I am trying to respond to all here in one post, for all who have tagged me.
To me, the most important thing for batting is balance (that's perfect shift of body weight so that maximum power can be generated at point of contact and the head-eye is steady), ability to hit the ball sweetly (micro second level precision in timing), placings and play in the middle of sweet spot of bat (perfect hand-eye). The game is built on instinct and touch - that's something one is born with - otherwise, there are lot many rich kids in South Asia who could have spent 12 hours in practice and become great cricketer. There are many rich parents who would love to spend millions for coaching staff and other facilities - eat, drink, sleep, practice ...... eat, .... but it doesn't make Tendulkar or Wasim or Murali or Shakib that way.
For batsmen till 19, it's all about natural ability to hit the leather piece sweetly, from 20 to 23 it's about learning finer things, adjust a little, fixing few glitches, next 2 years is to add experience and mental maturity with the polished game. It sometimes varies with few individuals, but more or less 23 to 35 is the most dominating period of a batsman, 29 being the peak - before that range 2/3 years lots of quality, but often batsmen miss out big one for lack of experience, while into mid 30s, lots of experience, but body starts to betray - still they score lot, but like Amla style, not Root style. That's why, I always believe that a batsman should be debuted for National team by 23 - some may be even early.
Now, coming to the young man, first thing I believe is that, he is probably of real age, at least very close to it - so he has time. His bat swing, high back-lift, sweet hitting ability, timing & placement is excellent, particularly that back-lift and bat swing. And, he is capable of playing fluently through off-side, which is rare these days for PAK players, groomed on these type of wickets. Footwork is an issue, but I don't think it's that big a problem if his balance is good. Normally, I have seen batsmen with strong hand-eye, but less footwork starts to fade after 30s - best example was Viv and I am sure Steve Smith will suffer a massive decline in stats after entering 30s. This guy SS still has 2/3 years time to work on footwork - it's not that he is like Fakhar or Afridi, neither 30+; if he works with Grant/Arthur for few sessions, then put it in long hours of practice, I am sure it's not that a big deal.
Regarding his temperament, I think it's in general a common problem in PAK - batsmen groomed on such wicket for 250 overs FC matches simply can't learn how to bat long, how to convert a start for single/double/triple hundreds. This season, I believe in QEA there are 2 double hundreds scored - in every round of Ranji there are more than that. Batting is an art that's self learned lot in match condition, while you are in middle. Indian players play the weakest bowling in domestics on mostly batting paradise, still their batting fundamentals are fantastic. Difference between baseball hitting and cricket batting is that in baseball players need to make it perfect (to hit a home run) once out of several attempts, in cricket you have to be perfectionist - the art is doing repetitive task with zero tolerance for hours, sessions, days together. That's why playing long innings in match is essential than practicing at nets - be it against substandard attack, because it takes just one mistake to get out. Babar is suffering from that as well - his List A average is 10+ higher than FC and that's common for few other PAK batsmen as well (Asad comes to mind, probably Azhar as well). I don't think, unless they arrange FC cricket on better wickets, in a period when at least 90 overs are possible in a Day, not only Saud, no PAK batsman will be able to convert starts. At one time PAK had some of the best big hundred specialists - Zaheer, Javed, Mudassar, Mohsin ...... now it's Umar Akaml. Besides, one alarming sign is that, looking at a PAK batsman - one can't tell if he is on 20 or 200, because that comfort, that ease, that domination is hardly seen in a set batsman (YK was the last one - once set, totally different batsman, he was mentored by a different guy) - players are always circumspect, confused and often timid, not fulfilling 100% of own capacity.
I read, he should he part of A team, which is utter hilarious - basically that allows free lunch to undeserving oldies. This kid played U19 WC, in his 4th season of QeA (I think, in 1st or 2nd season season he scored over 600), has played successfully for PAK A 1.5 years back - what else can he learn from domestic or what else he can prove? If players are to prove 5-7 years in domestic through stats, then probably selectors are obsolete - anyone with a spread sheet can do the job. Problem is PAK plays too little cricket (this is the biggest surprise in planet earth in this days - PAK national players are busy more with PLs & SLs, but hardly any game for National team or A team). May not be against NZ (he can/should be in ODI squad), but I would have definitely picked the kid in playing XI for the IRL Test and ZIM tour for Test & ODI - T20 isn't his game. Couple of years, he'll learn himself most things - probably that's the next best way of developing batsman if your FC system is QeA style and one has to bank on a T20 league for talunt hunt .....
Stats are the only parameter of selection.
