[EXCLUSIVE] "At least give the new opening combination a fair run": Imad Wasim

[MenInG]

Clip from an exclusive interview with Imad Wasim by Saj for PakPassion, Imad pleads for a the new opening combination of Rizwan and Saim to be given a chance before rushing to judgement

https://twitter.com/x/status/1752382371150856372

 

[sweep_shot]

I agree with Imad.

Excessive chopping and changing doesn't help.

 

[pakistani pride]

The need for change was there. The old opening combo failed in back to back T20 WCs.

 

[Rana]

There is no need to keep saying “we can always revert back to Babar and Rizwan”

That’s like saying this combination is perfect and we will be back to perfect if we have to go back to this.

This combination is wrong, it’s the reasons why you have HUGE HOLES in your middle and lower order! It’s causing natural strikers of the ball to bat in situations they are not accustomed to considering they have not played as specialist middle order batsmen!

Why is Imad talking diplomatically now that he isn’t ever going to play for Pakistan? He should just say it how it is.

 

[ahmadharis1]

Agreed 100%

There was absolutely no need to play Rizwan every match, much less have him open EVERY match when you have the best performing domestic opener of the last few years sitting on the bench.

There's absolutely no sense of planning or forward thinking from this management. It's idiotic how this team is run when they can't even handle doing the bare minimum

 

[hassan918]

Yes, he is correct in asking to give the new opening combination a fair run. I think Rizwan and Saim can be our long term opening pair and Babar can come at number 3 as Rizwan and Saim seem to have the better ability to make most of the power-play restrictions.

 

[Arzy8]

Really not the biggest fan of the RizBar opening partnership- think there have been far more failures than successes with that opening pair, coupled with a lower ceiling. As such, I agree with Imad Wasim on his specific point of giving new opening combinations time. However, I would not agree with the possibility of reverting to RizBar.

 

[BouncerGuy]

Although the experiment failed badly in the series against New Zealand but yes, I totally agree with Imad here. This combination needs another run in the next series as well. Riz and Saim to open with babar at 3. Riz-babar combo can be brought back anytime when needed or things don't work out. No need to make changes again and again just after few matches.

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Imad is right. Instead of doing experiments all the time let the new guys settle and for this we need a great patience threshold like England under Stokes, we need to give liberties to new guys to make themselves cozy. Hope they could groom that way.

 

[Major]

How many matches are we going to lose before we realize that this combination is not working?

Was our issue even the opening combination? Or was our issue with the lower order batting and our bowling?

We had a set opening pair, there was nothing wrong with it. Our issue was our lower order batting. Plus our bowling was garbage. GUys like Rauf, Shaheen, Nawaz and Shadab cant defend scores. The lower order batting issue in t20 was problem that existed from 2019 and still hasnt been resolved.

The only thing that was resolved was the top order batting and we ending up destroying that. Why? Because we wanted careless free batting only because England does that.

This reminds me of a situation where the ex finance minsiter Shabbar Zaidi faced. Like Pakistani cricket fans who want to see careless ultra aggressive batting from ball one, we have locals that are passionate about seeing Islamic Banking existing where interest gets abolished. Thing is, you know its not possible, but than you say that ok these guys are not going to stop, so let them do there dumb experiment. They have experimented with everything, why not let them try this. Because only the sane person knows that it will fail and when it fails, they will automatically run back to the system that was working just fine.

Same is with the self created opening conundrum. People wanted the openers change, certain people like Imad Wasim that were proven wrong at International level about Mohammad Rizwan, were acting as spokesman saying that no the openers needed to be changed and now when the results are not coming, they are asking for more time. We have lost like 6 T20s and won only 2, but oh well.....

When the World T20 2024 will come, i am pretty confident we will be back to Babar and Rizwan opening. The only issue would be that the area we were suppose to concentrate, we will realize that we had ignored it and than after the 2024 World T20 we will focus on that.

This is what happened when Babar was give captaincy and we focused on the coaches and selectors being at fault, same happened when our spinners were not taking wickets and we blamed other bowlers like Waseem Jr.

 

[Rana]

How many matches are we going to lose before we realize that this combination is not working?

As many as it needs

The one that is supposedly working isn’t good enough. It serves no one but those two selfish individuals

 

[Major]

As many as it needs

The one that is supposedly working isn’t good enough. It serves no one but those two selfish individuals

what is bigger issue that needs priority?

- The opening
- The middle order
- The lower order
- The bowling?

 

[Rana]

what is bigger issue that needs priority?

- The opening
- The middle order
- The lower order
- The bowling?

The opening

Sort that out first before you look to balance the side.

 

[zacattakk]

The big issue is not having modern day big hitting batsmen in the middle to lower order, then a mediocre bowling attack that has been exposed badly recently, then the fielding, and finally the opening. We have issues in every department

 

[topspin]

The opening

Sort that out first before you look to balance the side.

When will fans like him realise that T20 cricket has moved on from accumulators. But I guess this mindset is symptomatic of any individual who strictly adheres to Misbahism.

 

[BouncerGuy]

The next series should be the last time we are experimenting with this new opening combo. Which has failed in 5 matches so far. WOrld Cup is arriving soon, have a pair that works and so far no experiment has worked. If that remains the case then RIZ-BABAR should be back.

 

[ads101]

Same is with the self created opening conundrum. People wanted the openers change, certain people like Imad Wasim that were proven wrong at International level about Mohammad Rizwan, were acting as spokesman saying that no the openers needed to be changed and now when the results are not coming, they are asking for more time. We have lost like 6 T20s and won only 2, but oh well.....

Imad and management were proven wrong in PSL. The whole we want aggressive openers and Sharjeel to open. Led to Babar leaving. Sharjeel and other openers did so badly that Imad batting out of his mind didn’t even make a difference. Ironically if they had Babar making consistent runs, they would have qualified for semi finals most likely, imad had no support with the bat.

And now they’ve gone full circle with Sharjeel and Haider nowhere to be seen. And Shan made captain who is an accumulator at top but worse than Babar. And imad switching teams.

So kind of no surprise Imad will be saying this. It made no difference having big hitters at the top unless they actually consistently perform. And yes you have to choose between the two consistent performance or bigger hitter, you choose the former even though both would be ideal.

I think we should experiment though. But I think fakhar should have be tried as opener (should have been before Saim) alongside Rizwan. Aside from the Babar-Rizwan combination, it was the combination most likely to succeed immediately in time for the World Cup.

 

[Major]

Imad and management were proven wrong in PSL. The whole we want aggressive openers and Sharjeel to open. Led to Babar leaving. Sharjeel and other openers did so badly that Imad batting out of his mind didn’t even make a difference. Ironically if they had Babar making consistent runs, they would have qualified for semi finals most likely, imad had no support with the bat.

And now they’ve gone full circle with Sharjeel and Haider nowhere to be seen. And Shan made captain who is an accumulator at top but worse than Babar. And imad switching teams.

So kind of no surprise Imad will be saying this. It made no difference having big hitters at the top unless they actually consistently perform. And yes you have to choose between the two consistent performance or bigger hitter, you choose the former even though both would be ideal.

I think we should experiment though. But I think fakhar should have be tried as opener (should have been before Saim) alongside Rizwan. Aside from the Babar-Rizwan combination, it was the combination most likely to succeed immediately in time for the World Cup.

The day imad opened his mouth and had the audacity to say that rizwan did not fit there plans while chadwick walton did was the day i understood the guy didnt have a cricketing brain. And to think he was about to be made the national team captain

 

[Rana]

The day imad opened his mouth and had the audacity to say that rizwan did not fit there plans while chadwick walton did was the day i understood the guy didnt have a cricketing brain. And to think he was about to be made the national team captain

The day you misunderstood his cricketing day, the very next week Imad won the PSL sticking to his plans

 

[Major]

The day you misunderstood his cricketing day, the very next week Imad won the PSL sticking to his plans

He won a psl only because how poorly it was hosted. It ended abruptly than they called back the teams after 4 months to finish. It was a joke.

There is a reason he couldnt win again when the tournament was properly hosted

 

[Rana]

He won a psl only because how poorly it was hosted. It ended abruptly than they called back the teams after 4 months to finish. It was a joke.

There is a reason he couldnt win again when the tournament was properly hosted

Yeah go on make your excuses because you don’t like him.

 

[hitthestump]

Imad and management were proven wrong in PSL. The whole we want aggressive openers and Sharjeel to open. Led to Babar leaving. Sharjeel and other openers did so badly that Imad batting out of his mind didn’t even make a difference. Ironically if they had Babar making consistent runs, they would have qualified for semi finals most likely, imad had no support with the bat.

And now they’ve gone full circle with Sharjeel and Haider nowhere to be seen. And Shan made captain who is an accumulator at top but worse than Babar. And imad switching teams.

So kind of no surprise Imad will be saying this. It made no difference having big hitters at the top unless they actually consistently perform. And yes you have to choose between the two consistent performance or bigger hitter, you choose the former even though both would be ideal.

I think we should experiment though. But I think fakhar should have be tried as opener (should have been before Saim) alongside Rizwan. Aside from the Babar-Rizwan combination, it was the combination most likely to succeed immediately in time for the World Cup.

Great post. The words 'aggressive' and 'modern' attached to batsmen sounds great but it's no good when they can't actually bat. People with low understanding of the game will struggle to get that but it's really not that hard.

Credit to Imad for quickly adapting and seeing where he went wrong. Additionally it's apparent that no team has decided to go with the failed Sharjeel. They have the sense to realise that aggression in t20 means nothing without the skills to go with it.

At the end of the day, the most skilled batsmen in Pakistan by some distance are Babar and Rizwan. You can cry, stamp your feet and tag all your friends because you aren't intelligent enough to handle this discussion by yourself. But facts don't care about feelings.

 

[Rana]

The words 'aggressive' and 'modern' attached to batsmen sounds great but it's no good when they can't actually bat. People with low understanding of the game will struggle to get that but it's really not that hard

Who can actually bat and who can’t? Batting at ODI pace in T20 means you can actually bat?

 

[ads101]

The day you misunderstood his cricketing day, the very next week Imad won the PSL sticking to his plans

Where Babar was the best batsman of the tournament, including the final where he was the only one who did anything substantial in his team to chase down the total, which they probably would have lost had he not performed. As opener. The very thing that won them the PSL was then blamed/got rid of.

 

[Rana]

Where Babar was the best batsman of the tournament, including the final where he was the only one who did anything substantial in his team to chase down the total, which they probably would have lost had he not performed. As opener. The very thing that won them the PSL was then blamed/got rid of.

Oh yeah Sharjeel did Jack all in that campaign??

 

[ads101]

Oh yeah Sharjeel did Jack all in that campaign??

He was ok. 1 half century vs babar’s 5. Babar was man of the tournament and performed in final. Kind of exceeds Sharjeel’s output by a big margin.

 

[PakEngFan]

He was ok. 1 half century vs babar’s 5. Babar was man of the tournament and performed in final. Kind of exceeds Sharjeel’s output by a big margin.

Don't bring facts or stats.

 

[Rana]

He was ok. 1 half century vs babar’s 5. Babar was man of the tournament and performed in final. Kind of exceeds Sharjeel’s output by a big margin.

They were a great team under a great captain.And Rizwan rightly benched. SubhanAllah