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"I have always raised concerns over Imam's strike rate": Shoaib Akhtar

Titan24

Titan24

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I have always raised concerns over Imam's strike rate. Scored 53 off 75 balls, put the whole team under pressure. Hence, the crumbling. Sigh. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AUSvPAK?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AUSvPAK</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CWC19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CWC19</a></p>— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph) <a href="https://twitter.com/shoaib100mph/status/1138833201512820737?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
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I am not even sure what to say regarding this. I have always liked Imam in terms of his temperament and pressure handling, yes he should increase the SR but not sure if the criticism is due or not. What do you guys think?
 
It’s criminal getting out after batting at that rate. Would’ve been fine if he caught up later on in his innings but he just gave it away after getting to 50.
 
He was seeing off Australia’s main threats. But he has to learn
To make up in the end. but He was least of your worries.
 
He held his end.

Otherwise we could’ve been 150 all out.
 
Boi said:
It’s criminal getting out after batting at that rate. Would’ve been fine if he caught up later on in his innings but he just gave it away after getting to 50.
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this. Imam was the main culprit of why Pakistan lost. I would have forgiven him for slow batting if he kept his wicket until the end but he get out right after scoring his 50
 
The run rate wasnt a problem today We were always on track with the score It was the fact we lost too many wkts in the middle The issue should be the likes of malik and asifs performance So dont know why people keep banging on about imam today
 
He was doing well holding up an end. If the partnership with Hafeez went on longer, the game would have won. A real shame he got out to a nothing delivery.
 
The only issue with his innings is that he gave away his wicket cheaply in the end just when they started accelerating.

Otherwise he did what was needed: stayed at the wicket. If only Babar, Fakhar could also understand this while chasing not so big totals on tricky wickets.
 
Pakistan Cricket is finished, Imam is the best we have and if this is how we treat our best batsman then there is no hope.

Run rate wasn't even an issue.

It's 2019 and the total was 308 not 408.
 
Daft to blame Imam for this loss. Main culprits were Fakhar, Shoaib and Asif who did jack.
 
Mueez said:
He held his end.

Otherwise we could’ve been 150 all out.
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He played well today, according to match situation, we need a player like in the team. He put team in a winning position only to be let down by Fakhar, Malik, Asif and Sarfraz.
 
Lol how was his strike rate an issue here. As usual, Shoaib spewing whatever comes to his mind. It was awful the way he got out but there was no run rate pressure
 
They need to ask Shoaib to open.Rohit Sharma got out against the same Australia at SR of 80 but he laid the foundation seeing of the threat of Cummins and Starc.Yes Imam needs to improve his SR but he is least of Pakistan's problem.

It is not possible for an opener like Imam to score at 100 SR.Unless Pakistan is chasing 350 plus or batting on very very flat pitch, he is fine to be around 70 -80 SR.
 
Today was about batting through the overs especially after Fakhar got out for naught. strike rate was never a problem
 
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moghul said:
He played well today, according to match situation, we need a player like in the team. He put team in a winning position only to be let down by Fakhar, Malik, Asif and Sarfraz.
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Babar let us down today.
 
Had he not gotten out on that nothing delivery he would have fixed his strike rate sooner or later. We could have comfortably won this match if he managed to get a partnership going with someone.
 
The way he handled Starc was impressive, it was a poor ball that he got out too but you can't blame him as he was going for the win. What a great performance by Pakistan.
 
Agree completely; Iman's role is to hold the innings together and bat around the hitters; today he did play his role but got out at the wrong time. unlike England we do not bat that deep ; do not look at wahab and Hassan ali as an example today as this is more a one of performance
 
Shoaib is so off. Imam provided anchor role for a bit. It was required. Babar's game already disturbed after he let the media guy comment on his strike rate to his head. Now he get out while playing big shot. Pathetic
 
I had no issues with Imam barring his last shot. He should get a rocket for his dismissal but not his approach.
 
I think Imam was bit unlucky with dismissal the way he was going I was hopeful he could have taken Pak over the line and would have increase the SR as well during that.
 
Imam Played much better than many of the seniors. Many posters obession with Strike rate must have fizzed out now. The young lad is doing his job to the best of his ability too bad he gets so much of stick
 
Shoaib being clueless again.

He saw off both Starc and Cummins and was unlucky in the way he got out in the end. Run rate was never a problem today, we lost because we lost too many wickets.

Im no big fan of his but how can someone possibly point the finger at him after Fakhar, Malik, Asif didnt even get into double figures.
 
first of all, why do Pakistan's ex cricketers criticize players on public forms, when they are still in the tournament. Doesn't it put more pressure on the players?
 
srh said:
this. Imam was the main culprit of why Pakistan lost. I would have forgiven him for slow batting if he kept his wicket until the end but he get out right after scoring his 50
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Fakhar, Asif Ali, and Malik getting out, and Babar's soft dismal wasn't? His strike rate would have gone up had he stayed for a longer partnership with Hafeez. He had to see off the threat of Starc and Cummins initially, something that Fakhar couldn't do by getting out on a duck, and therefore putting pressure on the team from the get-go.
 
Our so-called ex-cricketers/commentators
From Rameez Raja to Wasim and even Shoaib Akhtar, all have been shamelessly silent on Imam's club level technique. Only once or twice Rashid Latif and Waqar Younis have spoken about his slow selfish game but never about his pathetic technique or his place in the team.
 
Imam was not the problem and SR was never an issue. Even after 40 overs Pakistan needed around run a ball.
The problem was the wickets we gifted and that Imam didn’t carry on.
 
The question is why should everyone else have to score boundaries to keep up with the run rate whilst imam takes his own sweet time?
But malik and asif inclusion in the side, was why we lost today!
Imam's srike rate will cost us in our future games.
 
K4Kohli said:
first of all, why do Pakistan's ex cricketers criticize players on public forms, when they are still in the tournament. Doesn't it put more pressure on the players?
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because they are rubbish when a mic is put infront of them...
 
Not applicable today. We were never under rrr pressure.

His shot was terrible but so was Hafeez's and Babar's.
 
Even though his strike rate was on the lower side, the overall team run rate was pretty good at around 5.5 rpo.

All that matters is that the team run rate is good and there was no problem with that today really.
 
If you play these type of innings you have to stay till the end all you do is put pressure on others to score quickly and then get out when well set.
 
As opener he can get away with playing a bit slower then others in situations like today. We would have won the match even if he'd scored a century in 40 overs.
 
Shoaib says as if this is some rocket science that nobody else thought of.
Imam's SR has always been an issue,way more than Babar's and everybody knows that.
But today he was the least of our problems except the manner he got out which was horrendous.But he is still not to blame for the loss when we look at the contributions of the likes of Asif and Malik.
 
I blame IMam for Fakhar’s wicket only.

Besides that I thought he batted well but if Babar and Hafeez didn’t step it up, then Imam would have looked terrible even with that score
 
Fakhar was out was 0 so Imam had to slow down a bit which was understandable. We were chasing only 300 odd which is like 240 in the old days.

We didnt loose because of Imam today
 
Oh my goodness. These are our former players. He got out when the score was 136 -2 after 25 overs. There were 7 overs of maxi/Finch to come at that stage so ZERO RUN RATE PRESSURE ISSUE
 
Yes sure he was the problem not the guys playing for 15 years and getting out by a full toss or the guy getting a duck.
Run rate was never a problem.
 
I get it.. after a loss everything seems pretty dire. In a team game though, it's ok if different players perform different roles. In this context, Imam's innings could've worked out if others pulled their weight too. But yes, he needs to convert these starts
 
His SR was slow, but it didn't cost the match. Him and Hafeez as a partnership were scoring quick enough. I'm more mad about the way he got out, he was set and he had to push on to his hundred, even if that hundred came off 120 balls, the others would've been fine playing alongside him. The thing is, if you want to play this anchor role, you better not get out, especially not in a stupid way like today. If you try and play the anchor role but then get out at 40 off 60, you've severely ruined your teams chances. So he has either 2 options: Up the SR, or be more responsible and don't get out playing stupid shots.
 
Imam once again showed why he is the best opener in the country, and probably the most reliable batsman as well.

He showed excellent technique and composure against some very good fast bowling by Starc and Cummins, while the hack Fakhar threw it away early as predicted.

Yes his strike rate needs improvement, but beggars can’t be choosers. He is invaluable for a poor team like ours.
 
Mamoon said:
Imam once again showed why he is the best opener in the country, and probably the most reliable batsman as well.

He showed excellent technique and composure against some very good fast bowling by Starc and Cummins, while the hack Fakhar threw it away early as predicted.

Yes his strike rate needs improvement, but beggars can’t be choosers. He is invaluable for a poor team like ours.
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I don't think the team's standards need to be lowered to justify poor batting in a run chase. This is not a one off.
 
gazza619 said:
Fakhar was out was 0 so Imam had to slow down a bit which was understandable. We were chasing only 300 odd which is like 240 in the old days.

We didnt loose because of Imam today
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Should've carried on then. Criminial when he got out, changed the complexion of the game.
 
aloo paratha said:
His SR was slow, but it didn't cost the match. Him and Hafeez as a partnership were scoring quick enough. I'm more mad about the way he got out, he was set and he had to push on to his hundred, even if that hundred came off 120 balls, the others would've been fine playing alongside him. The thing is, if you want to play this anchor role, you better not get out, especially not in a stupid way like today. If you try and play the anchor role but then get out at 40 off 60, you've severely ruined your teams chances. So he has either 2 options: Up the SR, or be more responsible and don't get out playing stupid shots.
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Exactly my thoughts.

I very much dislike Imam Ul Haq but I have to give him credit for playing some nice shots, however, this SR problem is reoccurring and you don't need to have Bradman like skills to get singles after hitting a boundary so that remains a huge problem. More so, if you're going to play slow at least stay at the crease and stick it out, to get out after scoring a slow 50 chasing 300 at a critical time is never good.
 
Raise concerns about Fakhar, Malik and Asif who aren't scoring at all and putting even more pressure on the batsman.
 
Shoiab is talking absolute bull. He complained about Babar which put pressure on him to up his sr and play stupid shots like today. Imam batted exactly as we needed today, had hafeez stayed another 5 overs match was won. Also we were playing with 2 players less malik and asif were useless at batting today
 
Imam was fine, the bowling and the conditions demanded that innings. I'm more disappointed by the fact that he threw away a good start.
 
Against a team like Australia with a good pace attack management should have known better to play Harris instead of Malik

Malik is only good for minnow bashing and India
 
Same people who are losing their minds over Shoaib's criticism of chachu ki rani were doing bhangra when Shoaib used incredibly harsh words against Sarfaraz. Can't have your cake and eat it too.
 
Can't blame it all on imam. Pakistani bowlers bowled on a green pitch and conceded way too many runs for this pitch.
 
Unfortunately most pakistanis rarely play hard ball cricket more tape ball cricket in the street a strike rate of 75 means less risk thus more selfish scoring this selfish automatic selection attitide cost 25 runs ... if your strike rate is higher means you have taken more risk and thus more reward shoaib is absolutely right ... after this world cup his going to talk about his average and tell us his automatic selection
 
Looks like couple of innings for combined 77 of 54 by No. 8 & 9 has fooled lots of people here. Today’s game ended close because Hasan & Wahab played the innings of their life - it won’t happen every day and PAK won’t be so close chasing 308, after one opener scores 53 of 75.

When Imam was out playing a horrible shot after “protecting” PAK middle order against the rage of Strac & Cummins, target was exactly 173 of 25 overs, with 7 wickets at hand - I can bet, 9 times out of 10, teams chasing that sort of target will end up losing the game from that position, even teams like England won’t chase over 50% times. Business usual, PAK would have lost it by ~100 margin from 160/6, didn’t happen because of Hasan & Wahab ..... hence fan boys have smart words for covering the most selfish innings of this WC so far.

It’s not a rocket science to explain that if an opener plays out 50 overs, it becomes easier to chase any target - but, has it ever happened that Imam has batted through or PAK has chased a tough target after his usual rear guard innings? It’s easy to explain the game from scorecard after the game has ended, but every game I have seen PAK chasing, there is a common pattern - gradually increased asking, until there is a bust of wickets and an eventual middle order collapse, which inevitably will end up in a loss, EVERY TIME. Is there any difference between today’s knock and the Asia Cup knock on 26th Sep 2018? Yes, there is ..... today Wahab & Hasan slogged their way to make it a 41 runs defeat chasing 308, that day Shaheen connected few to make it 39 runs defeat chasing 240 - innings pattern was almost identical. Today, the bust of middle order was between 136 to 160, that day was between 85 to 100.

I hope one day Imam stays till 45th over for PAK to chase a target successfully, with this batting strategy.
 
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People keep forgetting that this is not the 1st time Imam has played like this. He is a serial offender. Although he did show some mental strength yesterday.
 
Imam needs to learn the art of building innings. I think he should talk to Kohli after india-pak match. Kohli is always helpful and friendly towards Pak players, Imam should go to Kohli after match as an avid learner and talk to him for an hour or so and understand the art of building innings and how Kohli has perfected it.

If not after the match then definitely after the world cup he should do it. Otherwise he will continue to face same issues
 
Shoab akhtar is terrible analyst. Not sure why he is even allowed on the media since he was a proven performance enhancing cheat.

Also talks dramatic rubbish. Imam's innings and pakistan's run rate was fine.
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Looks a bloody good player to me! Wrong lengths with the ball at 10.30am, poor fielding, top edged hook, glove down the leg side and a full toss hit straight to mid-wk. That put team under pressure... <a href="https://t.co/D1mEKBPKOd">https://t.co/D1mEKBPKOd</a></p>— Ian Ward (@WardyShorts) <a href="https://twitter.com/WardyShorts/status/1138890465674244096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Or your catching? <br>Or your bowling?</p>— Kevin Pietersen&#55358;&#56719; (@KP24) <a href="https://twitter.com/KP24/status/1138867227124350976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Abdullah719 said:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Looks a bloody good player to me! Wrong lengths with the ball at 10.30am, poor fielding, top edged hook, glove down the leg side and a full toss hit straight to mid-wk. That put team under pressure... <a href="https://t.co/D1mEKBPKOd">https://t.co/D1mEKBPKOd</a></p>— Ian Ward (@WardyShorts) <a href="https://twitter.com/WardyShorts/status/1138890465674244096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Or your catching? <br>Or your bowling?</p>— Kevin Pietersen�� (@KP24) <a href="https://twitter.com/KP24/status/1138867227124350976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Good to see former players speaking out on Shoaib's ridiculous tweet. Out of all the things and factors, he singles out Imam to be the root of the problem.
 
coy0607 said:
A modern day opener's job isn't to score a 50 at a SR of 70

That was Rameez Raja's job in the 80's. Imam is playing in the year 2019
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When the target is 300, 100 off 110 is what you need. Unfortunately Imam couldn't get to that but his start was perfectly suited to the target.
 
MMHS said:
Looks like couple of innings for combined 77 of 54 by No. 8 & 9 has fooled lots of people here. Today’s game ended close because Hasan & Wahab played the innings of their life - it won’t happen every day and PAK won’t be so close chasing 308, after one opener scores 53 of 75.

When Imam was out playing a horrible shot after “protecting” PAK middle order against the rage of Strac & Cummins, target was exactly 173 of 25 overs, with 7 wickets at hand - I can bet, 9 times out of 10, teams chasing that sort of target will end up losing the game from that position, even teams like England won’t chase over 50% times. Business usual, PAK would have lost it by ~100 margin from 160/6, didn’t happen because of Hasan & Wahab ..... hence fan boys have smart words for covering the most selfish innings of this WC so far.

It’s not a rocket science to explain that if an opener plays out 50 overs, it becomes easier to chase any target - but, has it ever happened that Imam has batted through or PAK has chased a tough target after his usual rear guard innings? It’s easy to explain the game from scorecard after the game has ended, but every game I have seen PAK chasing, there is a common pattern - gradually increased asking, until there is a bust of wickets and an eventual middle order collapse, which inevitably will end up in a loss, EVERY TIME. Is there any difference between today’s knock and the Asia Cup knock on 26th Sep 2018? Yes, there is ..... today Wahab & Hasan slogged their way to make it a 41 runs defeat chasing 308, that day Shaheen connected few to make it 39 runs defeat chasing 240 - innings pattern was almost identical. Today, the bust of middle order was between 136 to 160, that day was between 85 to 100.

I hope one day Imam stays till 45th over for PAK to chase a target successfully, with this batting strategy.
Click to expand...

Whilst there is no doubt that his strike rate needs to improve, he simply can not be blamed for our loss. Three guys playing as specialist batsmen failed to reach double figures. Those are the ones you need to be looking at.

Would Imam fit into the English/Indian/Australian team?..No, because he simply doesnt keep up with the strike rates of those batting around him. Does he fit into the current Pakistani team?. Yes, very very easily. Infact hes pretty much the most consistent batsman we have right now. and thats because every single one of his mates bar Babar are clueless and unreliable.

I would disagree with the assessment of 173/25 overs being unlikely to be achieved as well...Its very very achievable in modern ODI cricket.. Thats a RRR of 7/over with 7 wickets in hand. Im positive most teams with semi decent batting lineups( all 5 ranked above us ) would achieve that 8 times out of 10.
 
To publicly demoralised a young and more consistent team mate during a major tournament is just wrong on so many levels, Malik the odi specialist has been a characterless freeloading stumbling block in progression the Pak team throughout his whole career. Even in the twightlight of his career, he not good enough with the bat to shine youngsters shoes.
 
Unless we are universally bashing our entire team for that match, of all the 11 players to criticize, I'm not sure why anyone would pick on Imam!

Imam & Hafeez recovered exceptionally after Fakhar/Babar fell. I was of the opinion that if we lose two wickets early we could not recover, but both Imam & Hafeez proved me wrong. What got us in the end was the lack of skill in the lower order at positions #6 and #7. This is the only weak spot in the current Pakistani line-up on current form. We have zero solutions to this problem as well - so Pakistan will have to cover for this in other areas of the game, which we weren't able to against Australia (read: fielding).
 
This is why I keep harping on about having the requisite knowledge about cricket before posting views

Massive difference between getting out cheaply when you havent settled at the crease and throwing your wicket away after getting a start

Akhtar is not wrong
 
hafizexpress said:
Good to see former players speaking out on Shoaib's ridiculous tweet. Out of all the things and factors, he singles out Imam to be the root of the problem.
Click to expand...

Ian ward and nick knight are my favourite commentators
And KP used to be great
 
Grunge101 said:
Whilst there is no doubt that his strike rate needs to improve, he simply can not be blamed for our loss. Three guys playing as specialist batsmen failed to reach double figures. Those are the ones you need to be looking at.

Would Imam fit into the English/Indian/Australian team?..No, because he simply doesnt keep up with the strike rates of those batting around him. Does he fit into the current Pakistani team?. Yes, very very easily. Infact hes pretty much the most consistent batsman we have right now. and thats because every single one of his mates bar Babar are clueless and unreliable.

I would disagree with the assessment of 173/25 overs being unlikely to be achieved as well...Its very very achievable in modern ODI cricket.. Thats a RRR of 7/over with 7 wickets in hand. Im positive most teams with semi decent batting lineups( all 5 ranked above us ) would achieve that 8 times out of 10.
Click to expand...

I didn't blame him for the loss. He did his best within his capacity, but once the game went to like 42 of 36, he should have shielded Wahab from Strac's over. AUS won't have won it had PAK batted out 50 overs, and they had one odd over to make-up as well, but Sarfraz seemed to be unaware of the situation. PAK actually was in a position that even sacrificing one Strac over for maiden could have been negotiated.

I don't think on that track it's possible to chase 173 in 25 overs with 3 down - PAK should have been close to 150 with 3 down max for a realistic chance (only 15 runs, but that reduces the gap between current and asking rate by 1.2 runs/overs, or around 20% of initial asking. If you analyze successful large chases, at around mid point the difference between current rate and asking rate often doesn't differ much, and in every such chase one batsman from top 3 had reached close to 100 at 100+ SR by that time.

There are examples like AUS winning the 3rd ODI against IND chasing around 220 in last 25 overs (@ ~9, from current of 5.5), but it's not easy to accelerate more than 25% from current rate in 2nd half, when initial asking is already 6+. For 10-12 overs may be possible, but not for 25 overs, that too after losing 3 wickets.

England is exceptional for Buttler at 6 and for their tail, but don't think any other current team could have done it apart from few odd days. Slogging has an elasticity - when the game was around 200-250 range, teams could reach 100-1 in 30 overs, still the asking is just about run a ball; but when the initial asking is 6+, teams have to keep up with the asking through-out. Even for a batting line-up like ENG, they failed to chase 348 on a much better surface & batting condition, because of tight middle overs. They were always at around 6/over, but once the asking went past 9, they started to lose vital wickets.
 
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