Let’s just look at this eng series as an example. Babar and Rizwan had a 50+ partnership in 4 games so far. In all 4 games Pakistan had a score of 50+ in the power play and 80+ in 10 overs. By all accounts that is a reasonable if not excellent first half of the match. Where the team has faltered is in the second half or when one of Babar or Rizwan have gotten out early.
The kind of openers you are talking about will like result in Pakistan being 10/1 and 10/2 more often than not and hence will lead to even more pressure on Babar and Rizwan. Teams like India, Eng, Aus and SA have a strong and aggressive enough middle order that they can afford to be 10 or 20/2 and still manage a decent score. Pakistan does not have that luxury.
You know bringing those embarrassing PP stats of these world "best" batsmen would be accepting the truth. The average score these two gentlemen put together is btw 40-45 max that's their ceiling
I give Rizwan an "A" for effort ever since the backlash of Asia cup he is honestly trying but his off side game is exposed and he keep on playing lots of dot deliveries in the PP, things will only become worse in
Aussies pitches with that bounce
I have noticed Politician do this to make themselves more acceptable by forcing people to think that all hell will break loose if you move them. I would have given Haider the whole series as an opener to see how it works with Babar and Rizzy at no.2 and 3 they could sleep walk with those "Diet Strike rate"
We are a month away from World Cup can the team really afford to do large scale experiments? Most team at this stage are making adjustments only where there is room for improvements. No one is completely changing approach at this stage of the game. Take England for example they lost games 4 & 5, which they should have won, because of their all out attack approach. Did they change their approach to try something new? No, they kept the same approach in game 6 because that’s how they play.
Similar situation for Pakistan we can’t make large scale changes at this stage. People said we need our openers to score faster and both Babar and Rizwan have done it this series with a 140+ strike rate. The problem is the middle order which is struggling to keep up the momentum. That’s the area where players need to step up.
Pakistan is already too late for these experiment already and this series must have been used only for that purpose, they have tired everything including calling a Test specialist to fix T20 middle order woes
The only thing remain untouchable is experimenting with opening pair.
When natural openers like Haider, Fakhar have to settle down the order just so that these two gentlemen suck the initiative out of PP game after game then putting these so called "Hacks" in the opening slot is
the only sensible thing as with only 2 fielders out they will have better chances and Pakistan will still have
these two Gentlemen going through overs with a 50 of 41 balls
They are linked If you dont understand that then theres no point in having a discussion with you
The fact is if pakistan had a reliable 4-7 n had a bankable batter or two more then the top 2 would most likely take more risks n show some more urgency uptop knowing they have batters that can re relied on
At the moment without their contribution the team can barely hit 150
Its openers or bust Hence you can understand why they dont take as many risks as they can or should
Itd be interesting to find out how many batsman have made an intl t20 50 for pakistan batting at 4-7 in the last 2 years
Let's say Pakistan got a belter of a Pitch in Karachi where only these two batted and got around 200
had other batsmen played on such surfaces and gained some confidence things would have been different
for Pakistan other batsmen who all are under huge pressure to take care of strike rate because these two wouldn't
Second who the hell select this team of Khusdil, Asif etc and why?? the answer is so obvious Mr "Diet Strike rate" with Puffed average can play 90 balls and then rest of the batting is suppose to come and blast the hell out of bowlers
Till on of these two go down the order Pakistan batting woes have no immediate fix and they can expect a first round exit
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