Wow delusion of the highest order, man of the match awards matter. Scoring 100s matters and helping out the team when it matters also counts, his overall average thus far is 38 and he’s done fine, guys like you don’t know nothing about patience you expect the moons and stars straight away which is unrealistic and frankly far fetched.
The other thing about Fawad is the improvement series by series but you wouldn’t give anyone credit cause all you do is frankly criticise, he’s still a solid no. 5 batsman and its typical of a person like yourself to give someone a hard time after a failure but then shy away and downplay any success.
Nawaz was a disappointment just go look at those t20 scores with the bat, bowling wise he did fine but at the same time was expensive. Still a good pick but needs improvement with the bat.
Fawad is 35, not 25. There is no time to be patient and wait for improvement, because he will be done in 2-3 years anyway.
Fawad is not an investment; he is a ready made product, so you cannot extend him the same leniency that you would to a young player.
When Australia selected Adam Voges in 2015 at the age of 35, he averaged 62 after 20 Tests which showed the experience that he gained in Sheffield cricket all those years.
That is what Australia expected from him too - if Voges was going to average in the 30s, Australia would have selected a young batsman.
The reason why they selected him was because their batting was struggling and they brought a veteran FC performer to perform like a seasoned Test player from the word go.
With the way Fawad has batted over the 3 series so far, he has not looked like someone who has 32 hundreds and 12,000 FC runs at one of the highest FC averages in history of cricket.
He has looked like a young, inexperienced batsman with good potential for Test cricket.
The way everyone was raving about Fawad Alam, I thought he will immediately fill the shoes of someone like Younis Khan and look like a world class Test batsman from the word go and start hitting daddy hundreds and double-hundreds.
After all, that is what you would expect from a 35 year old with 12,000 FC runs at one of the highest averages in history.
If you do not have that expectation, and if you do not believe that he is one of the best Test batsmen in the world who has been ignored for whatever reasons, than what is the worth of his FC record?
If someone like Saud Shakeel or Kamran Ghulam would have performed the way Fawad has so far, it would bode well for the future. However, his performances have not been up to the mark for a veteran like him.
He averaged 10 in England, he failed in the first innings in the first Test in New Zealand and then in the second innings, he immediately got out after his hundred and failed to save the game when he had the opportunity to do so.
He completely failed in the second Test.
Against South Africa, he got out for 102 on his home ground of NSK when he had the opportunity to score a daddy hundred like Younis used to do after getting set and completely kill South Africa in the first innings.
In the second Test in Rawalpindi in relatively bowling friendlier in conditions, he failed in both innings.
Has he looked like someone with one of the highest FC averages in history with 12,000+ runs under his belt?
No he has not from any angle, and this simply shows the gap between our FC and Test cricket.
A 56 averaging batsman in Pakistan FC is a 35-40 averaging batsman against quality attacks in Test cricket.
I am sure Fawad will pretend to be the second coming of Younis and an elite player against bowling attacks of Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan etc., but we saw enough against England, New Zealand and South Africa that he is not a 50+ averaging player against quality attacks, and this is where the gap between the quality of Pakistan FC cricket and Test cricket rears its ugly head.
Fawad should not even be playing in Zimbabwe. Minnow-bashing at this stage of his career does nothing for the team and only serves to boost his stats.
This series should have gone to the young and successful FC batsmen like Ghulam and Shakeel so that they could get a feel for Test cricket and combat their nerves.
Getting eased into Test cricket against a Pakistan domestic level attack like Zimbabwe could do a lot of good for the confidence of young Test batsmen.
In India, young batsmen are capable of scoring 300s against Anderson and Broad in their second Tests and score 200s against Rabada and Maharaj in their first series, but in Pakistan, we are hesitant to test a young FC batsman against a team like Zimbabwe.
India won’t even play Tests with Zimbabwe, but even if they do, will Kohli, Pujara and Rohit play?
Certainly not - so why are Azhar, Babar and Fawad playing in the Zimbabwe series? What does Pakistan cricket gain from it and learn from it? Absolutely nothing - it is only an opportunity for them to boost their stats.
Imam is one of the finest young batsmen in the country in terms of temperament and concentration to spend time at the crease.
M Wasim said he is not ready for Test cricket. So why not give him the chance to play against Zimbabwe so that he can take a leap towards being ready?
Why not give him the chance to score a 150 or a 200 or a 250 or a 300 against Zimbabwe so that he gets a confidence boost and also learns how it feels to bat for 5-6 sessions in a Test match and score big?
