Yea but a big question mark none the less, despite having captained the A team and having decent exposure, he failed to produce in even 1 of the 5 innings, that pathetic by his standards..
Newzealand ODI was a short series of only 2 matches, but England was the real foreign tour he had..
I will be very cautious into overpraising him over 2 100's against Windies.
He has every chance him going down his cousin's road who started off in similar fashion but spiralled down into a very mediocre career..
He was playing really well in ENG - got 3 good starts, but couldn't convert. Also, he came to bat under pressure almost every time & was unlucky with 1 LBW when he looked destined for a big one. Already, he has equaled Umer in no. of ODI hundreds, two of many, many to come. Interestingly, since he doesn't go for Gang Ho shots, most people people don't notice that his SR is 92, which was more or less around 90 always from start.
I think, he is the most perfect No. 3 in many, many years from PAK - may be since Zaheer Aabbas. It's not that there was none in between, but for a strange reason PAK never used their best players at No. 3 for longer period since Z. From Qasim Omar to Mansoor Akhter to Imran to wood chopper Ijaz to Mian Malik to YK to MoHa - PAK's No. 3 had been a bit fishy. Babar indeed has a small chance to go down his cousin's way, but he has 4 advantages over his cousin -
1. Even from U13 days, he is someone who puts value to his wicket & actually loves to bat for long. Umar was always someone you can force a chancy shot if you can restrict him for few overs, but even in at 16/17 years of age (U19 WC 2010), I have seen Babar conceding couple of maidens, a barren period & later make up the SR once set. Even against domestic bowlers, can't recall when Umar got a FC/List A hundred last time.
2. Umar (& Ahmed as well), were spoiled by bad company. Besides, they had very little development scope in PAK domestics & not much from coaching staff in PAK team. But, Babar is extremely lucky that just when he made his PAK spot solid, Arthur joined; who is different class compared "Deshi staff" & likes him as well. 13 years back, from a decent, at best above average bat, MoYo & YK became world class under Bob in a year or two - I see similar impact for Babar. If Amin & Saud is called for the team, I am sure within a year under Mickey, they'll also improve considerably - something we can see in Asad's game already.
3. Looks like Malik'll be there for few more series at 4 & Sarfy at 5 - which is an excellent opportunity for Babar to learn the art of middle over batting & strike rotation, whenever he bats with them. This'll help him to prolong his innings - best top order players don't play big innings, because of bang, bang boundaries; rather because of superior shot productivity (It's opposite index of Dot ball %), which allows them to stay alive & play longer innings without building scoreboard pressure - Babar can learn that from Malik & Sarfu, while Umar had Misbah, Maqsood, YK as his partners mostly.
4. For a player like Babar (& Amin, Saud) batting position is extremely important in ODI as their game is not based on power. If Babar is pushed back to 5, I think, he'll be lost in a season or two, but if he is persisted with at No. 3, which fortunately for him happens to be within 3 matches under Arthur & looks like to continue until Arthur is replaced by a "Buzurg" - I believe, he'll break almost every PAK ODI batting record.
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