Has Azhar Ali been missed at the top of the order in this series?

[ImyCheeko]

After the opening combo that rattled oposotions at the champions trophy final have we missed Azhar opening with Fakhar. He may not be the best to watch but the impact he has is phenomenal. Will he ever be classed as an ATG

 

[hailian]

Azhar is a class batsman and deserve his place in Pakistan ODI team as well.

 

[another drop catch]

yes
He should be selected in place of fakhar zaman for next series

 

[shah_1]

yes
He should be selected in place of fakhar zaman for next series

You want two similar type of players to open

 

[ads101]

yes
He should be selected in place of fakhar zaman for next series

Agreed.

 

[ask_analyse_act]

yes
He should be selected in place of fakhar zaman for next series

There will be hardly any batting collapses and also pak will make 200/1 in 40 overs like in the 90s. Only one anchor should be played. Fakhar should play and I'm pretty sure Mickey knows that and will not drop him. Imam and Azhar needs to widen their range of boundary shots and the hitting arc.

 

[goran]

Despite his performance in CT , Azhar is still a pretty limited LOI batsman. He can neither hit boundaries nor rotate the strike. The way our LOI team is adapting to the modern game, it's not practical to carry the players like Azhar and Shehzad anymore. Selecting them will be a backward step.

 

[tandapanii]

Azhar has improved his ODI sr in the last few games but its still too low by modern standards and he gets out in the 20s and 30s too often.

I'd stick with Imam and see how he does in this series and the next, with Ali hanging around the side and maybe getting a match to rest Imam. Basically, an in team competition for the opening slot.

Fakhar should be stapled in for a year at least.

 

[Abdullah]

Fakhar
Imam
Azhar

3 ODI Openers in the squads (Fakhar has to play) I would prefer 2 dashing openers and 1 of imam and azhar but that won't happen now, so we need to modify how the middle and lower order look.

In tests-

Sami- England Series is important for him
Azhar
Imam

These 3 should be in the squad and Haris should bat at 3

 

[DRsohail]

not at all...

 

[another drop catch]

There will be hardly any batting collapses and also pak will make 200/1 in 40 overs like in the 90s. Only one anchor should be played. Fakhar should play and I'm pretty sure Mickey knows that and will not drop him. Imam and Azhar needs to widen their range of boundary shots and the hitting arc.

just for the sake of right left combo

 

[Arham_PakFan]

In the first 2 ODI’s,yes when we had the legendary Shehzad opening for us.Plus he had a good thing going with Fakhar in the CT.But he wasn’t missed yesterday,when Imam played pretty well.

His CT performance has cemented his place in ODI’s.He’ll def be in the next squad,for the NZ tour.

 

[Amjid Javed]

Not been missed at all, hes a better option the shezi but we dont need someone at top of order eating up dot balls like azhar does, espcially with babar coming in at 3 as well and being a slow starter.

Azhar should be kept away from ODI side going forward.

 

[coy0607]

Hopefully Fakhar and Imam close the series strong and shut the door on the mediocrity that is Azhar / Shehzad

 

[babajee]

No. Azhar is 32 and isn’t the future of the ODI team. He was more of a stop gap in the champions trophy

 

[ExpressPacer]

While he is useless and in fact, a burden in ODI's given the amount of talent coming through, Azhar is an absolutely necessity in the longer format of the game and it is beyond my understanding how some people can deem him of no use.

 

[Pete Rose]

no. everyone's been scoring at a strike rate of 70 odd in his absence.

 

[Cric1234]

No in the last 20 matches he averages 32 at a strike rate of 73 that combination is never missed.

 

[khurram39]

After operation he will be available for selection and def part of the squad either in 11 or not. Even though I don't like his LOI game but he will be the part.

 

[hadi123]

After operation he will be available for selection and def part of the squad either in 11 or not. Even though I don't like his LOI game but he will be the part.

He should simply replace Shehzad in the squad.

 

[DRsohail]

he should not be in our odi team..

 

[Hasan123]

He's not an ODI player anyway

 

[Asimpervez]

Fakhar is struggling a bit but has potential. You dont just throw players away you work with them to improve their game. I think he will do better with azhar as he is batting with a senior player who helps hik through the innings and someone he can respect.
Imam is a newbie and what idiot is going to listen to ahmed shezada