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Pakistan's ICC World Cup 2023 opening dilemma

mominsaigol

mominsaigol

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I never thought I'd ever be making a post on this. Before going into this world cup, it seemed the problems would lie with our bowling, fielding and middle order, but the opening was something that was set.

I mean pakistan has had the same opening pair for the last 5 years and a very very succesful opening pair at that. And yet ore world cup here we are boys.

Fakhar and Imam opening dilemma:

Unlike posters who would critise this opening pair, I use to forward this opening pair in the past when fakhar was inform. Imam and fakhar complimented each other, with Imam consistently rotating strike and keeping the score board ticking and fakhar striking freely and when he clicked he would almost certainly outbat the opposition and win single handedly.

But recently with fakhar fizzing out, Imam is now left with the responsibility of accelerating and being the aggressor and senior player, something he is not fit to do.

Imam and Abdullah opening dilemma

The issue with Imam and Abdullah is that unlike fakhar and Imam which was the perfect opening player, one was a striker and the other a stabiliser, we now have 2 stabilisers at the crease who like taking their time to go on their merry way. We saw the warmup game, how New Zealand top order approached the first 10 overs and how our top order approached the first 10 overs.

Let's be honest 33 for 1 on a batting paradise surface for the first 10 overs simply isn't good enough. While I have called Imam and Abdullah good players in the past, opening with the 2 of them is a recipe for disaster as we can't afford to be 3.5 runs in the opening power play when most teams will obviously be looking to go at 5 runs per over in the opening powerplay, especially England who will be looking to target 7 to possibly even 8 runs per over.

So what are our options?

Option 1: Back fakhar to open

This option seems risky, but fakhar is an impact player, and unlike the slow pitches of Sri lanka, Hyderabad looks to be a belter pitch which is something fakhar seems to enjoy. However in the current video on YouTube realesed by sports central, Fakhar seems to be struggling even in net practise. So it's a risky move, but fakhar and imam have been our opening pair for a while and they have won us games multiple times in the past.

Option 2: Bring Rizwan to Open along with either Abdullah or Imam

Ik people on this forumn hate rizwan, some like him some hate him, my problems with rizwan however aren't related to his batting. I just hate his golden boy treatment and his Crybaby no 4 slot argument. However with that being said irrespective of the whole rizwan only feasts on 2nd string attack argument which is the same argument people made for babar and imam and virtually everyone in our squad (Haters gotta hate)

Rizwan is capable of atleast scoring at 90 Sr and accelerating to a 110 Sr at the back end of the innings. A 90 ball 100 isn't too bad, and he does consistently play at a 90 to 110 Sr which is something we saw in Sri lanka Asia cup game as well. Along with the fact that he has been more consistent then imam and Abdullah this year and he clearly has experience with opening.

Rizwan may lack the ability of fakhar where he can outright outbat the opposition, but a consistent opener who can up the ante to a 110 SR, is a 90 ball 100 really a bad thing? Cause let's be honest, with imam and Abdullah expect a match losing 100 of 110 or 120 balls.

Rizwan opening also opens up the no 4 slot for saud.

Option 3: Bring babar to open

This is honestly the least appealing option to me, Babar is a good player and hence I feel bringing him to open will once again weaken the no 3 spot like it did with our t20 squad. Ontop of that if babar opens who will be our no 3? Rizwan? Saud? Fakhar?

However babar at opening does give us an improved version of imam and Abdullah, one who can accelerate at will.

Lastly I am known on this forumn as being an analyser as people have now started to notice I was right about saud's technique adjusting to odi as well. So believe me when I say this

Babar seems to have improved against spin. I have always loved babar for his batting improvements, He use to lack the ability to take singles and hit sixes at the start of his career and he's ironed out those issues.

In the warm up, he was playing spin on the backfoot and he seems to have ironed out his issues against spin, again only time will tell, but babar is an improvement type player and I knew he'd ironed it out eventually.

Again I maybe wrong, but he played satner and sodhi on the backfoot extremely well and no longer seemed to get stuck on the front foot anymore.

Babar is a solid player, ( Clueless captain) but clearly our best bat, but again him at opening will weaken our batting due to us already having a non existent middle order.
 
Its a massive dilema. I think Imam is set and wont be moved. He's a decent player who can play a long innings.

I think you are underrating Abdullah Shafique though. He has the potential to be a generational find across format.

However, Fakhar is the only player that has potential to really punish an attack.

We need to start him for the first few games in the WC and hope he comes good.
 
DeadlyVenom said:
Its a massive dilema. I think Imam is set and wont be moved. He's a decent player who can play a long innings.

I think you are underrating Abdullah Shafique though. He has the potential to be a generational find across format.

However, Fakhar is the only player that has potential to really punish an attack.

We need to start him for the first few games in the WC and hope he comes good.
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I'm not underrating Abdullah, he's an excellent player, but he is the type to take his time. Unlike imam he can accelerate at the back end however it doesn't change the fact that we'll be getting 35 for 0 scores at 10 overs with these 2 batting at the crease, and they won't perform every time. If they don't perform, then game over cause expect us to be 20 for 2 after 7 to 8 overs lol.
 
mominsaigol said:
I'm not underrating Abdullah, he's an excellent player, but he is the type to take his time. Unlike imam he can accelerate at the back end however it doesn't change the fact that we'll be getting 35 for 0 scores at 10 overs with these 2 batting at the crease, and they won't perform every time. If they don't perform, then game over cause expect us to be 20 for 2 after 7 to 8 overs lol.
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I think he has the potential to play with a lot more freedom if he is given the backing to just go for it.

Post WC I would like to see Saim and Abdullah as our opening pair.

For the world cup you are right its a massive massive headache. I dont like the idea of Rizwan opening either as it doesnt really solve the problem.
 
DeadlyVenom said:
I think he has the potential to play with a lot more freedom if he is given the backing to just go for it.

Post WC I would like to see Saim and Abdullah as our opening pair.

For the world cup you are right its a massive massive headache. I dont like the idea of Rizwan opening either as it doesnt really solve the problem.
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I don't like the option of rizwan opening, but he does play faster then Abdullah and imam, so it's a minor fix at best.

If we had saim ayub then obviously I'd just say bring him on lol.

But we don't have saim, we're stuck with either continuing with Imam and Abdullah, bringing fakhar back, or trying a new opener, which let's be honest will be babar or rizwan at this point. No other player is fit to open.
 
YousafTheBeast said:
The only option we have is to push Rizwan up at number 2 with Fakhar at 1. This will allow us to play Saud, Agha and Ifthikar in the middle.
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I didn't consider that option, Good call. I mean that's defo the most aggressive option and if they get going it's a high scoring platform they can set.
 
Rizwan opening wont help.

If he fails, he will push himself back to 4 and Saud will be pushed to 5.

The only solution for this is Fakhar and Imam to open and hope Fakhar enjoys Hyderabad.

P.S. I dont know about you but I know Rizwan wont like opening against Bumrah, Starc, Boult, Siraj, Wood, Rabada etc.

Infact, I dont think he will score against any good pacer opening.
 
Dr_Bassim said:
Rizwan opening wont help.

If he fails, he will push himself back to 4 and Saud will be pushed to 5.

The only solution for this is Fakhar and Imam to open and hope Fakhar enjoys Hyderabad.

P.S. I dont know about you but I know Rizwan wont like opening against Bumrah, Starc, Boult, Siraj, Wood, Rabada etc.

Infact, I dont think he will score against any good pacer opening.
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I laid out all possible options, Literally neither are appealing.

Abdullah and imam opening means expect to lose in the first 10 overs.

Imam and fakhar opening is the best option but with fakhar's form we might be down a wicket in the first 5 consistently during the world cup.

Babar opening isn't bad but it weakens the middle order even further.

Rizwan opening is still a better option then Abdullah and imam also rizwan loves the opening slot more then 4. Be honest bro, you seriously think he won't open is asked? He loves nothing more then to hog all possible deliveries to himself. His 90 ball 100 isn't too bad.

But you are right if he faces quality bowling he's toast more or less lol.
 
YousafTheBeast said:
The only option we have is to push Rizwan up at number 2 with Fakhar at 1. This will allow us to play Saud, Agha and Ifthikar in the middle.
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This isn't a bad option. Rizwan can easily play the anchor role that Imam is given. Also if I am right Saud can bowl so will give Babar an extra bowling option.
 
Dr_Bassim said:
Rizwan opening wont help.

If he fails, he will push himself back to 4 and Saud will be pushed to 5.

The only solution for this is Fakhar and Imam to open and hope Fakhar enjoys Hyderabad.

P.S. I dont know about you but I know Rizwan wont like opening against Bumrah, Starc, Boult, Siraj, Wood, Rabada etc.

Infact, I dont think he will score against any good pacer opening.
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But doesn't he face these bowlers in t20s? All he needs to do for ODIs is just make a slight mental adjustment to take fewer risks which he anyways doesn't take even in t20s.
 
First. LPL is T20 not ODIs.

Second, Fakhar scored three back2back THIS year and a match winning 180. He averages 45 in 2023 despite the lean patch recently.
A couple of series vs Afg and Asia cup mean nothing when you’re an established batter in a side.
Fakhar is a cutter/puller and he struggles on slow turning surfaces. The management is aware he will enjoy Indian conditions, which are similar to Pak conditions. Fakhar wasn’t dropped, he was rested. The management is not that dumb. He will likely be back vs Netherlands.

id there was a worse possible recommendation award, ide give it to the one who recommends moving Babar from 1 down position in ODIs during the eve of the WC.
 
Farabi said:
First. LPL is T20 not ODIs.

Second, Fakhar scored three back2back THIS year and a match winning 180. He averages 45 in 2023 despite the lean patch recently.
A couple of series vs Afg and Asia cup mean nothing when you’re an established batter in a side.
Fakhar is a cutter/puller and he struggles on slow turning surfaces. The management is aware he will enjoy Indian conditions, which are similar to Pak conditions. Fakhar wasn’t dropped, he was rested. The management is not that dumb. He will likely be back vs Netherlands.

id there was a worse possible recommendation award, ide give it to the one who recommends moving Babar from 1 down position in ODIs during the eve of the WC.
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Brother he is literally struggling in net practise against hasan ali. I literally stated that option 1 is to bring fakhar and imam to open again, Can you not read?

I laid out all possible options. Babar opening is one possible option which I outright said is the least appealing.

If you actually read what i wrote, you'd realise I was attacking the imam and Abdullah opening partnership, with me even saying fakhar and imam have been our best opening pair but the lack of form is a current dilemma.
 
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mominsaigol said:
Brother he is literally struggling in net practise against hasan ali. I literally stated that option 1 is to bring fakhar and imam to open again, Can you not read?

I laid out all possible options. Babar opening is one possible option which I outright said is the least appealing.

If you actually read what i wrote, you'd realise I was attacking the imam and Abdullah opening partnership, with me even saying fakhar and imam have been our best opening pair but the lack of form is a current dilemma.
mominsaigol said:
Brother he is literally struggling in net practise against hasan ali. I literally stated that option 1 is to bring fakhar and imam to open again, Can you not read?

I laid out all possible options. Babar opening is one possible option which I outright said is the least appealing.

If you actually read what i wrote, you'd realise I was attacking the imam and Abdullah opening partnership, with me even saying fakhar and imam have been our best opening pair but the lack of form is a current dilemma.
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what happens in nets, warm up games is somewhat irrelevant. If you have a batter averaging 45 with SR of 95 over 7-8 years including in-year in 2023. That’s enough data and investment to back a player and let them get back in inform.
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It’s an irrelevant argument only existing on PP. There is no way pak team will drop Fakhar lollll he will be back in 1-2 games after small rest.
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As they say, form is temporary but class is permanent. And I continue to think Fakhar is class no matter what his perf 1 or 2 series or lean patches. This is where you back pkayers
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Old stats have zero relevance to how a player performance now. That so called 45 stats of yours use to be 48, its dipping and will continue to dip at this rate.

Dale Steyn was excellent but clearly on his last legs in 2015, but according to stats he should have been selected, something which ended up backfiring. As I said old stats have zero relevance on current endeavours. Those 2023 stats have decreased and will continue to decrease.

"Theirs no way pakistan will drop Fakhar"

^^ They literally dropped him against Sri Lanka if it wasn't for imam getting injured last minute, nor did they test him in the warmup, when he's clearly fit and rearing to go.

"What happens in nets and warmup is irrelevant, as they say form is temporary and class is permanent"

Broskie stop embrassing yourself, Fakhar isn't class by any means, his baseba stance has always made him a limited player making him struggle against outswing or anything marginally outside offstump, he isn't class.

In terms of mindset and making do with what he's got, he's far superior to someone like imam and rizwan in terms of mindset , but he's in the same mould of limitations as they are.
 
Imam and shadab to open? If shadab clicks i will take 30 balls 60 from him. Its look like a fun but might work.
 
We invested so much in Fakhar. He has to play now. Also Imam is not a white ball player. He can't score fast. Abdullah should be selected but Imam seems immortal.
 
Imam was always a limited batsman , its no rocket science but were the selectors blind all these years and kept selecting him ? You should have thought about this issue long before WC and tried to find alternatives by giving them chances.

Instead the same 8 - 9 core players kept playing throughout even against Namibia , Nepal , etc etc !!! Its a complete failure . If you are serious about winning your strategy should show that .

The coach is online coach , what kind of Joke is this ! The whole thing is farce .
 
We can’t make any changes for World Cup now. Imaam is set as the first opener for now. Fakhar seems to have gone out of form at the wrong time but I think we should still persist with him. If he doesn’t score in the first two or three matches then Abdullah should come in his place.

Eventually Saim will replace one of them most likely Fakhar but that will happen after the World Cup.
 
mominsaigol said:
Old stats have zero relevance to how a player performance now. That so called 45 stats of yours use to be 48, its dipping and will continue to dip at this rate.

Dale Steyn was excellent but clearly on his last legs in 2015, but according to stats he should have been selected, something which ended up backfiring. As I said old stats have zero relevance on current endeavours. Those 2023 stats have decreased and will continue to decrease.

"Theirs no way pakistan will drop Fakhar"

^^ They literally dropped him against Sri Lanka if it wasn't for imam getting injured last minute, nor did they test him in the warmup, when he's clearly fit and rearing to go.

"What happens in nets and warmup is irrelevant, as they say form is temporary and class is permanent"

Broskie stop embrassing yourself, Fakhar isn't class by any means, his baseba stance has always made him a limited player making him struggle against outswing or anything marginally outside offstump, he isn't class.

In terms of mindset and making do with what he's got, he's far superior to someone like imam and rizwan in terms of mindset , but he's in the same mould of limitations as they are.
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NZ series was 3 months ago. It’s not old stats. Every batter has lean patches.
Fakhar is one of the best ODI batters in the world and he will come good.
 
Farabi said:
NZ series was 3 months ago. It’s not old stats. Every batter has lean patches.
Fakhar is one of the best ODI batters in the world and he will come good.
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Brother now you're just arguing from passion and maybe he will and maybe he won't arguments 😂. But ig it's good to have faith.
 
mominsaigol said:
Brother now you're just arguing from passion and maybe he will and maybe he won't arguments 😂. But ig it's good to have faith.
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I am not arguing from passion.
Players have ups and downs. Fakhar is a top class ODI batter. He will bounce back. Question of when not if
 
Farabi said:
I am not arguing from passion.
Players have ups and downs. Fakhar is a top class ODI batter. He will bounce back. Question of when not if
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As I said, good to have faith, I hope you're right in this aspect, it's not like I'm a poster who wants fakhar to fail lol, he's obviously the only batsmen who can outbat the opposition but again based of what I've seen it ain't gonna happen.

Regardless we'll see.
 
No doubt that Fakhar's form is very poor. He looks totally lost on the crease and clueless against the ball outside of the off stump. But this is how he plays, his technique may be one the weakest ones but when he is confident then comes his aggressive batting style that can destroy any bowling lineup in the World Cup.
 
It does not matter how terrible of a patch Imam, Fakhar or Abdullah are in, all of them at there worst are miles ahead of Rizwan at his best when we are talking about openers.

Although our current squad is far from perfect (worst world cup squad ever) I'd take Fakhar and Abdullah as openers with the off chance that Fakhar will find his feet, whereas Abdullah who is mediocre, but will probably do a better job than stat padder Imam
 
CerebralPatriot said:
It does not matter how terrible of a patch Imam, Fakhar or Abdullah are in, all of them at there worst are miles ahead of Rizwan at his best when we are talking about openers.

Although our current squad is far from perfect (worst world cup squad ever) I'd take Fakhar and Abdullah as openers with the off chance that Fakhar will find his feet, whereas Abdullah who is mediocre, but will probably do a better job than stat padder Imam
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Abdullah isn't medicore. He lacks experience and hasn't found his groove yet. He'll come good but it was stupid to take him into this world cup over saim ayub lol.
 
Fakhar is finished, he shouldn't even have been in the squad. Open with Shafique (not a good choice but that's what the selectors have gone with) and Imam... Imam is doing fine... He is getting the runs... First you have to score, then you have to focus on scoring fast...None in the Pakistan team are capable of scoring itself other than Imam, Babar and Rizwan (I mean consistent ones)... So forget about scoring fast.
 
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sam_ahm said:
Fakhar is finished, he shouldn't even have been in the squad. Open with Shafique (not a good choice but that's what the selectors have gone with) and Imam... Imam is doing fine... He is getting the runs... Score fast is ********... First you have to score, then you have to focus on scoring fast...None in the Pakistan team are capable of scoring itself other than Imam, Babar and Rizwan (I mean consistent ones)... So forget about scoring fast.
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So while New Zealand and England target 50 to 70 runs in 10 overs, we target 25 to 35? Makes no sense.

It's comments like these that bring forth the 1990's era mindset. Anyone who watched the NZ warmup knows that with the exception of saud shakeel no one from our end played international standards.

Everyone from NZ played odi like how they should, they deserved that warm up victory.

Don't use the poor bowling excuse, NZ was bowling with Glenn Philips, and darly Mitchell lol.

Point is someone like saud shakeel who's new to the international odi circuit and someone like Ravindra who isn't even frontline opening for NZ, should not be outperforming Mr no 1 odi batsmen and Mr no 2 t20 batsmen.

80 of 84 is not good enough, besides saud who adopted a SR of 140+ and Nz who were all striking at 120 to 140+, no one from our unit replicated that feat.

Surely the No 2 t20 batsmen and worlds best wicket keeper and strike higher then 90-110 next time especially if the bowlers are part time.
 
I would say Imam and Fakhar are the best options for a decent quick start.

If you want safe then Abdullah and Imam
 
MenInG said:
I would say Imam and Fakhar are the best options for a decent quick start.

If you want safe then Abdullah and Imam
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As much as I hate to say this and as much as I support Imam because he is a good batsman Fakhar brings more to the table, although no one knows what sor tof form he will turn up i but I'd rather the hope he gets a crazy 100 then Imam getting a steady 40 odd.

Shafique has looked to be ok in the last couple games so why not Shafique and Fakhar, adding a left right combo.
 
MenInG said:
I would say Imam and Fakhar are the best options for a decent quick start.

If you want safe then Abdullah and Imam
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What about fakhar and Rizwan? Isn't that logically the most aggressive option? And saud gets a slot at no 4, we'd also be able to move everyone up and have more bowling options cause we desperately need it in this world cup.

Rizwan may be limited but a 90 ball 100 at opening isn't bad at all. Agha can still play at that no 5 slot with chacha at 6.
 
Fakhar and Abdullah Shafique for me.

Imam even at his best will struggle to get out of third gear.

Fakhar is one player who can dismantle the opposition bowling attack with good intent and win matches single handedly. An out of form Fakhar is better than Imam.

Abdullah Shafique isn’t quite ready but he’s better than Imam and is technically sound. The PSL gave us a glimpse of his potential in white ball cricket.

I have no problem with Imam playing against Bangladesh because bullying them is his only speciality.
 
mominsaigol said:
I laid out all possible options, Literally neither are appealing.

Abdullah and imam opening means expect to lose in the first 10 overs.

Imam and fakhar opening is the best option but with fakhar's form we might be down a wicket in the first 5 consistently during the world cup.

Babar opening isn't bad but it weakens the middle order even further.

Rizwan opening is still a better option then Abdullah and imam also rizwan loves the opening slot more then 4. Be honest bro, you seriously think he won't open is asked? He loves nothing more then to hog all possible deliveries to himself. His 90 ball 100 isn't too bad.

But you are right if he faces quality bowling he's toast more or less lol.
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You are talking as if Fakhar is second coming of Sir Viv....go and check his PP strike rate of last 2-3 years
 
Kashmiri_Pak_fan said:
You are talking as if Fakhar is second coming of Sir Viv....go and check his PP strike rate of last 2-3 years
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I'm not though? Fakhar is the only player who can outbat the opposition with 150+ scores provided he performs which he seldom does nowadays.

He takes time to get going but he does up the ante something imam is incapable of doing.
 
The other option is Rizwan opening and batting Fakhar at 4 so he’s less exposed in the powerplay.

Rizwan won’t accept this proposition because he knows he’ll be so badly exposed to the new ball. Batting in the powerplay of an ODI is a far greater challenge than opening in T20Is.

I’ve always maintained that if you’re going to open in one white ball format, you should also bat somewhere in the top 3 in the other format.

It makes no sense to open Rizwan in T20Is and then bat him at 4 in ODIs.

The reason he has to bat at 4 is because he doesn’t have the skills to negotiate the new ball nor does have the ability to play the role of a finisher/hitter.

He’s very fortunate that the calibre of wicket-keepers in Pakistan is rather poor otherwise there’s no way he would make this team.
 
topspin said:
The other option is Rizwan opening and batting Fakhar at 4 so he’s less exposed in the powerplay.

Rizwan won’t accept this proposition because he knows he’ll be so badly exposed to the new ball. Batting in the powerplay of an ODI is a far greater challenge than opening in T20Is.

I’ve always maintained that if you’re going to open in one white ball format, you should also bat somewhere in the top 3 in the other format.

It makes no sense to open Rizwan in T20Is and then bat him at 4 in ODIs.

The reason he has to bat at 4 is because he doesn’t have the skills to negotiate the new ball nor does have the ability to play the role of a finisher/hitter.

He’s very fortunate that the calibre of wicket-keepers in Pakistan is rather poor otherwise there’s no way he would make this team.
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Rizwan is an innings builder. that's why he plays at No. 4 in ODIs
 
FearlessRoar said:
Rizwan is an innings builder. that's why he plays at No. 4 in ODIs
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Shouldn't he be opening?

Problem with rizwan is that while he is extremely consistent, he's incapable of upping the ante beyond 110. Look at how saud upped to 140 and every NZ batsmen upped it to 120 to 150.

He's better them imam who's perpetually stuck at 80, but rizwan starts at an 80 to 90 SR and stagnated at 110. In the death, he's not the type of capitalise max, he'll get you another 40 in 30 balls.

Someone like saud is more suited to no 4, rizwan at opening however, a 90 ball 100 would do wonders, at 4, you're mostly required to continue on with the established run rate that the top order has built and accelerate it even further.

Rizwan can't do that, he'll max just keep the tempo which isn't good enough. But at opening he can mostly play risk free and a 90 ball 100 would be welcome at that position.
 
mominsaigol said:
I never thought I'd ever be making a post on this. Before going into this world cup, it seemed the problems would lie with our bowling, fielding and middle order, but the opening was something that was set.

I mean pakistan has had the same opening pair for the last 5 years and a very very succesful opening pair at that. And yet ore world cup here we are boys.

Fakhar and Imam opening dilemma:

Unlike posters who would critise this opening pair, I use to forward this opening pair in the past when fakhar was inform. Imam and fakhar complimented each other, with Imam consistently rotating strike and keeping the score board ticking and fakhar striking freely and when he clicked he would almost certainly outbat the opposition and win single handedly.

But recently with fakhar fizzing out, Imam is now left with the responsibility of accelerating and being the aggressor and senior player, something he is not fit to do.

Imam and Abdullah opening dilemma

The issue with Imam and Abdullah is that unlike fakhar and Imam which was the perfect opening player, one was a striker and the other a stabiliser, we now have 2 stabilisers at the crease who like taking their time to go on their merry way. We saw the warmup game, how New Zealand top order approached the first 10 overs and how our top order approached the first 10 overs.

Let's be honest 33 for 1 on a batting paradise surface for the first 10 overs simply isn't good enough. While I have called Imam and Abdullah good players in the past, opening with the 2 of them is a recipe for disaster as we can't afford to be 3.5 runs in the opening power play when most teams will obviously be looking to go at 5 runs per over in the opening powerplay, especially England who will be looking to target 7 to possibly even 8 runs per over.

So what are our options?

Option 1: Back fakhar to open

This option seems risky, but fakhar is an impact player, and unlike the slow pitches of Sri lanka, Hyderabad looks to be a belter pitch which is something fakhar seems to enjoy. However in the current video on YouTube realesed by sports central, Fakhar seems to be struggling even in net practise. So it's a risky move, but fakhar and imam have been our opening pair for a while and they have won us games multiple times in the past.

Option 2: Bring Rizwan to Open along with either Abdullah or Imam

Ik people on this forumn hate rizwan, some like him some hate him, my problems with rizwan however aren't related to his batting. I just hate his golden boy treatment and his Crybaby no 4 slot argument. However with that being said irrespective of the whole rizwan only feasts on 2nd string attack argument which is the same argument people made for babar and imam and virtually everyone in our squad (Haters gotta hate)

Rizwan is capable of atleast scoring at 90 Sr and accelerating to a 110 Sr at the back end of the innings. A 90 ball 100 isn't too bad, and he does consistently play at a 90 to 110 Sr which is something we saw in Sri lanka Asia cup game as well. Along with the fact that he has been more consistent then imam and Abdullah this year and he clearly has experience with opening.

Rizwan may lack the ability of fakhar where he can outright outbat the opposition, but a consistent opener who can up the ante to a 110 SR, is a 90 ball 100 really a bad thing? Cause let's be honest, with imam and Abdullah expect a match losing 100 of 110 or 120 balls.

Rizwan opening also opens up the no 4 slot for saud.

Option 3: Bring babar to open

This is honestly the least appealing option to me, Babar is a good player and hence I feel bringing him to open will once again weaken the no 3 spot like it did with our t20 squad. Ontop of that if babar opens who will be our no 3? Rizwan? Saud? Fakhar?

However babar at opening does give us an improved version of imam and Abdullah, one who can accelerate at will.

Lastly I am known on this forumn as being an analyser as people have now started to notice I was right about saud's technique adjusting to odi as well. So believe me when I say this

Babar seems to have improved against spin. I have always loved babar for his batting improvements, He use to lack the ability to take singles and hit sixes at the start of his career and he's ironed out those issues.

In the warm up, he was playing spin on the backfoot and he seems to have ironed out his issues against spin, again only time will tell, but babar is an improvement type player and I knew he'd ironed it out eventually.

Again I maybe wrong, but he played satner and sodhi on the backfoot extremely well and no longer seemed to get stuck on the front foot anymore.

Babar is a solid player, ( Clueless captain) but clearly our best bat, but again him at opening will weaken our batting due to us already having a non existent middle order.
Click to expand...
Depends on the pitch. I don't want babar opening as he is a bit susceptible to getting out to the new ball.

Have a leftie with good S/r and maintain that left right combo.
 
topspin said:
Fakhar and Abdullah Shafique for me.

Imam even at his best will struggle to get out of third gear.

Fakhar is one player who can dismantle the opposition bowling attack with good intent and win matches single handedly. An out of form Fakhar is better than Imam.

Abdullah Shafique isn’t quite ready but he’s better than Imam and is technically sound. The PSL gave us a glimpse of his potential in white ball cricket.

I have no problem with Imam playing against Bangladesh because bullying them is his only speciality.
Click to expand...
I like this above. Abdullah shafique and fakhar is the ideal option for now.
 
Our best t20 opening combination Is likely to be our best ODI partnership. It also ensures that players have exact roles and do not need to adapt and worry. Our ODI openers are Batting middle order in t20s and our t20 openers batting middle order. It doesnt make sense.

imam, fakhar together wouldn’t work in t20s. Which kind of suggests they aren’t the ideal openers in ODIs either. Rizwan, Babar I’m pretty sure would work in ODIs. However given Babar is by far the best no.3, he should probably bat there for the good of the team.

I would have liked to have tried fakhar and Rizwan opening with babar at 3 in T20s. If that had worked and exceeded the current t20 system I would have also tried it in ODIs. Otherwise probably worth trying Babar, Rizwan as ODI openers, with Imam and Fakhar playing middle order.

But as we have not experimented, I think we have little choice but to go with Imam and Abdullah and hope for the best.
 
Fakhar and Imam to start. Give them the time until we have 2 losses. After that, you have to get into desperate mode with underperforming players replaced.
 
Fakhar is putting the team under tremendous pressure with these nonsensical innings.
 
[Reporter:]

Pakistan's openers are not in the best forms. Especially Fakhar is not giving, he's not making runs. Is there any going to be change in the tomorrow's game for Pakistan?

[Grant Bradburn:]

Okay, as I said before we're not getting what we would like to get out of our Powerplay but fortunately, we also we look at it as six phases of the game. There's the Powerplay, the mid phase, and the close, obviously, in both innings. So, our simple focus is to win more of those phases than the opposition, and you generally win the game.

So, while it's clear to see that we haven't been getting the dynamic results out of our batting Powerplay that we would like, our full faith is with all of our players that could take up that position. We've got four to five options that we could put out at the top of the order and we'd be very confident that they can deliver not only the runs but the tempo that we want to play at. We want to create a tempo for the middle order and the back end of our innings to build from. We're not getting that at the moment, so those are discussions that we're having, but we've got full faith in all of our options at the top
 
FearlessRoar said:
[Reporter:]

Pakistan's openers are not in the best forms. Especially Fakhar is not giving, he's not making runs. Is there any going to be change in the tomorrow's game for Pakistan?

[Grant Bradburn:]

Okay, as I said before we're not getting what we would like to get out of our Powerplay but fortunately, we also we look at it as six phases of the game. There's the Powerplay, the mid phase, and the close, obviously, in both innings. So, our simple focus is to win more of those phases than the opposition, and you generally win the game.

So, while it's clear to see that we haven't been getting the dynamic results out of our batting Powerplay that we would like, our full faith is with all of our players that could take up that position. We've got four to five options that we could put out at the top of the order and we'd be very confident that they can deliver not only the runs but the tempo that we want to play at. We want to create a tempo for the middle order and the back end of our innings to build from. We're not getting that at the moment, so those are discussions that we're having, but we've got full faith in all of our options at the top
Click to expand...
What are those 4/5 options?

Ik one is Abdullah at the top, what are the others?
 
mominsaigol said:
What are those 4/5 options?

Ik one is Abdullah at the top, what are the others?
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Woah it is very interesting that he mentioned 4/5 options. I didn’t think they’d he willing to get creative - I imagined Imam would open the whole World Cup with Fakhar Zaman/Abdullah Shafique switching out depending on form.

I’m cool with Imam up front if we can pair him with an aggressive batsmen, but out of the 15 available I don’t know who they would put up there? Rizwan? Shafique + Zaman up top with Imam at 3? I don’t see too many options considering Mohammad Harris is in the reserves.
 
160KPH said:
Woah it is very interesting that he mentioned 4/5 options. I didn’t think they’d he willing to get creative - I imagined Imam would open the whole World Cup with Fakhar Zaman/Abdullah Shafique switching out depending on form.

I’m cool with Imam up front if we can pair him with an aggressive batsmen, but out of the 15 available I don’t know who they would put up there? Rizwan? Shafique + Zaman up top with Imam at 3? I don’t see too many options considering Mohammad Harris is in the reserves.
Click to expand...
Coaches are known to lie and exaggerate claims.

The only options I can think of are maybe babar opening but then who bats at 3? Maybe rizzu can open but it's hard to keep + open with no rest, you'll need Sangakara or Gilchrist levels of stamina lol. Other then that no one is fit to open.

Saud can be out of the box, but that just cripples the middle order also saud has never opened before, he's a spin basher, I don't think opening would suit him.

Other then that you could have chacha open lol 😂. But yh realistically only Abdullah is the option and maybe rizzu.
 
Shafique has to open with Fakhar or Imam. I would prefer Imam as he is the better one of a terrible two. Fakhar is still playing off that innings versus India years back.
 
mominsaigol said:
Coaches are known to lie and exaggerate claims.

The only options I can think of are maybe babar opening but then who bats at 3? Maybe rizzu can open but it's hard to keep + open with no rest, you'll need Sangakara or Gilchrist levels of stamina lol. Other then that no one is fit to open.

Saud can be out of the box, but that just cripples the middle order also saud has never opened before, he's a spin basher, I don't think opening would suit him.

Other then that you could have chacha open lol 😂. But yh realistically only Abdullah is the option and maybe rizzu.
Click to expand...
Rizwan seems to be the only one that makes sense...

But Rizwan is not exactly the fastest starter in the world either based on his performances as opener in T20. Rizwan can definitely accelerate more than Imam though.
 
Fakhar out of form

Imam being exposed as a snail

Abdullah not an odi player

🤦‍♂️
 
Abdullah is an all-format batter and a classy one. Has the potential to be one of the greatest Pakistan has ever produced.
 
Abdullah has proved his worth as a good ODI openner all we need to find another one who can give support to him l, so i think Saim ayub is the one who can complete this combo so we can get rid of imam and fakhar.
 
Would rather have an out of form Fakhar than an exposed Imam. Imam clearly can’t play the short ball
 
Why not Babar Opens in upcoming matches and open a space for Agha Salman in playing 11?

My pick 11 slot and position will be.


Babar
Abdullah
Agah
Rizwan
Saud
Iftkar
Shahdab
Nawaz
Hassan
Shaheen
Harris.
 
Desprado123 said:
Why not Babar Opens in upcoming matches and open a space for Agha Salman in playing 11?

My pick 11 slot and position will be.


Babar
Abdullah
Agah
Rizwan
Saud
Iftkar
Shahdab
Nawaz
Hassan
Shaheen
Harris.
Click to expand...
Why not Babar drop himself and open a place for Fakar Zaman as well. Afterall, if the idea is to make your best batsman dance around to accomodate others, why have him in the team at all.
 
Babar is fine at 3. Imam is the problem, but we don't have anyone to open.

Fakhar is a red hot mess atm.
 
mominsaigol said:
Babar is fine at 3. Imam is the problem, but we don't have anyone to open.

Fakhar is a red hot mess atm.
Click to expand...
It's because Babar bats as a opener in T20s so it should not be any issue. Even if Babar bats at 3rd in Odi Fakhar or Imam would be out early either way so babar has to come and bat early.
 
Desprado123 said:
It's because Babar bats as a opener in T20s so it should not be any issue. Even if Babar bats at 3rd in Odi Fakhar or Imam would be out early either way so babar has to come and bat early.
Click to expand...
Whod be your no 3? Saud or rizzu? Also I forward the idea of Babar opening. I'm reserved about agha on the middle though.
 
happydavy said:
Why not Babar drop himself and open a place for Fakar Zaman as well. Afterall, if the idea is to make your best batsman dance around to accomodate others, why have him in the team at all.
Click to expand...
Both Fakhar and Imam is walking wicket and Muhammad Harris is not good batsman. His average is 24 in FC leave alone International. That is why i was in favor of picking up Harris Sohail instead of Muhammad Harris.
 
Fakhar Zaman
Imam-ul-Haq
Abdullah Shafique

All have flopped.
 
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