Fawad Alam & Mohammad Rizwan: A crucial Batting partnership for Pakistan?

[Rana]

I’ve noticed this since the NZ series obviously, but I feel kind of safe when these two bat together at the crease. They seem to compliment each other and are ready to take on the pressure and fight hard. Tough cricketers!

The only issue I have is, this partnership comes in too late where the pressure is more than it should be. Our openers have been failing regularly, our 3 and 4 is not consistent with performance. More often than not we have sent in Nightwatchmen who have been sitting ducks and not contributing more than 5 runs to the total score.

Ideally I would like this partnership to be 4 and 5 for Pakistan rather than 5 and 6. If we are really bold and want to maximise our batting potential, we could be ruthless and move Fawad to 4 and Rizwan to 5....bring in a debutant like Saud or Kamran at 6.

I am not convinced with Babar or Azhar at 3 and 4 also, they will deliver every now and then and contribute handsomely when they do, but I think Fawad and Rizwan are the two blokes who want to take the bulk of the responsibility and produce the tough runs for us.

Ideally:

1. Abid Ali
2. Azhar Ali
3. Babar Azam
4. Fawad Alam
5. Mohammad Rizwan
6. Saud Shakeel/Kamran Ghulam
7. Faheem Ashraf

What do you think guys?

 

[KyoOne]

I agree. These two are the most reliable batsmen we have.

This line-up is exactly what I want as well

 

[Square Drive]

Azhar opening is a must.

If Abid fails this series, he needs to be booted as well.

Azhar's partner should then either be Imran/Imam/Abdullah, tried in that order.

 

[Mamoon]

I am surprised that people feel safe when these two bat.

Rizwan bats as if there is a mouse in his pants. In addition, he is always a run out waiting to happen and he leaves a mile wide gap between his bat and front pad.

Fawad is always in agony when he is at the crease. He always needs good luck and some sloppy fielding to scoring against quality attacks.

Only Babar makes you feel safe in this lineup, and only when his head is in the game since he is prone to losing concentration.

 

[Esfahani]

I am surprised that people feel safe when these two bat.

Rizwan bats as if there is a mouse in his pants. In addition, he is always a run out waiting to happen and he leaves a mile wide gap between his bat and front pad.

Fawad is always in agony when he is at the crease. He always needs good luck and some sloppy fielding to scoring against quality attacks.

Only Babar makes you feel safe in this lineup, and only when his head is in the game since he is prone to losing concentration.

You're thinking the same way as me...

Rizwan has got the ODI brains, and is continuously rotates and sits other end for the whole over... Needs to face deliveries to read the pitch before rotating... Good eagerness against pace but has to remember to train and settle before doing risky shots... I remember a straight drive for 4 bowled & reversed right on his pads, risky strokes...

Fawad batting action is clumsy... He aint a "Dravid" but he seems to make good scores doing a Block-ton"100" innings. it feels scary to watch because his action makes it look he'll get out but i guess it'll take some time to get used to... He's got at least 6-12 years left if he doesn't get scrap-goated by evil pcb

 

[Rana]

Good partnership for Pakistan

They should be 4 and 5...not 5 and 6

 

[Shoaibbtt]

I’ve noticed this since the NZ series obviously, but I feel kind of safe when these two bat together at the crease. They seem to compliment each other and are ready to take on the pressure and fight hard. Tough cricketers!

The only issue I have is, this partnership comes in too late where the pressure is more than it should be. Our openers have been failing regularly, our 3 and 4 is not consistent with performance. More often than not we have sent in Nightwatchmen who have been sitting ducks and not contributing more than 5 runs to the total score.

Ideally I would like this partnership to be 4 and 5 for Pakistan rather than 5 and 6. If we are really bold and want to maximise our batting potential, we could be ruthless and move Fawad to 4 and Rizwan to 5....bring in a debutant like Saud or Kamran at 6.

I am not convinced with Babar or Azhar at 3 and 4 also, they will deliver every now and then and contribute handsomely when they do, but I think Fawad and Rizwan are the two blokes who want to take the bulk of the responsibility and produce the tough runs for us.

Ideally:

1. Abid Ali
2. Azhar Ali
3. Babar Azam
4. Fawad Alam
5. Mohammad Rizwan
6. Saud Shakeel/Kamran Ghulam
7. Faheem Ashraf

What do you think guys?

Nah for me Fawad and Rizwan's optimum positions are at 5 and 6 respectively so leave them there.

 

[Titan24]

Fawad, Rizwan definitely and I will add Faheem as well have been doing pretty well as the numbers of the last few series show.

I personally would keep the numbers where they are performing, why change something which is working and they are accustomed to these numbers even in domestic cricket as well.

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

I have to say I feel much more comfortable looking at our middle-order now than I did a year ago or even before that.

And the key to making this thing successful is sticking with it. Rizwan batting at 5 and Fawad batting at 4 might not have the same effect that it does at present and I still think Azhar Ali is too important to be opening. He should be at 3. What we should be looking for are better openers because I am not sold on either of these guys.

 

[Mamoon]

It is a dilemma for me at a personal level because I don’t like watching Rizwan batting in the middle-order in any format but he cannot open in Tests because he keeps wickets.

He doesn’t look composed in the middle-order at all like he does at the top of the order. It seems as if he is in two minds regarding his approach.

I think he can be a really solid opener in Test cricket as well and score at a pretty decent rate as well, i.e. SR of 55-60.

However, that would mean bringing Sarfraz back into the team which is a big no no. Rohail could be a reasonable Test player in the future but he is not ready to take over the gloves at this point.

He should have played this series instead of Rizwan though, but we don’t have the courage to rest our senior players even against Zimbabwe.

 

[TheNightWatchman]

It is a dilemma for me at a personal level because I don’t like watching Rizwan batting in the middle-order in any format but he cannot open in Tests because he keeps wickets.

He doesn’t look composed in the middle-order at all like he does at the top of the order. It seems as if he is in two minds regarding his approach.

I think he can be a really solid opener in Test cricket as well and score at a pretty decent rate as well, i.e. SR of 55-60.

However, that would mean bringing Sarfraz back into the team which is a big no no. Rohail could be a reasonable Test player in the future but he is not ready to take over the gloves at this point.

He should have played this series instead of Rizwan though, but we don’t have the courage to rest our senior players even against Zimbabwe.

Rohail would have been ideal in the series right now. Out with Sarfraz who's basically an extra plane ticket on these tours. I still think opening in tests is a whole different ball game compared to LOIs which is why players like Gilly/McCullum never opened the batting in test cricket. Don't know how'd he do first up against the swinging ball. Specialist openers are needed at the top.

 

[Mamoon]

Rohail would have been ideal in the series right now. Out with Sarfraz who's basically an extra plane ticket on these tours. I still think opening in tests is a whole different ball game compared to LOIs which is why players like Gilly/McCullum never opened the batting in test cricket. Don't know how'd he do first up against the swinging ball. Specialist openers are needed at the top.

McCullum had a brief stint as a Test opener and he was very successful. He scored double centuries in India and against Pakistan in the UAE. He had he continued to open, he would have ended up as one of the best openers of his era.

In general, you need specialist Test openers but Asian teams can make do with middle-order players opening the innings because the new ball does not swing for long, and besides, they have experience against the second new ball as well.

Pakistan’s problem right now is that the so-called specialist openers are minnow level. All the middle-order batsmen: Babar, Azhar, Fawad, Rizwan, Shafiq, Haris, Salahuddin, Shakeel etc. are better batsmen than Abid and Butt.

You could open with any two of them and they will do a better job than Abid-Butt.

In the short-term, Pakistan should pick Imam and partner him with a makeshift opener for the time being until another promising opener emerges. Rizwan can do that job in the short-term because he is fit and he already has opening experience in the shorter formats. He looks a more composed player when he opens.

 

[Farabi]

Shan Masood
Azhar Ali
Saud Shakeel
Babar
Fawad
Rizwan
Faheem/Agha Salman

 

[shamaan]

Both should bat were they currently are batting.