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Do we have the worst ODI openers in the world?

marlonbrowndo

marlonbrowndo

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The answer to this question is obviously a yes. Associate teams have better openers than shehzad and azhar. However, look at the difference in quality between our openers and openers of other teams. How can batsmen like shehzad and azhar open for a team in this day and age? It's just baffling. How are we supposed to win games against good sides with these limited snails opening the batting. The first 10 overs are the best time to bat in ODI cricket. As far as I'm concerned, the opposition team always get a head start against us with these 2 up front.

The Wahab/Junaid conundrum isn't even what worries me. It's these 2 explosive batsmen
 
No doubt about it. Absolutely awful. AA and AS strike rate of 70 if we are lucky. I would rather have Afghanistans openers like Mohammad Shahzad. Just shambolic. Missing Sharjeel
 
hadi123 said:
No doubt about it. Absolutely awful. AA and AS strike rate of 70 if we are lucky. I would rather have Afghanistans openers like Mohammad Shahzad. Just shambolic. Missing Sharjeel
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I'd rather play with 9 players and I'm being serious. Azhar has a net negative effect
 
Mickey and Sarfi the revolutionaries. Yes.

Lost all hope from our team now. Used to like Mickey till now. Thought it was Inzi whose choices were Azhar, Shehzad and Wahab. But after looking the 12 probables, you can see that Inzi has no role there and Azhar and shehzad are still there.

Mickey is the same guy who played 4 seamers and 1 spinner for Australia in a Test match in India in 2013 on a turner. What more can you expect from him.
 
Yes no doubts about that.None of them can score over the SR of 150 regularly as an opener.Sharjeel will be sorely missed
 
Pakistan is better than Ireland, Afghanistan, and West Indies.
 
Chadwick Walton, William Porterfield and Noor Ali Zadran are all worse.
 
aliasad1998 said:
The answer to this question is obviously a yes. Associate teams have better openers than shehzad and azhar. However, look at the difference in quality between our openers and openers of other teams. How can batsmen like shehzad and azhar open for a team in this day and age? It's just baffling. How are we supposed to win games against good sides with these limited snails opening the batting. The first 10 overs are the best time to bat in ODI cricket. As far as I'm concerned, the opposition team always get a head start against us with these 2 up front.

The Wahab/Junaid conundrum isn't even what worries me. It's these 2 explosive batsmen
Click to expand...

You have to set criteria - even Scotland/UAE plays ODI. If you take top 9 teams - comfortably yes. If you add ZIM, IRL & AFG - probably no.

If you measure it by intention rather capability, probably you should reach down to Uganda .......
 
Cannot believe that Fakhar Zaman isn't the favorite to open with Hafeez tomorrow. Azhar and Shehzad is a horrible opening partnership. Poor decision by Sarfaraz and Arthur if those two snails come out to open for us tomorrow.
 
MMHS said:
You have to set criteria - even Scotland/UAE plays ODI. If you take top 9 teams - comfortably yes. If you add ZIM, IRL & AFG - probably no.

If you measure it by intention rather capability, probably you should reach down to Uganda .......
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Stirling,Shehzad and PJ Moor all of these are better than our openers
 
ODI openers of each team ranked from best to worst:

1) South Africa
2) England
3) India
4) Australia
5) New Zealand
6) Bangladesh
7) Sri Lanka
8) Pakistan (Assuming they are Shehzad and Azhar, if it's Hafeez and Fakhar ... nothing changes :( )
 
So far except sl all teams strarted cautiously so will Pak tomorrow. Preserve wickets and attack later.
 
What's the logic behind this decision??? Both are slow and in terrible form... I would've used Fakhar and Haris..
 
Nikhil_cric said:
A big no. Saeed Anwar was one of top 4 ODI bats of late 90's along with Tendu/Lara/Waugh. Pls do't even compare these two.
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I'm not comparing the two but telling you about the sort of phainta they would have been receiving. Sharjeel is/was stand and deliver sort of guy
 
Can't believe that not too long ago one of these openers was our captain.....
 
U Akmal Should open the bat, untill and Sharjeel is back.. and Sarfi should open too actually..
 
The trouble with Azhar Ali is that he does not have many shots. the only way he knows how to bat is survive by blocking anything in wickets and outside of stump with slips on. Because of his lack of shots ability, the moment he goes aggressive, he gets out and brings negativity. I think its time Pakistan starts investing in new faces or they will further go down the rating. Give youngster enough chance & discard ones who does not perform and bring new one in
 
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Pakistan need to think out of Box. Maybe try and push someone from middle order up to open the innings.

Someone like harris or even babar .

Play some allrounder in the middle order.

Fakhar , Umar Amin , babar , harris Sohail etc can be tried as opener.
 
No we don't. There's a ton of associate and affiliate sides with much worse openers.

Now, if you mean among the full member nations, then you are correct.
 
Easily.

Joyce has similar SR as Shehzad and Azhar and Sterling bats at 90+ SR.

The pair of Azhar and Shehzad is right up there with Ramiz and Shoaib Mohammad.
 
Hamza_ said:
I'm not comparing the two but telling you about the sort of phainta they would have been receiving. Sharjeel is/was stand and deliver sort of guy
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He'd last maybe four balls against Kumar, hit a streaky boundary and then get clean-bowled. The overcast conditions of England are not suitable for hacks like Sharjeel. Or Rohit, Guptill and Warner for that matter.
 
Pakistan will never realize what they have in their hands, Azhar Ali's SR of 75 is better than Gordon Greenidge's strike rate of 64.92.

On the other hand, Ahmed Shahzad's strike rate of 72.55 as compared to Desmond Haynes's strike rate of 63.09 makes him the front runner for opening spot of All-time Greats 11.
 
Why cant these ppl see the obvious.
Mickey might be great on fitness but he is ultra conservative.
Even if azhar and shehzad light up Brum tomorrow...still they are the worst.
 
Farhansk said:
Pakistan will never realize what they have in their hands, Azhar Ali's SR of 75 is better than Gordon Greenidge's strike rate of 64.92.

On the other hand, Ahmed Shahzad's strike rate of 72.55 as compared to Desmond Haynes's strike rate of 63.09 makes him the front runner for opening spot of All-time Greats 11.
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Why you compare different eras, see economy rate of 1980s and now. All current good bowlers have economy above 4.5 in ODIs
 
Azhar will flop as usual and will be dropped from the next match. Shehzad I have more hope from because atleast he possesses hitting ability and can clear the fence when required.
 
Joseph Gomes said:
Why you compare different eras, see economy rate of 1980s and now. All current good bowlers have economy above 4.5 in ODIs
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You are missing the point here, their greatness is beyond decades in fact more than a century, there has never been any opening batting pair from 1876 to 1980s who played at the strike rate better than these two.

I purposely compared them to opening pair from 1980s as their comparison with any opening pair of 1990s from different teams will leave me disappointed.

So let's join hands in saying a big word of THANK YOU to these two saviors whose worth is unknown to many ignorant fans.
 
The sad part is we learnt nothing from last year's tour to England. Inzi with bygone mindset selected these 2 tuktuks on the basis that in his time you needed openers who can see off the new ball in England. Did no one learn from last year that is no longer the case in England? It's just baffling what the thought process is and how are we supposed to challenge when we shoot ourselves in the foot time and time again with mind boggling selections.
 
Syed1 said:
Azhar will flop as usual and will be dropped from the next match. Shehzad I have more hope from because atleast he possesses hitting ability and can clear the fence when required.
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Don't know where people get the misconception that Shehzad is an explosive batsman. He may be in T20is but in ODIs he has a S.R of 72. The worst among all batsman.
 
KhalidRafi said:
Don't know where people get the misconception that Shehzad is an explosive batsman. He may be in T20is but in ODIs he has a S.R of 72. The worst among all batsman.
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Shehzad is a tuk tuk too, but atleast he has the ability to hit sixes when required. Even if Azhar Ali wants to hit sixes he can't.
 
Fakhar and Sahibzada are the way forward, but even then we're at best 6th in-terms of openers.
 
This is no brainer shehzad is one of the worst batsman to play he is nothing but a stroke less wonder on the hand Azhar can play fast bowling a bit but his SR is 75 both are pathetic and uninspiring batsman.
 
With today's times teams are required to get 60+ runs in the first 10 overs. Our openers will barely get to 40 and one of them will probably lose there wicket in the process. To answer the question yes our openers are awful in the shorter format. Dammit Sharjeel!!!!
 
No doubt about it. The two most useless and pathetic openers in CT.

Even if these guys score, it will hurt the team.
 
The worst opening duo in the world. No wonder Pakistan has the second worst run rate after Zimbabwe in the first ten overs.
 
With these snails, we have lost before the game starts. Time for both of them to go. Unbelievable how these guys are opening in modern ODI cricket
 
India was slower than Pakistan upfront. We were not worried because we knew they are capable of making up for that. That is where Pakistan has issues. There is a ceiling to their ability. Rohit at his very best can score 30 runs in an over.
 
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