POTW: shariqnoor

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An excellent analysis of the Azhar Ali enigma is this week's POTW

Congratulations to [MENTION=141811]shariqnoor[/MENTION]

http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/s...ark-of-a-good-batsman&p=11463023#post11463023

So I was just looking at Azhar Ali's stats and saw that his SR is 41.89 which is shocking for someone who has played 94 Test Matches.

Just crunched some numbers and saw that had Azhar batted at a SR of even 46 in his career on average, his runs scored right now would've been 7,709 as opposed to 7,021 currently and his average would've been 47.29 as opposed to 43.07 right now. Those stats alone would've put him in the 3rd tier of great batsmen. Right now he's probably 5th or 6th tier.

Inzamam in his whole Test career played less balls than Azhar Ali, yet has scored 1,800 runs more than him. Simply because he looked to dominate the game once set.

This should be a lesson to all aspiring batsmen to not be like Azhar Ali at all. You will never maximize your talent. Azhar has been that kind of a player who bats at exactly the same way if he is on 243 as if he is on 3. There is no gears associated with him and he looks shaky throughout his innings.

There needs to be a research done as to why Pakistani batsmen in today's world play at a 35-42 SR in Test cricket. I believe it boils down to lack of self-confidence in ones ability. They are just so scared and timid of being out there in the middle that the only way they think they can score runs is if they bat out a large amount of time.

I'm afraid Abdullah Shafique is another one who's following the lead of Azhar Ali in this timid approach despite the fact that he has Babar Azam at the other end to emulate. People laud the heroic escape of the Karachi Test but any team who has ambitions of becoming a world class team would have either won that Test or lost it. The draw should not have ever been part of the equation. To bat almost full 2 days and not score 500 is criminal and Abdullah Shafique is guilty for large part of it. That's the harsh truth.

I hope Pakistani batsmen can move on from the style of Azhar Ali and adopt a modern approach to Test match cricket. This does not mean going at 3.5 RPO every match. It only means that you look to score runs first and only stop when the situation demands it. I remember watching an interview of Kohli where he said that the first thought is that this delivery needs to go to the boundary. If the ball isn't there for a boundary, then the next thought is to score 3, then 2, then a single and then just defend it. That's how the mindset works. Our mindset is the exact opposite. Defend for a 0 first.

I hope when the time comes for Azhar Ali to retire, we replace him with someone who will look to score at 50 SR and dominate the game when set.

 

[gazza619]

Love the post! A very easy read and to the point. Well done mate.

Abdullah Shafique still has time and skill to change his batting approach. The sooner Azhar Ali & Fawad Alam are kicked out of the squad, the better.

 

[Rana]

Good post

Azhar has over achieved which is inspirational for most decent but not exceptional batsmen.

 

[sweep_shot]

Congratulations.

 

[Cover Drive Six]

Congrats

 

[shariqnoor]

Thank you guys. Much appreciated.

 

[Bouncer]

Great Post Shariq.

Around 2012 is when I started thinking that this guy bats exactly the same way whether he is facing his first ball or 50th ball or 200th ball.

At that point I knew that this guy is going to be able to accumulate runs for himself and in a purple patch will help the team too but overall he will never even become a tier-2 batsman When considering the impact that he can have among his contemporaries.

As far as Abdullah is concerned, I wouldn't worry too much about him at this point because he is still less than 10 test matches old, He is still playing to solidify his spot in the test team. What he actually needs is what happened with babar, which was an opportunity to play under a western/modern coach who molded baber into a world-class player, gave him
Confidence to bat with freedom.

Unfortunately that's where Abdullah is stuck with the coaching staff that has both the head coach and batting coach who are going to ask him to not be positive instead they want him to keep on batting with a super conservative approach even when he's batting on the flat surfaces thus depriving him with the opportunity to gain more self-belief.

These coaches will coach him/instruct him to bat that way because in each series their first priority is not to lead team to the victory or develop the player for the future but instead their priority is to make sure that after the current series they get signed on and keep job for the next series and so on and so on.

 

[Saj]

Well done.

 

[hitthestump]

Good post. Misbah utilised Azhar in his brand of tuk-tuk which clearly worked well, but in the post-UAE era you're right to identify that we need better strike rates in order to be successful.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

I think Azhar Ali is not the most gifted batter in his own FC team. He has sort of maximised his talent by playing the way he does. Even Asad Shafiq had more potential than Azhar, but Azhar has won us more matches than he did. Our batting resources were just so thin in 2010s that there weren't many players who were doing enough for the middle order slot. It's taken Kamran Ghulam around 5 years to come into contention.

Abdullah Shafique is 5 tests old. He shouldn't be expected to start winning matches from now. Had he gotten out earlier, all the blame would have gone on him. He probably did what he was told to. Plus he has more variety than Azhar Ali so I expect him to approve.

 

[shamaan]

Azhar doesn't have gears but Abdullah does have different gears but he's early in his career.