Last night Babar was saying that management is thinking to sending me as an opener in odi which I think will be good initiative but who will open with him imam? Then Fakhar zaman can surely be better at 3untill and unless mr professor ego is not hurted.
Better late than never - I think, since ENG tour of 2016, I am writing here that Babar should open in LOs, only that his partner (or the guy he should replace as opener) kept changing time to time.
Once for the final time - he should be better as ODI opener for his strengths & weakness (being less exposed). His strengths are his touch, timing & placement against new ball - he is a proper batsman who can punish most loose balls and he is someone who can convert a start into match winning 125+. Batting in PP is not about slogging, rather punishing loose balls (regardless of how many wickets are down - a four ball has to go to ropes), and teams best batsman should get the highest chance to play most of 300 balls. I don't believe in this power hitting issue - even if so, it's better for him to bat the earliest. Besides, in PP, rotating strike is equally important, otherwise team will keep losing wickets, one can't ride on boundaries only, which FZ's struggle should explain everyone here. His back-foot game is good, balance is great and wrist-work is outstanding - no reason why he shouldn't reach 35 in PP, only from punishing 5-6 loose balls and placing singles. These days, teams are forced to keep 5 men in ring for 40 overs, which makes it even easier for quality batsmen - look at Sharmas % of boundaries & sixes, but that doesn't make him so difficult to contain, rather it's his ability to back SIX & fours with constant singles that allows him to build daddy hundreds - Rohit Sharma should be Babar's idol in ODI cricket.
Weakness is, he is still poor against spin, remarkably against off-spin for a right hander & he plays for his numbers (no offense, he is not the only one). Making him opener allows him to get set before the spinners are on (Captains can open with spinners, which is even better if so - it takes new ball out of pacers & spinners will consume some of their quota before the ball stats to grip & bite. I put an analysis on his comparative SR by quarters (0-25, 25-50, 50-75, 75-100 & 100+) - he is remarkably slow (comparatively) in Q4. No brainier that a batsman should score faster between 75-100 than 0-25 after spending 2 hours in middle; but it's in context of team's scoring rate (PAK's scoring rate during his 5 quarters - obviously team's scoring rate in between 35-50 overs will also be much higher than between 11-35), he is considerably slower in that 4th Quarter, which is hurting PAK often & his remarkable acceleration after reaching 100, suggests his ability is better than his 4th quarter show. This is something he needs to improve, but making him opener allows him to reach that 4th quarter by 30th over - rest you can understand.
Coming to line-up, I'll still say - Imam doesn't make my ODI squad. He was pathetic in the SF & Final of QeA Cup. Don't go for that 87 in SF - he was like 15 (30) in PP, Jamal Anwar kept the rate up, later being caught-up by Imam because Imam is a far better batsman than Jamal. This can work in PAK domestics but not in Internationals - Imam successfully managed to take an asking to double by 41st over against a depleted attack, against whom few days later, ZIM put 290 for 5, batting first without dew.
I would pick Haris or Amin as opener instead, but that's not happening - so Imam opens with Babar & FZ bats at 3, followed by Hafeez, Malik & Captain (Or Rizwan). MoHa has changed to Hafeez - won't get hurt this time; also he had a reality check that in PCT he is to survive on field now. I am sure he won't mind batting at 4 and play the Javed role of 1992 (definitely can try, playing Javed role demands to be closer to Javed as well in ability as well, like Josh Butler role needs to be played by someone remotely close to Josh Butler). Or FZ even can bat at 4, which nicely spreads out the 2 left-handed batsmen among top 6.
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