Pakistani batsmen racing to 1000 runs - What does it suggest about the confidence of newcomers?

[Rana]

4 Pakistani batsmen in the top 11 players to reach the fastest to 1000 runs...

Fakhar Zaman 18 matches
Babar Azam 21 matches
Azhar Ali 23 matches
Yasir Hameed 24 matches
----------------------------
Nasir Jamshed 25 matches (18th position)

We also have Imam ul Haq currently on 434 runs in 8 ODI games and is likely to achieve 1000 ODI runs before 23-25 matches. So the signs are positive as always. Amazing to see these batsmen really do well in their initial burst. However, the alarming issue is the fact the vast majority if not all of these stars completely lose their way to the second thousand milestone. Something goes horribly wrong at this point. For example..

Azhar Ali is currently stuck at 1845 runs in ODI, and is highly unlikely to represent Pakistan in the limited overs format to actually get past the 2000 mark.

Yasir Hameed's ODI career came to a halt at 2028 runs, quite clearly he was in decline during that period of 1000-2000 runs which inevitably became the reason to the end of his career. According to cricinfo, Hameed mustered another 1000 runs in 30 innings during his final period.

Nasir Jamshed took the world by storm in his initial burst. He is currently on 1418 ODI runs and is as good as finished as a cricketer at the age of 28.

As it is too early to say anything about Fakhar, the one encouraging player that has been mentioned is Babaz Azam who should be the one to carry on and play for Pakistan for many years and also accumulate 8000+ ODI runs. However, the stats of the other 3 suggests that the PCB really need to work out what goes wrong in the period after 1000 ODI runs. The interesting thing about comparing those stats to world class stalwarts in batting...

Virat Kohi, Shikhar Dhawan and Hashim Amla took 24 innings to reach 1000. Amla takes another 16 innings only to reach the next milestone. Pietersen also continued at a brisk Pace and Dhawan/Kohli took a little longer this time (But were not discarded by their management!)

Its by the 3rd and 4th thousand runs milestone in which the likes of Amla, Kohli and Dhawan have established their ODI supremacy and world class stature because of the persistence of their management. It is such persistence and amazing hard work by the players also that has enabled these countries to cash in on these world class free run scorers for their nations.

So the purpose of this thread is to determine what is so brilliant about the initial stint for these young batsmen from Pakistan? How are they so good in the first 1000 runs and how do they lose their way from then on? What goes wrong and how can it be improved so that Pakistan could also have a team that is filled with batsmen that have played over 150 ODIs and over 5000 ODI runs to their name?

 

[Rahul1]

That mere fact that guys like Azhar, Nasir and Hameed are there almost makes me want to not take this list seriously.

 

[SuperMo18]

It’s a matter of persistence and work ethic, guys like jamshed fall into the category like umar akmal and shehzad, they refused to work hard and considered themselves world class.

When it comes to azhar, he failed to adapt to the ways the bowlers bowled to his weaknesses, he also was converted to an opener and had the pressure of being the captain when he was clearly unfit to do so, poor guy might not be the best ever but he’s still one of the best technically correct batsman in pakistan.

Babar has worked hard and continued to work on his deficiencies and Fakhar has a very disciplined and high work ethic which he has used to instill a more confident and safe approach to build longer innings.

Lastly, even though players like shehzad have refused to work hard, little effort from him had gotten him a place in the side and therefore did not instill a good work ethic in him. Although talent wise ahmed shehzad was worth some persistence his work ethic and attitude should have gotten him booted from the team.

Lastly, there are players like sami aslam that are given to small a chance and thereafter are lost into the system. Sami aslam was and is a prolific scorer at the u-19 and in the List A levels, but after 4 innings in tough conditions, we made him into a test-only player.

In conclusion the initial burst is due to pure talent, but being a superstar requires more than just natural raw talent, there comes a time when bowlers begin figuring out your weaknesses, a superstar player will address that and have the work ethic to always improve, the failures will think that they are above everyone else and refuse to work but will still be given the chance, whereas the hard workers will be tossed aside. Players like hash and kohli work very hard to be at the top, and taking into account their work ethics and talent together, they are deserving of being some of the top batsmen of this generation.

Hopefully Fakhar babar and maybe even imam will continue to work hard address the issues in their approach and become better batsmen and better cricketers overall after every single tour

 

[Hawkeye]

Not really.

It tells we're playing far too long of series after series against C class minnow teams.

And there's only Fakhar who had been hitting from the start, that's his game, he'll hit or flop. Nobody else has this "confidence".

Even Babar struggles to accelerate.

 

[ads101]

Jamshed looked the best out of all of the openers we tried. Sad how he fell away, really thought he'd for sure cement his place in the ODI side for years. And unlike guys like Umar and Shehzad, he looked calm and in control at the crease.

 

[Majid Khan]

I think what happens is these players lose confidence and become demotivated when they realise the 'senior' culture in the team where selection works on double standards - eg, look at how many opportunities the likes of Afridi, Hafeez, Malik, Akmals were given previously even when they were failing repeatedly but still kept in the team --- as for youngsters, other than in Imran Khan and Wasim Akram captaincy they are two failures away from being under pressure and having to fight for their place or be dropped.

And it won't surprise me when they announce the central contracts, legendary batsman Hafeez will still be in a higher category than Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam most likely.

 

[Arham_PakFan]

Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam look to be an improvement on the other 3.Lets hope they make many more runs for Pakistan.

 

[Khan12]

To be honest Azhar was useless and we all knew while hammed didn't have the connections like the shameless cheater to get chances. His record wasn't bad and deserved more chances in odis. Nasir was a disappointment though people had way too high hopes of him.

 

[Gotham Cronie]

Fastest to 1,000 ODI runs

18 Innings - Fakhar Zaman
19 Innings - Imam-ul-Haq
21 Innings - Babar Azam, Q de Kock, IJL Trott, KP Pietersen, IVA Richards

 

[Prince of Pakistan]

Pak batsmen get found out and then simply fail to improve their game.

It's as simple as that.

 

[Amjid Javed]

Anyone got the break down of these runs and opposition

Both Hameed and Imam have scored most runs against poor opposition while reaching 1000 runs.

In long run most of our new batsmen have been found out after 12-18 months of international cricket.

 

[Mp812]

World cup 2019 prospects look good now