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Faheem Ashraf should be used as an opener

Langau

Tape Ball Regular
Joined
Oct 31, 2015
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494
Fahim Ashraf should be used as an opener against world xi
he has the power to hit boundries and he is solid in defense.
he will make a perfect pair with fakhar.

what do you people think about it?
 
Kamran
Amin
Babar
Umar
Shahzaib
Harris
Hafeez
Faheem

And the list goes on. Pakistan fans want everyone to open
 
They will probably play Shehzad, but Faheem is an intersting option. One would say Pak misses a finisher more these days rather than an opener in limited overs cricket. Maybe 6/7 is the best choice for him long term.

But in T20's it isn't that much of a risk and you can experiment. So why not? It's something we should have done earlier with the likes of U. Akmal/Afridi. Fahim/Fakhar can be a useful pair in T20's for us.
 
Good idea. A lot of teams are adopting this approach. Narine is opening, so is Tannu in CPL and IPL. Could work, definitely better than Shehzad opening be it our batting or a can of Campbell's alphabetical soup.
 
I would play
Zaman
Ashraf
Azam
Malik
Amin
Yamin
Shadab Khan
Wasim
Amir
Hasan
Rumman Raees
 
very good shout - to those opposed to the idea take note what happened when Afridi was asked to open for Hants.
 
Potential all rounders need to bat higher for their domestic teams too . Doubt they'll take such an inititative though.
 
For ODI's he must bat in the lower order to push our score to higher totals whereas in T20's I wouldn't mind him opening but following the Narine theory blindly might not work out well for all teams.
 
very good shout - to those opposed to the idea take note what happened when Afridi was asked to open for Hants.

If you open with Arshaf you're forcing a proper batsman down the order. And in T20s, it could result in that batsman not even having a chance to play. Could be the waste of a batting option. On the other hand if you play an extra bowling option instead, you've got 6 full time bowling options and part time options. Wasting a bowling option, and making your batting weaker (which I don't think is necessary, we have 5 very good bowling options already, a 6th arguably wouldn't even strengthen it but would weaken the batting).

Afridi is a bit different, a vastly more experienced batsman playing in a domestic team. A lot of the batsmen he played with had less experience internationally or were arguably worse. But I think we can find 7 batsmen in a entire country who can bat better than Arshaf.

Arshaf is mainly a bowler, who should be picked on basis of that. I don't think it's a great idea picking him in a batting slot, if we already have full time bowling options from 7-11.

I would rather move up Babar to open where I think he'll be more suited, don't think he can effectively accelerate the innings at 3, while opening he can set a platform at a decent rate. Out of the squad I'd rather bring in Umar Amin who has a very good domestic T20 record, 30.80 at SR 121 is very good. And he can be a handy part timer too. Nothing against Fahim, but with the bat given Amin's greater experience and time batting I have more faith in him performing with the bat than Fahim, especially higher up in the order.

I don't think makeshift openers who are bowlers really works too well. Guys like Afridi are exceptions (and even then wasn't a great international opener) who had more talent with the bat than ball, and had more talent with the bat than most of our specialist batsmen.
 
If you open with Arshaf you're forcing a proper batsman down the order. And in T20s, it could result in that batsman not even having a chance to play. Could be the waste of a batting option. On the other hand if you play an extra bowling option instead, you've got 6 full time bowling options and part time options. Wasting a bowling option, and making your batting weaker (which I don't think is necessary, we have 5 very good bowling options already, a 6th arguably wouldn't even strengthen it but would weaken the batting).

Afridi is a bit different, a vastly more experienced batsman playing in a domestic team. A lot of the batsmen he played with had less experience internationally or were arguably worse. But I think we can find 7 batsmen in a entire country who can bat better than Arshaf.

Arshaf is mainly a bowler, who should be picked on basis of that. I don't think it's a great idea picking him in a batting slot, if we already have full time bowling options from 7-11.

I would rather move up Babar to open where I think he'll be more suited, don't think he can effectively accelerate the innings at 3, while opening he can set a platform at a decent rate. Out of the squad I'd rather bring in Umar Amin who has a very good domestic T20 record, 30.80 at SR 121 is very good. And he can be a handy part timer too. Nothing against Fahim, but with the bat given Amin's greater experience and time batting I have more faith in him performing with the bat than Fahim, especially higher up in the order.

I don't think makeshift openers who are bowlers really works too well. Guys like Afridi are exceptions (and even then wasn't a great international opener) who had more talent with the bat than ball, and had more talent with the bat than most of our specialist batsmen.

All I get from this is a terrible argument made in order to try and justify Amin’s inclusion ahead of Ashraf. Make no mistake, Ashraf will play (as a batting AR). I would have thought that was a given. The only question is in what position.

Ps. His name is Ashraf, not Arshaf.
 
Let him score some meaningful runs in international cricket first. People are calling for him to be promoted high up the order based on a knock in a warm up game. He needs to earn his place in the team .

He definitely has potential but let's give him a run of games before assuming he is the answer to our lack of power in batting.
 
All I get from this is a terrible argument made in order to try and justify Amin’s inclusion ahead of Ashraf. Make no mistake, Ashraf will play (as a batting AR). I would have thought that was a given. The only question is in what position.

Ps. His name is Ashraf, not Arshaf.

My bad, Ashraf then.

I chose Amin as he's the best pick for the open batting spaces out of the squad. I probably would have tried out Sahibzada if he was in the squad, see what the hype is.

Ashraf has no argument to be in bat alone tbh. Averages 10 in T20s, 15.50 in ODIs, 32.62 in first class. Hardly earth shattering stats, even mediocre would be a stretch describing them for a batsman. At least Amin for his faults has a good T20 average. Yes he has potential with the bat but internationals is not the place to be developing his batting, do that in domestic. He hasn't even cemented his place in the team with the ball yet.

I don't think Ashraf will play. If he plays, he'll likely play as third pacer, down at 8. But I reckon Raees or Sohail Khan will play as third pacer. The need of an extra bowler just isn't there. If he was picked on bat alone and didn't bowl people would be screaming murder. He might end up a handy lower order bat, but I think people are fooling themselves thinking he's ready to hold down a batting slot when he doesn't even hack it in domestic in terms of with the bat yet. A practice game against Bangladesh is hardly a true test of his batting skills. Let him rain down the runs in domestic first if we want him to occupy a batting slot.

Imad has taken the allrounder slot, and it's likely to stay like that for some time until things change. Forgoing a battling slot for Fahim is absolute madness IMO, totally unnecessary.
 
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Yeah why not. I'm all for experimenting with different lineups and combinations in these meaningless bilateral T20 matches.
 
My bad, Ashraf then.

I chose Amin as he's the best pick for the open batting spaces out of the squad. I probably would have tried out Sahibzada if he was in the squad, see what the hype is.

Ashraf has no argument to be in bat alone tbh. Averages 10 in T20s, 15.50 in ODIs, 32.62 in first class. Hardly earth shattering stats, even mediocre would be a stretch describing them for a batsman. At least Amin for his faults has a good T20 average. Yes he has potential with the bat but internationals is not the place to be developing his batting, do that in domestic. He hasn't even cemented his place in the team with the ball yet.

I don't think Ashraf will play. If he plays, he'll likely play as third pacer, down at 8. But I reckon Raees or Sohail Khan will play as third pacer. The need of an extra bowler just isn't there. If he was picked on bat alone and didn't bowl people would be screaming murder. He might end up a handy lower order bat, but I think people are fooling themselves thinking he's ready to hold down a batting slot when he doesn't even hack it in domestic in terms of with the bat yet. A practice game against Bangladesh is hardly a true test of his batting skills. Let him rain down the runs in domestic first if we want him to occupy a batting slot.

Imad has taken the allrounder slot, and it's likely to stay like that for some time until things change. Forgoing a battling slot for Fahim is absolute madness IMO, totally unnecessary.

Ashrafs average is 15.50 in ODI's because he has only played one ODI match in his career and warm up matches don't count toward stats
 
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Well no **** Ashrafs average is 15.50 in odis. He has only played one odi match in his career and warm up matches dont count toward stats

I meant 15.50 in list A. His average is 15 in ODIs.
 
My bad, Ashraf then.

I chose Amin as he's the best pick for the open batting spaces out of the squad. I probably would have tried out Sahibzada if he was in the squad, see what the hype is.

Ashraf has no argument to be in bat alone tbh. Averages 10 in T20s, 15.50 in ODIs, 32.62 in first class. Hardly earth shattering stats, even mediocre would be a stretch describing them for a batsman. At least Amin for his faults has a good T20 average. Yes he has potential with the bat but internationals is not the place to be developing his batting, do that in domestic. He hasn't even cemented his place in the team with the ball yet.

I don't think Ashraf will play. If he plays, he'll likely play as third pacer, down at 8. But I reckon Raees or Sohail Khan will play as third pacer. The need of an extra bowler just isn't there. If he was picked on bat alone and didn't bowl people would be screaming murder. He might end up a handy lower order bat, but I think people are fooling themselves thinking he's ready to hold down a batting slot when he doesn't even hack it in domestic in terms of with the bat yet. A practice game against Bangladesh is hardly a true test of his batting skills. Let him rain down the runs in domestic first if we want him to occupy a batting slot.

Imad has taken the allrounder slot, and it's likely to stay like that for some time until things change. Forgoing a battling slot for Fahim is absolute madness IMO, totally unnecessary.

I chose Amin as he's the best pick for the open batting spaces out of the squad.

Amin is not the best pick based on what the team needs. The team needs aggressive batsmen, not another accumulator.

If he was picked on bat alone and didn't bowl people would be screaming murder.

I think you have completely misread the feelings of fans- just take a look at the forums on here and you will know that people want Ashraf to play. I think there will be a lot of surprise/disappointment if Ashraf doesn't play (more so than there would be if Amin didn't play in t20 format).

Fahim's batting is more developed than his bowling at the moment so I am not sure why you think people would be screaming murder if he didn't bowl.

At least Amin for his faults has a good T20 average.

I am not sure you want to bring your spreadsheets into this discussion, given how Amin fared in his first international stint. Amin does not look like a t20 player. Inzi selected Ashraf for a reason that will become clear in the near future.
 
Would love for this to happen at some point in t20s so Pakistan can actually make the most of the powerplay. Maybe he will be sent up the order in the t20 cup/PSL and then the management can take inspiration from that.
 
I hope he opens against Scotland instead of the absolutely awful Ahmed Shehzad but it seems like selfie boy will play :(
 
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