I understand resting fast bowlers. But really best way to get stronger is to keep winning. I think resting players like this could end in a mess. I don't want to lose any series. If we lose because we rested players, it will definitely be the wrong decision. Afghanistan aren't exactly as weak as they used to, some of their bowlers are better than ours.
Fakhar being rested is not great when he hasn't cemented his spot. It would have been a great time to test him as opener again given his form. He is probably the only player Babar will demote himself to 3 for as well.
What will happen is any opener who performs will be demoted into the middle order when Rizwan, Babar and Fakhar return. Which will not really give us any picture on how well they will do middle order. Azam Khan might find himself dropped after this series if top order batsmen outperform him, but realistically he suits the lower middle order available spots more than the top order batsmen and would be more sense giving him a longer run even if he doesn't excel from the start.
Iftikhar and Masood will also have the chance to perform against the youngsters. If they outperform the youngsters, they will be out. If you'd played Rizwan and Babar instead of Iftikhar and Masood, with the youngsters still playing, you wouldn't have that issue. Again even amongst the youngsters themselves, they will all be competing against each other this series for the few available slots, they're not batting with anyone who's got secured places.
Babar, Rizwan, Fakhar and Haris already will bat top 4. Imad takes the allrounder slot. Azam should take a spot given he's the only lower order hitter type batsman. That leaves one spot at 5. Who realistically is our best youngster batsman to bat at 5? That's what we should be thinking about. But a guy who succeeds opening/ top order this series may not be suited to bat 5.
Some people think this series will force Rizwan and Babar out of the side. That won't happen, they have too many runs behind them already. What is more likely is Fakhar and Haris will be casualties. Haris especially will now be under immense pressure, as if other batsmen outperform him he could easily lose his spot.
Our main priorities for this series in my opinion should have been testing Fakhar as opener again with Babar down to 3/4 (and seeing if Babar can succeed at middle order again), seeing if Azam Khan can be a good middle order batsman and Imad taking back the allrounder slot. I think these priorities will be overwhelmed/ignored when we are testing out so many different players and make it much harder for these players to secure their spots.
