How to fix Pakistan's problematic top-order after the New Zealand series

[cricguru]

With ODI World Cup 2019 just ahead of less than 18 months away, we shall discuss our best squad options to overcome current top order bating problems that we have consistently seen in England, then New Zealand and will be most likely similar in SA and Australian conditions.

Since the World Cup will be in England so we shall focus mostly on English conditions which is sort of similar to NZ/AUS/SA conditions as well.

Lets also suppose Mohammad Hafeez, and Shoaib Malik are either retired or ignored from the World Cup Squad.

Now we shall discuss who should be brought in at TOP order to bring some stability at the TOP order. I am listing some players who I think shall be kept in ODI WC Squad

1. Fakhar
2. X(Open slot) & Azhar Ali as a backup bench player
3. X (Open slot) we need someone to take this spot in english conditions as our regular #3 Babar Azam is not suitable when ball is new, moving and conditions are like england's bouncy and pace oriented, we rather shall reserve Babar #3 position for UAE, or Asian conditions
4. Harris must be #4 at all conditions as he is good solid player in middle
5. Babar should take #5 position for english & bouncy conditions
6. Sarfraz (shall be #6 for Pakistan in all conditions)
7. Faheem or Amer Yamin (shall be brought in at #7)
8. Shadab Khan ( & Yasir Shah as reserve player at bench)
9. Should be reserved for Hassan Ali
10. Mohammad Amir
11. X (open slot to be shall be considered between fast bowlers like Sohail Khan, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Irfhan, Mohammad Abbas and Ruman Raees, or any other that may also qualify in this list)

Lets discuss this squad in open discussion where you may agree, disagree or provide your suggestions, and also talk about who shall be brought in at open slots at top order to bring batting stability, consistency, and and good modern odi scoring rate type of batsmen. I am thinking of few names like Imad Wasim, Umer Akmal, Sharjeel if available, and maybe Salman Butt as he is doing well in domestic level. I am sure I have missed many good players, and I would encourage your input to have healthy discussion that can help Pakistan's batting top order problems. and also in pace blowing department some improvements.

Feel free t post your playing XI or players of your choice for this thread open discussion.

 

[Lynx]

I can tell you the players that definitely shouldn't be in this squad.

1) Azhar Ali
2) Sohail Khan and M Irfan (both will be another year older and are massive liabilities in the field)
3) Amir (but we all know he's going to be there so no point arguing over this)

Need to find ourselves an opener who could partner Fakhar. Don't know the status of Sharjeel, he'd be ideal if he's cleared by then. Otherwise wait till this year's PSL, we might unearth someone. Sahibzada Farhan seems to have potential but again, will have to see how he goes in PSL '18.

Haris should be our permanent number 3 till then. Will never get out to any type of bowling unless he plays a bad shot himself.

Sohaib Maqsood should be drafted in at 6.

As for our bowling, need to get rid of Amir ASAP. He offers nothing with the new ball and sooner people realize this, the better it will be for us. Hopefully Junaid and Shinwari will be fit, along with Hassan and Rumman (who I believe is severely under rated and hasn't been used correctly at all this series). We just need another backup fast bowler in place of Amir. PSL '18 and '19 might throw something at us.

My squad for WC '19 would go something like this, subject to changes:

1) Fakhar
2) Opener (Sharjeel, Farhan or another PSL find)
3) Haris
4) Sarfraz
5) Babar
6) Maqsood
7) Shadab
8) Faheem
9) Nawaz
10) Junaid
11) Hassan
12) Usman Shinwari
13) Rumman
14) Amir Yamin
15) Pace Bowler (another PSL find)

 

[BlueDoritos]

Everyone is drooling over Haris, because he's scoring fifties. But those fifties were scored at a really low strike rate. If it was Babar, he would have been criticized all week. It's limited overs cricket strike rate matters too.

Haris should stick to Test cricket, because he will kill the momentum in the middle overs with his slow batting. Otherwise he'll go down the same road as Azhar, who is really good in tests but not suited for ODIs.

Sarfraz is already struggling at number 6 or 7, so he should definitely play at 4 or 5.

Hafeez and Malik should be kicked out.

Talat, Saad, Shakeel, Maqsood, Mukhtar, Agha Salman, Hammad and Sadaf should be selected for ODI squad.

Mukhtar should get a run of games as a Maverick opener. He can be similar to Sharjeel. If he completely fails after 5 or so games then drop him and bring in Sahibzada.


Fakhar
Mukhtar
Babar
Maqsood
Sarfraz
Shadab
Talat
Yamin
Faheem
Hasan
Amir

Back up: Shakeel, Saad, Hammad, Agha, Sadaf, Shinwari, Asghar, Sahibzada.

 

[Hamstead_joy]

Its too easy for the opposition whoever plays Pakistan just prepare bouncy ans seaming tracks and Pakistan does'nt have the batsmen to survive the new ball.

Harris is not something great just better than the senior losers Malik and Hafeez who already has set the standard very low.
An overhaul is needed, new players should be tried. Chief selector Inzamam has blocked the flow of any new players in 2 years of his job and that will continue. Hew will push in TTFs wherever he can and blame loser batting with zero ability on coaching and captain.

 

[AB HAQ]

What will you do when you are 50/5 in 15 overs every time Haris approach was right pak could have been bundled out under 100

 

[indianpanacea]

Fakhar
Umar akmal
Shoaib maqsood
Sarfaraz
Haris sohail
Babar azam
Hussain talat/faheem
Shahdab/imad
Hassan ali
Amir
Junaid

 

[Markhor]

Let's enter the 21st Century and do what every other international team does in LOIs - play TWO explosive openers.

Only we persist with the idea we need an opener to "blunt the new ball" in ODIs despite Azhar failing dismally in the format. I'd draft in Sahibzada Farhan to partner Fakhar Zaman - giving us a right-left combination.

I'd promote Haris Sohail to 3 as he looked more assured against seam/swing than Babar Azam, who I'd demote to 4. Sarfraz needs to move to 5 as there is a huge disparity between his record batting in the top 5 and in the lower order where he's struggling to make an impact.

 

[Aami]

Sarfraz has to.open along with fakhar..
Why cant he?
Hes played well in that slot in the past.
Hes useless anywhere else.

 

[AAli98]

Coach needs to tell the players up ur game they look disinterested.
All 11 should be able to do 2 things

Bat/ball
Bat/exceptional fielder
Ball/exceptional fielder

Otherwise ship out theyr are plenty of hungry youngsters to replace them.

 

[Brilliance]

1 Fakhar.
2 U Akmal.
3 Babar.
4 Haris.
5 Sarfaraz.
6 Talat.
7 Shadab.
8 Fahim.
9 Hasan.
10 Amir.
11 Shinwari/Fast bowler.

 

[indipper]

Each series and each game can have different set of players according to conditions. That predefined players mentality is so 90s. Sadly Pakistan is still stuck there.

For next two t20s, we can try with.

Fakhar
Shehzad
Harris
Hafeez
Faheem
Sarfraz
Shahdab
Hasan
Yamin
Amir
Rumman


The order should be flexible. If new ball is seen off, send Faheem early. If we are losing wickets, throw in Sarfraz early.
We can not afford both Harris and Babar in a single t20 XI as it will slow down the tempo even if they clicked.

 

[Fahdi]

Haris needs to open. He is our best batsman against fast bowling and generally scores at a good rate against them. I really don't see any drawbacks to having him open. Babar should continue at 3; you never judge a player on one bad series, he has performed well before in these very conditions and he can do it again. If he fails consistently rest him but he will come good most likely. Sarfraz needs to bat at 4 and that should be the end of our "proper" batsmen. The rest should have the ability to hit 30 ball 50 at the very least. Bring in Sohaib Maqsood at 5 and if he doesn't work find someone else in the same mold. If the players don't work out change the players but don't change the formula.

 

[Gubol123]

What will you do when you are 50/5 in 15 overs every time Haris approach was right pak could have been bundled out under 100

you are assuming that he has multiple ways to play and he choose to play slow to get Pak out of trouble. there could have been some circumspection involved, but overall that is same template Haris uses in all matches.. he is a pretty average ODI player. May be good from Pak standards, but slow none the less

 

[Syed1]

Find the 4-5 biggest hacks in Pakistan and put them in a team with Babar and Haris. That seems to be the recipe for success in today's cricket.

 

[hitthestump]

Younis Khan as batting coach. Teach the youngsters you can go from average to world class through sheer hard work. The fact that nobody in Pakistan seems to be improving other than Azhar Ali shows a severe lack of work ethic imo, they should all be better than this by now.

 

[ahmedzee]

My issue is, we have had almost 4 months off between Champions Trophy and SL series, and 3 months off from SL series and NZ tour. WHAT THE HECK ARE PLAYERS DOING IN THEIR OFF TIME?

Seems like, Azhar Ali still has the same technical problem he had in 2012. Fakhar is still playing cross as he used to. Babar Azam is still uncertain if the ball is moving even a little bit. Haris still has stamina issues. Aamir still can't swing the new ball as he used to.

I mean, what are these players doing during off season? The champions trophy victory, and the gifts they got from it has gotten to their heads. Look what the players like Tim Southee, Guptill, Taylor, almost every players in England have done in their off season. Overtime they improved because they worked on their weakness. It is high time that Pakistan players put hard work during the off season. Otherwise there will be inconsistent performances for time to come.

 

[jaf348]

My issue is, we have had almost 4 months off between Champions Trophy and SL series, and 3 months off from SL series and NZ tour. WHAT THE HECK ARE PLAYERS DOING IN THEIR OFF TIME?

Seems like, Azhar Ali still has the same technical problem he had in 2012. Fakhar is still playing cross as he used to. Babar Azam is still uncertain if the ball is moving even a little bit. Haris still has stamina issues. Aamir still can't swing the new ball as he used to.

I mean, what are these players doing during off season? The champions trophy victory, and the gifts they got from it has gotten to their heads. Look what the players like Tim Southee, Guptill, Taylor, almost every players in England have done in their off season. Overtime they improved because they worked on their weakness. It is high time that Pakistan players put hard work during the off season. Otherwise there will be inconsistent performances for time to come.

Bro, the players and a some fans don't believe in hard work by calling these JAMODIs. They think they can just live of past glories after winning a second tier ICC tournament and turn up at the ODI WC next year, make their duas and expect things to fall in place. We all saw what a calamity it was bringing in half baked players like Nasir Jamshed and TTFs like Younis Khan in the last world cup.

 

[BaankeJi]

More net practice.

 

[ZyzzBrah]

Fakhar Zaman
Umar Akmal
Babar Azam
Haris Sohail
Sarfraz Ahmed
Maqsood
Shadab
Faheem
Hassan Ali
Mohammed Amir
Ruman Raees

This is a modern dynamic batting line up. We bat right down to Amir. Probably the most deep line up we had since Afridi and Razzaq.we only have two acccumlators and arguably the best in Pakistan at 3 and 4. The rest are dynamic and hard hitting and bar right down to number 10. This is a line up we need to go forward with and run with till the World Cup in 2019. Also the bowling is very dynamic and has variety.

I don’t think anyone could beat this line up

 

[Deewana Mastana]

Pakistan can't get fixed that's how bad it's broken.

 

[pakistanisgreat]

It will never be fixed in our life time.

 

[Syed1]

More net practice.

You will get an army of Shehzads with zero sense of where to place the ball

 

[yasir]

Find the 4-5 biggest hacks in Pakistan and put them in a team with Babar and Haris. That seems to be the recipe for success in today's cricket.

Not just random hacks, criteria is guys who can play short ball. If from 1 to 11, nobody can play short ball, might as well don't send the team to WC...

On bowling front we are lacking power too, you got to have atleast on 145+ and 3 140+ bowlers in the wings all the time... These 120 trundlers are good for nothing, its embarrassing...

We need to reboot team like ENG, power has to be main focus, but unfortunately that is not possible ATM, first you have to reboot domestic...Right now third class trundlers top the chart and 40 years old batsmen, with zero reflexes, worse of all possible combination one would desire

 

[khurram39]

Not to many changes as proposed will occur. Just fix some players first whom any selection team will select.

Fakhar
Babar
Haris
Hafeez
Shoaib
Sarfraz
Shadab
Hassan
Amir
Ruman
Imad
You may include Junaid too.

Big problem is our batting and space is wide open. 1st we need to access the format and target to achieve. If still we want to score 250 odd runs in ODI then azhar and similar type of player like umar amin and etc will do the cause otherwise need to induct new talent is on high.

Similarly in T20 if we look to score 140 every time then Umar amin & ahmad shahzad will do their best otherwise we need some new faces too.

In academy we need to work on big hitting talent. Spot the hitter who can hit and work on them in academy. Look at Pandya hitting, he stays in his crease while hitting spinners, no one in our team can hit standing in his crease. Find out that kind of players.

 

[the Great Khan]

My issue is, we have had almost 4 months off between Champions Trophy and SL series, and 3 months off from SL series and NZ tour. WHAT THE HECK ARE PLAYERS DOING IN THEIR OFF TIME?

Seems like, Azhar Ali still has the same technical problem he had in 2012. Fakhar is still playing cross as he used to. Babar Azam is still uncertain if the ball is moving even a little bit. Haris still has stamina issues. Aamir still can't swing the new ball as he used to.

I mean, what are these players doing during off season? The champions trophy victory, and the gifts they got from it has gotten to their heads. Look what the players like Tim Southee, Guptill, Taylor, almost every players in England have done in their off season. Overtime they improved because they worked on their weakness. It is high time that Pakistan players put hard work during the off season. Otherwise there will be inconsistent performances for time to come.

eating biryani and naach gana..they have no real work ethic so unfortunatley threads like these are a waste of time. they dont even understand the concept of work ethic and organising your life around this work ethic.."sub chalta hay" is the moto and has been for years..

 

[Red Devil]

Will be interesting to see how the likes of Hussain Talat, Sahibzada Farhan and Saad Ali do in the PSL. Good, technically sound players who have consistently scored in domestic cricket and actually deserve to be given proper runs.

Makes me cringe when people mention TTFs like Maqsood and Akmal. It would a step backwards if we go back to these guys again.

 

[Syed1]

I hope we get new youngsters from the PSL.... it seems performing in PSL is the only way to get in the LOI side because the selectors don't bother to do their jobs for the rest of the eleven months of the year.



Really need 2 or 3, attacking middle order batsmen, an explosive opener and a 145+ kph pacer. Our team will be set for the WC if we manage to fill these holes.

 

[Hamstead_joy]

I think now what we only can do is stop chopping and changing after every match and play Babar Azam on his original position. Fix the top 3 by keeping them no other option left. Should get Yamin in and drop Hasan or Harris. If Shehzad is allowed again he will 20 off 40 balls and management would'nt be able to remove him again.

Arthur needs to talk to the PCB higher ups not with Ichief selector Inzamam, and devise a plan to give chances to newer players minus Shehzad and other tested players. Sahibzada Farhan despite his performance in PSL should be inducted in the national side. They need to develop players and give them experience before World Cup. Shoaib Malik, Shehzad and Hafeez will destroy most of our chances.

 

[Aami]

T20...
Fakhar
Sarfraz
Babar
Haris
???
???
Shadab
Fahim
Yamin
Nawaz
Hasan or Amir

Just play with 9...cant do any worse!

 

[Hasan123]

I hope we get new youngsters from the PSL.... it seems performing in PSL is the only way to get in the LOI side because the selectors don't bother to do their jobs for the rest of the eleven months of the year.



Really need 2 or 3, attacking middle order batsmen, an explosive opener and a 145+ kph pacer. Our team will be set for the WC if we manage to fill these holes.

And a back up keeper. Your precious Sarfraz doesn't deserve a free ride anymore.

 

[shokz1408]

None of the teams mentioned look like they would be capable of reaching 300? Looks like we have a tail long enough to get to 250-275 that's about it.. you can't put all your hopes on fakhar, and assume only if he gets going we will get 300. We need better standard of batsman from somewhere, whereby you could rely on the whole top to middle order to get you 300.

 

[giri26]

There is no easy fix to anything. Just by replacing the seniors will not help. Pakistan needs to find some good young players and stick with them for a while. They may fail a few times but will eventually start producing results. It is going to take a while though and the fans need to be patient. Just by switching the batting order and rotating personnel is not going to produce immediate results.

 

[waleed88]

With ODI World Cup 2019 just ahead of less than 18 months away, we shall discuss our best squad options to overcome current top order bating problems that we have consistently seen in England, then New Zealand and will be most likely similar in SA and Australian conditions.

Since the World Cup will be in England so we shall focus mostly on English conditions which is sort of similar to NZ/AUS/SA conditions as well.

Lets also suppose Mohammad Hafeez, and Shoaib Malik are either retired or ignored from the World Cup Squad.

Now we shall discuss who should be brought in at TOP order to bring some stability at the TOP order. I am listing some players who I think shall be kept in ODI WC Squad

1. Fakhar
2. X(Open slot) & Azhar Ali as a backup bench player
3. X (Open slot) we need someone to take this spot in english conditions as our regular #3 Babar Azam is not suitable when ball is new, moving and conditions are like england's bouncy and pace oriented, we rather shall reserve Babar #3 position for UAE, or Asian conditions
4. Harris must be #4 at all conditions as he is good solid player in middle
5. Babar should take #5 position for english & bouncy conditions
6. Sarfraz (shall be #6 for Pakistan in all conditions)
7. Faheem or Amer Yamin (shall be brought in at #7)
8. Shadab Khan ( & Yasir Shah as reserve player at bench)
9. Should be reserved for Hassan Ali
10. Mohammad Amir
11. X (open slot to be shall be considered between fast bowlers like Sohail Khan, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Irfhan, Mohammad Abbas and Ruman Raees, or any other that may also qualify in this list)

Lets discuss this squad in open discussion where you may agree, disagree or provide your suggestions, and also talk about who shall be brought in at open slots at top order to bring batting stability, consistency, and and good modern odi scoring rate type of batsmen. I am thinking of few names like Imad Wasim, Umer Akmal, Sharjeel if available, and maybe Salman Butt as he is doing well in domestic level. I am sure I have missed many good players, and I would encourage your input to have healthy discussion that can help Pakistan's batting top order problems. and also in pace blowing department some improvements.

Feel free t post your playing XI or players of your choice for this thread open discussion.

http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/showthread.php?258283-Bring-Sharjeel-Khan-back-be-competitive

answer to your post, bring Sharjeel Khan back and become competitive again

 

[dauntless]

Would give umar akmal a chance at opening he won't do any worse than shehzad azhar umar amin and others.Hopefully he opens in PSL too with fakhar.

 

[aloo paratha]

Bring deserving youngsters, throw out rotting seniors.

 

[DRsohail]

I hope we get new youngsters from the PSL.... it seems performing in PSL is the only way to get in the LOI side because the selectors don't bother to do their jobs for the rest of the eleven months of the year.



Really need 2 or 3, attacking middle order batsmen, an explosive opener and a 145+ kph pacer. Our team will be set for the WC if we manage to fill these holes.

hope we found the bowler u are talking about.