Should Abid Ali be a first-choice opener for Pakistan in ODIs?

[omairsiddiqui]

On current form, he is timing the ball better than both Fakhar and Imam and batting at a better strike rate than Imam. Surely, he should be the first-choice opener for Pakistan in one-day cricket?

 

[Cornered-Forever]

This proves that the tables have turned, Pakistan is in no shortage of opening/middle-order batsmen. We need firepower at #6 + #7 and need to resurrect our bowling.

I'm happy with either pair of openers, the SR at the top of our inning is not our issue. We desperately need firepower at the death of the inning.

 

[Hawkeye]

Of course.

He scored a century vs Australia. And Mickey + Inzi decided to drop him!

Super glad Misbah is there now who understands talent. He should get a good run under Misbah.

 

[Markhor]

Tests as well.

 

[omairsiddiqui]

Tests as well.

Agree completely. I'd replace him with Imam to open with Shan Masood.

 

[Prince of Pakistan]

The mighty Imam is safe now. A hundred from Abid could have been it for Imam. Now the selectors will keep telling you how Imam averages 50+ and has already scored a few hundreds.

 

[Rayyman]

?

Fakhar averages 45+ at 90+ with a double hundred and he just scored consecutive fifties.

Abid definitely competes with Imam tho.

 

[MenInG]

Poll added.

 

[Babar_Azam_fan]

Abid
Imam
Babar
Haris
Sarfraz + *
Fakhar
Iftikhar (make him play as a bowling AR)
Imad
Amir
Shaheen
Shinwari

 

[Rana]

Abid
Imam
Babar
Harris
Fakhar

Fakhar needs to bat at 5 and look to score quickly

 

[aloo paratha]

Abid in place of imam would be perfect.

 

[sweep_shot]

Abid and Imam should open. Fakhar should be benched.

 

[azimiqbal]

Look your openers Ned to get you a good start, in modern day cricket you should not only look at averages but strike rate is also very important.

How many time have seen Pakistan chasing and when they lose there first wicket we are behind the run rate?

I would take abid Over imam all day long

 

[Pakhs]

No Should be second choice as doesnt have the power game - fakhar and Imam also have a good average but every now and then can hit a 6 too but abid ali looks like no power at all twice he missed a full toss and half tracker.

 

[azimiqbal]

No Should be second choice as doesnt have the power game - fakhar and Imam also have a good average but every now and then can hit a 6 too but abid ali looks like no power at all twice he missed a full toss and half tracker.

Ok bit to be rude but what have you been watching ?

When has imam ever had a power game ?

 

[Arham_PakFan]

Yes.

Good competition among the openers. Happy to see it

 

[aloo paratha]

No Should be second choice as doesnt have the power game - fakhar and Imam also have a good average but every now and then can hit a 6 too but abid ali looks like no power at all twice he missed a full toss and half tracker.

Imam struggles to find gaps, forget having power game. The only time imam can muscle the ball is when he runs down the track to hit over extra cover.

 

[topspin]

Abid Ali
Sharjeel
Babar
Haris
Rizwan
Fakhar

With Khushdil Shah and Umar Akmal as the reserve middle order batsmen in the side.

If Abid or Sharjeel get injured then promote Babar and use on of the two middle order squad players to fill the gap in the batting order.

Imam does not belong to International cricket because of his deficiencies against spin and 140+ short pitched bowling. Unless he improves technically he will continue to remain as an 80 SR batsman.

Fakhar just isn't suited to facing the new ball and should be given a chance to play as a lower order hitter in the side.

 

[moghul]

He is better than Imam, Fakhar, Shehzad-------or any one in contention for openening spot for ODI.

 

[SARJ_BD]

I have seen many opener scoring 50, but few were complimented as "classy 50" by commentators.
That says it all.

 

[ads101]

Play Fakhar and Abid as openers. It's tough to drop a guy who average over 50s, but if both Fakhar and Abid can average high, they are preferred over Imam due to their better ability to find boundaries and up SR. The right-left combo is needed.

If Fakhar fails, bring back Imam in his place. But I'd at least try to see how Fakhar-Abid works. It was nice Fakhar could just bat for once without worrying about SR, and I'd like to see how much better he could do in a right-left partnership again.

 

[SARJ_BD]

When Abid Ali scored 50, Fakhar had only 21 runs in his court.
When Abid reached 74, Fakhar was in 42.

This shows the way Abid Ali mastered his innings.
Commentators were repeatedly terming his innings as "classy", "exclusive". None of these words were used for Fakhar who scored slightly more than him eventually.

Not taking credit away from Fakhar, but I think he deserve to cement his place in a squad ahead of Fakhar.

 

[Savak]

Was highly impressed with the guy especially the way he played off his pads, on the leg side and off his hips. He can play through the covers, down the ground and the cut very well as well. Definitely merits a chance now

 

[Artaxerxes]

Imam is a good opener.You need someone to give you a steady start.Pakistan doesn't have a hard hitting no.6 and no.7.

 

[Amjid Javed]

Imam is a good opener.You need someone to give you a steady start.Pakistan doesn't have a hard hitting no.6 and no.7.

Steady start? We arent playing ODI cricket in 1980s. Players at top of order have to get decent scores and at a high strike rate.

 

[Pakhs]

Ok bit to be rude but what have you been watching ?

When has imam ever had a power game ?

Imam struggles to find gaps, forget having power game. The only time imam can muscle the ball is when he runs down the track to hit over extra cover.

When I say power game mean every now and then I have seen Imam hitting a 6 by coming down the wicket but yet to see Abid Ali hitting any or even come close to it. Imam would have put that full toss away which is nothing but better than Abid who gave a dolly catch which was luckily for him dropped miles inside the short boundary.

 

[aloo paratha]

When I say power game mean every now and then I have seen Imam hitting a 6 by coming down the wicket but yet to see Abid Ali hitting any or even come close to it. Imam would have put that full toss away which is nothing but better than Abid who gave a dolly catch which was luckily for him dropped miles inside the short boundary.

I'd much rather have a player who finds gaps, scoring in singles and doubles than a batsmen who will play at a 60 SR until he gets a hit me ball. Who cares about power game when you're scoring at a better rate.

 

[Sir-fraz]

should replace imam asap

 

[kingusama92]

Even though it's against Sri Lanka Z, the way he structured his innings was impressive. A lot better than Fakhar's blind slogging or Imam's "I will block the first million deliveries."

 

[Chief Destroyer]

Question is why the hell wasn't he selected 5-6 years ago and only under Mickey was he able to come to the fore?

 

[Danyaalr01]

He should definitely be first choice opener. He has all the shots in the text book, classy batsman nd good to watch. I would much rather have him than 'power hitter' Imam. The other spot should be contested between Imam and Fakhar.

Abid's foot work is also very good and a sweet timer of the ball. He has proved himself twice at the international stage in just 3 inninngs. It's sad though that he only gets picked when Imam is injured or sick.
The guy also knows the value of hardwork more than anyone in this team, he has been knockig on the selectors door for a while now with no response.

 

[run-out]

How old is he?

 

[Danyaalr01]

How old is he?

turning 32 in a few days.

 

[Pakhs]

I'd much rather have a player who finds gaps, scoring in singles and doubles than a batsmen who will play at a 60 SR until he gets a hit me ball. Who cares about power game when you're scoring at a better rate.

Against better teams these gaps will be plugged specially away games his technique looked very flawed in a game he played there but looked okay in UAE and in karachi. You have to have a power game unless you are Williamson or Babar. For now I think he can be a back up opener when we tour abroad and play against better teams and not 2nd string Srilanka.

 

[Rellu_Katta]

dont see a reason to retain fakhar and drop imam.... Imam is a much better option than fakhar based on current for and also the way Imam is always looking to improve where fakhar has moved iota from the point he came in to the team...

do not see sarfraz being a long term option at all but given the limitations of the team and absence of a leader, he will be around .(this doesnt give me comfort that we dont have a leader in the XI and the best we have is sarfraz....)

would like to see Harris Sohail taking the leadership soon.. he has all the capabilities, is a thinking cricketer and shld be given the coin

Imam
Abid
Babar
Harris
Rizwan(WK)
Iftikhar
Imad
Shadab (would prefer zafar gohar though)
Aamir
Shanwari / Hussnain / Rauf
SSA

would go with this.... Musa/Naseem/Hussnain/SSA should be our future bowl-4 ....

 

[khurram39]

I think this poll is not good enough as One can not be sure whom to out to bring Abid Ali in.

Fakhar Zaman with his SR and Imam with his numbers are amazing when compared to any other openers of Pakistan in the past.

I think most of us here want to replace Imam with Abid. Don't know why? Imam is the fastest to 1000 runs beating Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam then how you can do that.

Even babar azam faced the blame of slow strike rate and selfish type slogans.

Abid Ali must be there to generate the option

 

[The_Odd_One]

Imam has age on his side. He has also shown tremendous commitment to self-improvement which is evident through his excellent fitness and ability to change his game in the PSL.

I won't mind Abid replacing Fakhar. The latter has looked clueless against any non-minnow attack lately.

 

[ads101]

Even though it's against Sri Lanka Z, the way he structured his innings was impressive. A lot better than Fakhar's blind slogging or Imam's "I will block the first million deliveries."

He looks better at the crease than both of them. And is a right hander which would give us that right-let combo. Wish he played in Champions Trophy, maybe we would have got to the knock out stages if he had.

The fakhar-Imam partnership is bad. They hardly put any good stands together except against Zimbabwe. Trouble is we don't know who's at fault. It could be Fakhar has simply lost it. Then again it could be Imam creating SR pressure (as Fakhar-Babar partnership in T20s is actually very good for us). Or simply it's two left handers, Fakhar had a right handed opener batting opposite end in the CT before when he was scoring big. It's masked by the fact that each of them averages highly, but it really is a poor opening partnership.

What it does look is that a player like Abid will be the more adaptable playing with either opener. I think either of Fakhar or Imam will benefit playing with him. It's hard to tell which of them should bat with Abid to form the best pairing, but I think either Abid-Fakhar or Abid-Fakhar will be an improvement over Imam-Fakhar.

 

[Mobashir]

He may be better than Imam at the moment but still I will not have him in the XI.
He really doesn't look impressive at all. You can see that attacking cricket isn't natural to him. He might succeed few times playing like that but he will fail many more times.
Also the way he played spin bowling was just awful.

His innings reminded me Azhar Ali's 96 vs Sri Lanka.

He is a good domestic cricketer and there he should remain.

In test cricket, he may be a good choice as a blocker at the top just like Azhar Ali is doing at 3.

 

[aloo paratha]

Against better teams these gaps will be plugged specially away games his technique looked very flawed in a game he played there but looked okay in UAE and in karachi. You have to have a power game unless you are Williamson or Babar. For now I think he can be a back up opener when we tour abroad and play against better teams and not 2nd string Srilanka.

Steve Smith's technique looks flawed, but he is fine. Technique is overrated. Fact is that in 4 ODI innings, Abid Ali has played 2 innings already that Imam could only dream of playing.

 

[badsha001]

Steve Smith's technique looks flawed, but he is fine. Technique is overrated. Fact is that in 4 ODI innings, Abid Ali has played 2 innings already that Imam could only dream of playing.

LOL at people saying Imam has a "power game". The guy only has a twitter game.

Abid Ali is a right handed batsmen which creates a right/left handed combination which doesn't allow the bowlers to build their rhythm. Imam blocks most of the balls to get his eye sight in which results in bowler building their rhythm and bowl tighter line to Fakhar and he gets out. Similar thing can be seen when Fakhar and Azhar Ali opened together where they both complimented each other. Imam should no where near the team until he learns to hit a six at his will and not out of frustration.

 

[Abdullah719]

Shoaib Akhtar comes out in support of ‘solid opener’ Abid Ali

Former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has come out in support of opening batsman Abid Ali, questioning the cricketing authorities why doesn’t such a ‘solid player’ play more often.

“A solid opener like Abid Ali gets selected only after Imam-ul-Haq got unfit and a place was left vacant. Abid has always scored runs whenever the chance is provided so why doesn’t Pakistan cricket team play with such solid players,” he said in a video.

Speaking about Ali’s inning of 74 runs, which also allowed the batsman to earn a Man of the Match award, Akhtar said that the opener should have gone out to hit a big hundred, and must learn to play the spinners better.

“I saw one problem in Abid Ali’s inning and that was he didn’t played the spinners well, I agree that the leg-spinners were a bit difficult but Abid should have managed to play the googly’s better. However, he played the fast bowlers pretty well and formed a good opening stand with Fakhar Zaman,” he added.

Talking about Pakistan’s upcoming tour of Australia, Akhtar said that Ali alongside Azhar Ali would be successful during the tour Down Under. “Ali alongside Azhar Ali would be the only batsmen for Pakistan capable of taking down Australia. Both of them play quite well, Azhar is pretty determined player, whereas, Abid is a good back foot player but it will be a test for him,” he said.

Despite only getting a chance in absence of fellow opener Imam, the 31-year-old says he remains positive and keep training. “It is a good thing to have a tough competition for the opening slot, so I am always looking to give top performance and make a good comeback,” said Ali during a post match conference.

After winning the ODI series, Pakistan would now meet Sri Lanka in Lahore for a three-match T20I series.

https://www.brecorder.com/2019/10/0...omes-out-in-support-of-solid-opener-abid-ali/