He produced a Man of the Series performance in South Africa earlier this year. That is more relevant than his performances against New Zealand and India in 2018, because players can improve with time.
He did fail in the three ODIs against Australia, but I will personally wait till the end of World Cup to conclude if he has what it takes to do well against the top teams consistently.
Besides, not every performance against a lowly team is worthless. His 80 against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup was a vital innings and saved us from a certain defeat.
Chasing 250 in the UAE against Rashid and Mujeeb is not a cakewalk. Also, he was the only batsman to show fight in the must-win game against Bangladesh and scored 80+.
Our fans need to cut him some slack - Inzamam helped him get a break but he didn’t help him score a hundred on debut, win Man of the Series in South Africa and top score for Pakistan in the Asia Cup.
Imam is a decent young player who has shown solid temperament and composure when other so-called “merit walay” batsmen have lost their heads.
Yes he is no world beater and never will be, but people forget that Pakistan is a mediocre team and most of our players are minnow-bashers anyway, because if they weren’t, we would be ranked in the top 2-3 now.
The way people criticize him and call p@rchi etc. is if he is keeping Rohits and Warners out of the team. He has done more than enough to justify his selection.
That's what I don't understand.
If he was a terrible player, I would call for nepotism, but that SA series should be one that he should be given a lot of credit for.
Two fifties and a century is arguably one of the best SA batting performances in all our history (as we have had a pretty terrible record there).
Of course his SR is an issue, as is the case with Babar, but take away the name on the jersey and he easily belongs. I was not a fan because I did not think he was good enough, but SA should hush the doubters for the foreseeable future. He is a bit like Shehzad, but less selfish, and with a bigger hunger for runs. If there were better options, I am all for it, but are there? Sharjeel is banned, Shehzad always fails on the big stage, Umar if you do bring him in, should be an opener, but he's entirely irresponsible with his wicket. Abid Ali, sure, would not mind either, but we did not give him enough matches to be comfortable to play in the WC (which is a failure on management).
He is the best option, for better or for worse, and to constantly attack him is silly. He deserves his spot on merit, and as a Pakistani fan, why would you call him out on it, do you not want him to be confident for his WC for your team? To bring him down will only lower his confidence and ironically hurt Pakistan cricket.
23 years old, everyone saying his selection was only due to his uncle, and with all that pressure, he scored a century on debut, had a very good series in SA, which was fairly recent, after some poor showings against better teams early on. After a poor Asia Cup, everyone kept talking of minnow basher, and he rose to the occasion with all the skeptics and was for Pakistani standards, excellent.
He is far from perfect, as is the case with most batsmen since MoYo retired, but there is little else better, and given his upbringing, we should actually be impressed that he has had the mental fortitude to still look like a very good player. It isn't easy being told your selection isn't based on merit, and then having the pressure to perform to prove that you belong.
We need to support Imam, he isn't going anywhere, nor should he, and take the name away, and we would think we might have something here, but unfortunately for him, that cannot be taken away, and as a result hyperbole and contempt will reign free.
)
