade?

Hafeez?

Farhat ?

Butt?

Not hard to better them.

Way to easy???
Comeon man. Uneven bounce is not easy. Pakistans poor batting outside of asia is due to the extra bounce.

On this pitch extra bounce and low bounce is being generated from one place

 

[Abdullah719]

Azhar Ali and Sami Aslam are the first Pakistani opening pair to face 50+ overs in a partnership more than once.



(This stat might remove most contenders from before the 80s from contention though - balls faced stats not available from that time.)

 

[Speedster777]

Better than the previous openers we had.

 

[Abdullah719]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The 131-run partnership between Sami and Azhar is the highest by openers in the 4th innings of a Test match in the past 10 years. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NZvPAK?src=hash">#NZvPAK</a></p>— PakPassion.net (@PakPassion) <a href="https://twitter.com/PakPassion/status/803422191824044032">November 29, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Junaids]

Best Pakistani opening pair that I have ever seen actually!

And I've been watching for forty years.

 

[marlonbrowndo]

Threads before today:

"Azhar's low strike rate in tests"

"Azhar's batting is a concern"

"Sami Aslam's decline"

Threads after a 95* partnership between Azhar and Sami:

"Azhar Ali and Sami Aslam are the best Test openers we've had in decades"

You want me to find you at least 5 posts where I said this before this test match?

 

[Suleiman]

You want me to find you at least 5 posts where I said this before this test match?

Nah wasn't targeting you, just an observation. Obviously you wouldn't have made this thread if you didn't believe it.

 

[coy0607]

I've actually been watching cricket for over 50 years, and I've never seen better openers. Ever

 

[Buffet]

Sami doesn't have off side shots. He mainly tries to play on leg side. If he can add few shots then he will score more runs and not get bogged down.

 

[Hawkeye]

Best Pakistani opening pair that I have ever seen actually!

And I've been watching for forty years.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The 131-run partnership between Sami and Azhar is the highest by openers in the 4th innings of a Test match in the past 10 years. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NZvPAK?src=hash">#NZvPAK</a></p>— PakPassion.net (@PakPassion) <a href="https://twitter.com/PakPassion/status/803422191824044032">November 29, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I've actually been watching cricket for over 50 years, and I've never seen better openers. Ever

But but but but Sami is a poor batsman and he just scored 91, the highest by any batsman against NZ in NZ. The strike rate was too low at around 40!

Mediocrity at its best.