What's new

Should Mohammad Rizwan open the innings for Pakistan in ODIs?

saeed5646

T20I Debutant
Joined
Sep 3, 2015
Runs
7,931
A bit stretch from fitness point of view but i think he will be ok opening in odis .Current form in t20i shows he is more than capable opener likes of fakhar ,abid in odis
 
Last edited:
Whats wrong with fakhar and imam is more or less the same type of player to rizwan.
 
To be honest, there's no harm in trying it. I think he'd do far far better than Fakhar. From the T20's you can see he's very good at building an innings and switching gears.
 
Yes definitely he has to open. He is a player who wins you games and he should be facing most of the deliveries in Odis along with Babar.
 
It will most probably happen. Rizwan is good for number 4-5 but even better for the opening position.

I think we will see it happen for the ODI series in south Attica with Imam/Fakhar fighting for the other slot.
 
Its probably likely to happen but I personally would like to see him stay at maybe 4/5. I just think we could do with another reliable batsman in the middle order with Babar Azam.
 
No. We have Imam as one opener, and in the current Pakistan Cup Khurram Manzoor, Sahibzada Farhan, Shan Masood, Tayyab Tahir, and Mukhtar Ahmed all performed well as openers. One of them should be selected.

I personally would prefer either Sahibzada Farhan or Shan Masood,
 
i would love to see him in top 4..
Imam
Fakhar
Babar
Riz
??? (haris, ifti, talat,
??? khushdil, asif)
Imad
Shadab/Usman
Faheem
Hasan
Shaheen
 
I rather have him.open in one days as i always wanted keeper who opens or bats in top 3...he has done enough to be given a go
 
Yes, and Haider should bat at 4. Haris at 5.

Imam
Rizwan
Babar
Haider
Haris

ODI top 5 looks alright
 
Should open, he’ll punish anything on his pads, like Indian batsman do basically and good enough to find the gaps in PPs.
 
Yes, and Haider should bat at 4. Haris at 5.

Imam
Rizwan
Babar
Haider
Haris

ODI top 5 looks alright

Haider has no chance of playing ODIs after his recent performance in T20Is, and besides, he would be a disaster at number 4 because has zero temperament and zero clue about innings construction.

He needs to go back to FC cricket and play around 25-30 matches before he is ready for international cricket.
 
It will be a blunder.

Rohail Nazir has to be inducted , Rizwan should not be played in all games , he needs to be preserved. PCB needs to understand how to develop players , In the modern day and age you need to have at least 3 WK in the group , who can come in at any moment.
 
With Rizwan partnering Babar we have our best two batsmen opening the innings. Given how scarce resources are it's about the best partnership we can put together right now.

The only way this changes is if Sharjeel has an unreal PSL and forces his way into recognition.
 
Haider has no chance of playing ODIs after his recent performance in T20Is, and besides, he would be a disaster at number 4 because has zero temperament and zero clue about innings construction.

He needs to go back to FC cricket and play around 25-30 matches before he is ready for international cricket

What would be your thoughts on him opening in ODIs and Rizwan at #4 ?
 
What would be your thoughts on him opening in ODIs and Rizwan at #4 ?

He should not be playing international cricket any time soon. He is simply not ready and if he is persisted with it would end his career.

He doesn’t seem smart enough to learn on the job. He has shown no signs of improvement whatsoever. He clearly needs time away from the spotlight and FC experience before having another crack at international cricket.

Misbah usually does not have enough patience for brainless young batsmen. I will be very surprised if he makes the next Pakistan squad.

Tomorrow might be his last match for Pakistan for a good while. I would personally drop him for now even if he gets a score because he is mentally not ready for this level.
 
Yes.

I would go with the following lineup in the next series:
1. Rizwan
2. Imam
3. Babar
4. Haris
5. Danish
6. Haider
7. Faheem
8. Imad
9. Shadab
10. Hasan
11. Shaheen

The bowling looks very poor so we need to try reserves in some of the matches. In particular, Zafar and Hasnain.
 
This Danish fellow seems to be the new flavor of the month. 99.99% chance is that he is also going to be rubbish.

He is the Abdullah Shafique of February 2021. :91:
 
This Danish fellow seems to be the new flavor of the month. 99.99% chance is that he is also going to be rubbish.

He is the Abdullah Shafique of February 2021. :91:

Ok? So what?

That could be said about every batsman in Pakistan. But you still need 11 players even if they aren't good enough for international cricket.
 
Fakhar, abid are in real mess both are struggling big time while haider is also going backward .I think rizwan is best option with iman
 
No he shouldn’t open. He will be an asset in the middle order at no.4 though.

My ODI XI for SA tour:

1. Imam
2. Sharjeel (power hitter)
3. Babar
4. Rizwan
5. Hafeez
6. Azam (power hitter)
7. Imad
8. Shadab
9. Faheem
10. Hassan
11. Shaheen
 
Pakistan don't have any settled openers, and Rizwan had excelled beyond everyone's expectations as a T20 opener.

This is a pretty easy decision for me. Rizwan has to open

As for Sharjeel, Fakhar, Abid - they've been total flops in the recent past. None of them have earned a place in the ODI team, and likely past their best.
 
Rizwan is more important in the middle-order. Pakistan need a stable middle-order in ODIs to be a successful team. Babar and Haris are good but you need Rizwan in there as well at 4 or 5. Fakhar and Imam have been doing well enough in the past few years to hold onto their opening slots.

Fakhar may have gone through some rough patches but you need a player like him as opener. Getting Rizwan to open will weaken our middle order.
 
Rizwan has to open in ODIs!

I've seen enough of the Fakhar Imam partnership. It's so uninspiring. It doesn't work, they don't compliment each other. Imam creates pressure on fakhar for run rate, Fakhar creates pressure for Imam that he won't stay in on the other end. Most of their runs come from batting with Babar not with each other. As a result we are wasting the early overs we don't get a strong opening stand to build on, nor quick runs.

Either drop one of them, or move them down the order. I'm tempted to drop Fakhar down the order as easier for him to adapt, he's 31 so I imagine in a few years he will have to drop down the order anyway due to reflexes.

I think we need to put our faith in Rizwan opening. He has looked poor everywhere but opening in Limited overs, but opening he has looked stellar. Middle order is just wasting him. Yes he could fail as opener too, but I think it is worth taking the chance on. He has potential to be a better allround player than either Fakhar or Imam. Even if we have to drop one of Fakhar or Imam to do it, he has to open.
 
Worst a punt.. Quite disappointed with Imam performance. He is more suited to red ball cricket. Don't know why Mr Chief Selector think Imam is more suited for white ball cricket... :mw3:facepalm
 
Pakistan don't have any settled openers, and Rizwan had excelled beyond everyone's expectations as a T20 opener.

This is a pretty easy decision for me. Rizwan has to open

As for Sharjeel, Fakhar, Abid - they've been total flops in the recent past. None of them have earned a place in the ODI team, and likely past their best.

Fakhar?

Has that 193 left your head or what? When has Imam produced any knock of that substance? He's farming runs against Zimbabwe at a SR of 70, you can't seriously think Fakhar is the problem.

Maqsood is another candidate for opener. Both him and Rizwan will be better than Imam, but you can't have both open because the middle order becomes too fragile.

Fakhar Zaman
Mohammad Rizwan
Babar Azam
Sohaib Maqsood
Saud Shakeel
Imad Wasim
Shadab Khan (vc)
Hasan Ali
Haris Rauf
Mohammad Hasnain
Shaheen Shah Afridi

That team gives you a R+L opening combination, and both players are capable of switching gears when they get settled.

Babar is there to provide runs and anchor if openers are lost, and Maqsood at 4 means that you get a lot of hitting early in the middle overs. If he gets his eye in, he will be dangerous.

The only issue is Saud at 5, it's not suited for him, but since he plays as an all-rounder, he can be interchanged with Maqsood in certain situations.

We need Imad for his pressure batting and economical bowling.

Haris/Hasnain can be interchanged for Usman Qadir should the situation demand it.
 
I definitely tend to agree with the suggestion. Rizwan with Fakhar opening the innings gives more time to Rizwan to consolidate his innings in addition to providing a chance to a more dynamic batsman coming in at 4.
 
I don't think its a bad option to try. I would also open up a spot in the middle order. Saud Shakeel moves to No.4, Maqsood No.5 and a space opens up at No.6.
 
Pakistan don't have any settled openers, and Rizwan had excelled beyond everyone's expectations as a T20 opener.

This is a pretty easy decision for me. Rizwan has to open

As for Sharjeel, Fakhar, Abid - they've been total flops in the recent past. None of them have earned a place in the ODI team, and likely past their best.

Mate are you ignorant or do you only follow Pakistan when they come to England.

Fakhar only averaged 100 in his recent series in South Africa , with back to back scores of 193 and 101.

Some of the stuff I read here is beyond belief .
 
Imam should be dropped and rizwan and fakhar should open. Haris sohail should be brought back in middle order whatever his fitness is as there are no other talent available in pakistan right now.
 
Imam's stats are incredible for a Pakistani. His place as an opener cannot be called into question even remotely.

You aren't going to find someone else who averages nearly 50 after 45 ODI's anywhere else in the country i assure you. Rizwan will not outperform what Imam has achieved in his career so far.
 
Worst a punt.. Quite disappointed with Imam performance. He is more suited to red ball cricket. Don't know why Mr Chief Selector think Imam is more suited for white ball cricket... :mw3:facepalm

The way Imam is batting at the moment, very soon he would not suited to any form of cricket.
 
Yeah let’s swap a serial ODI failure with a guy who has had 2 bad games as an opener in the last week
 
I like Rizwan but it would be incredibly unfair to replace Imam as an opener. In terms of consistency he has been second to only Babar and two poor innings definitely do not justify him being dropped.

Even though Rizwan in terms of batsmanship and all round ability is better than any keeper within our talentless pool of players, he has failed to perform in ODIs even though he has been given countless chances so it makes sense to try someone else out.

However Rizwan’s poor form in ODIs should be no reason to question his selection in T20s
 
No problem with Imam after just 2 failures but Rizwan can turn out into a better and little bit more attacking ODI opener than him.
Maybe Imam can find a place in middle as there is no solidity right now in middle order.
 
Imam is a steady accumulator of runs. He provides little to no impact on the match aside from giving some comfort to the dressing room that the batting unit will bat 50 overs. Rizwan has shown when given the opportunity that he can win games batting as an opener. That he can play in more than one way. His move to the opening position also gives the team the opportunity to strengthen the middle order and allow players to play in their best positions.

One big issue is the lower order. Shadab and Faheem in theory do have batting ability, but they have never demonstrated that ability in 50 over cricket. I would bat Shadab at 6. I wouldn't play Faheem, because he's not providing impact with either the ball or the bat and imo that comes down to not playing enough ODI or List A cricket to develop an identity. I would push Hasan Ali to 8 and build a more diverse bowling lineup.

But yes, Rizwan should open.
 
Imam's stats are incredible for a Pakistani. His place as an opener cannot be called into question even remotely.

You aren't going to find someone else who averages nearly 50 after 45 ODI's anywhere else in the country i assure you. Rizwan will not outperform what Imam has achieved in his career so far.

This is ridiculous.
 
The problem has been putting t20 stars to play in ODIs and those who perform in ODIs to play test cricket and those who do well in FC cricket are selected for ODIs and asked to perform straightaway.

I dont think rizwan would replace imam, he would rather hav a good run for 5 games and then lose his way. If he is good enough to open then the last two games he should have shown that in glimpses because he came in early but failed the same way twice and always falling over with bad balance.
 
Given Rizwan's weakness around the 5th stump line and his tendency to poke at the moving ball (very apparent in recent dismissals and stretches all the way back to the ODIs in SA), making him open when the ball moves around the most, might not be the best.

At 5, PCT can also leverage Rizwan's temperament to negotiate collapses, his ability to rotate strike through the middle overs, and still give him enough time to play a long innings. If the likes of Babar, Saud, Rizwan are shielded from the new ball by the openers (not by dead-batting the PP, but just playing responsibly), we can back ourselves to get a pretty good score and let the likes of Maqsood/Danish/Khushdil hit out to their hearts' content.
 
Neither Fakhar and Imam really deserve to lose their place based on their stats. And yes Rizwan is a risk promoting, but it's worth the gamble I think. It's just Fakhar-Imam partnership is bad. They play worse until one of them gets out. I don't think it'll improve. Last time it led to one of them eventually losing form in Fakhar and booted out. The same will probably happen again, which is unfortunate as it's difficult to lose 40/50 average players.

I also think Fakhar doesn't do well in the opening overs. He's scratchy, needs a bit of luck to stay in. Once he does though, he finds it easy to stay in and accelerate the scoring. Probably due to lack of technique. Down in the middle order it might be easier for a guy like Fakhar to score. On the other hands Imam wastes batting powerplay, it's just it's difficult to see him performing down the order (though perhaps he could at 3 but that's Babar's position).

Rizwan I think is more likely to play more like Babar, solid foundation but not slow at a decent SR. We saw how his fortune transformed in T20 when put as opener. Worse still, how Rizwan is currently playing in ODIs you could argue he's a liability, even Sarfraz would be able to put up better stats then him middle order.
 
Given Rizwan's weakness around the 5th stump line and his tendency to poke at the moving ball (very apparent in recent dismissals and stretches all the way back to the ODIs in SA), making him open when the ball moves around the most, might not be the best.

At 5, PCT can also leverage Rizwan's temperament to negotiate collapses, his ability to rotate strike through the middle overs, and still give him enough time to play a long innings. If the likes of Babar, Saud, Rizwan are shielded from the new ball by the openers (not by dead-batting the PP, but just playing responsibly), we can back ourselves to get a pretty good score and let the likes of Maqsood/Danish/Khushdil hit out to their hearts' content.

So whom you consider a better batsman against the moving ball? Even the best batsmens in the world will struggle when the ball is moving. Need to think about a better player who can make an impact in the opening slot rather than thinking too much about conditions and all. Teams like Aus or India don't think that way they will open with Warners, Finch or Rohit any day in any conditions. Its only in Pakistan that they take the conditions over their head and brings in mediocre players in the opening slot in the name of technique and they also fails miserably when the ball moves.
 
So whom you consider a better batsman against the moving ball? Even the best batsmens in the world will struggle when the ball is moving. Need to think about a better player who can make an impact in the opening slot rather than thinking too much about conditions and all. Teams like Aus or India don't think that way they will open with Warners, Finch or Rohit any day in any conditions. Its only in Pakistan that they take the conditions over their head and brings in mediocre players in the opening slot in the name of technique and they also fails miserably when the ball moves.

We don't need to follow any other team's template, we have to realize our strengths and back them. Let's critically think rather than blindly copy/paste what others have done. The reason India, Australia, England play 'dashers' who probably do not have the best techniques is that they can afford to lose early wickets in exchange for big, quick runs since they have a solid middle order who can usually handle a 12/2, for e.g. Pakistan, however, has a relatively inexperienced one at the moment.

Perhaps, more important than technique is just being familiar with that batting position and the role that comes with it. Has Rizwan opened often in List A?

I'd personally persist with Imam just because he has shown that he can play some clutch knocks esp when chasing and has a bit of that competitive spirit that we need. While Rizwan can bolster our middle order and can also get some rest between innings rather than opening right after keeping for 50 overs. We don't want him looking lethargic, like QDK always seems to be.
 
Neither Fakhar and Imam really deserve to lose their place based on their stats. And yes Rizwan is a risk promoting, but it's worth the gamble I think. It's just Fakhar-Imam partnership is bad. They play worse until one of them gets out. I don't think it'll improve. Last time it led to one of them eventually losing form in Fakhar and booted out. The same will probably happen again, which is unfortunate as it's difficult to lose 40/50 average players.

I also think Fakhar doesn't do well in the opening overs. He's scratchy, needs a bit of luck to stay in. Once he does though, he finds it easy to stay in and accelerate the scoring. Probably due to lack of technique. Down in the middle order it might be easier for a guy like Fakhar to score. On the other hands Imam wastes batting powerplay, it's just it's difficult to see him performing down the order (though perhaps he could at 3 but that's Babar's position).

Rizwan I think is more likely to play more like Babar, solid foundation but not slow at a decent SR. We saw how his fortune transformed in T20 when put as opener. Worse still, how Rizwan is currently playing in ODIs you could argue he's a liability, even Sarfraz would be able to put up better stats then him middle order.

Looking at the stats I'm not sure that's necessarily true.

On the 39 occasions they've opened together, they've set up an opening stand of 50+ 13 times, and passed 100+ on 5 of those times. They average at about 46 runs per game. Surprisingly, they're already the 4th highest run scoring opening partnership (total volume of runs) in Pakistan's ODI history, and already in the Top 30 (26th) across all teams of all times. Most partnerships ranked around them have played significantly more number of innings.

The stats may be inflated due to some lower-ranked team 'bashing', but surely Fakhar-Imam's opening combo isn't as bad as it might be made out to be.
 
We don't need to follow any other team's template, we have to realize our strengths and back them. Let's critically think rather than blindly copy/paste what others have done. The reason India, Australia, England play 'dashers' who probably do not have the best techniques is that they can afford to lose early wickets in exchange for big, quick runs since they have a solid middle order who can usually handle a 12/2, for e.g. Pakistan, however, has a relatively inexperienced one at the moment.

Perhaps, more important than technique is just being familiar with that batting position and the role that comes with it. Has Rizwan opened often in List A?

I'd personally persist with Imam just because he has shown that he can play some clutch knocks esp when chasing and has a bit of that competitive spirit that we need. While Rizwan can bolster our middle order and can also get some rest between innings rather than opening right after keeping for 50 overs. We don't want him looking lethargic, like QDK always seems to be.

Hahaha! Pakistan have always their own ways leaving rest of the world.
The reality is they that they are in 12/2 situation very often still after playing these sort of players. And they have currently an inexperienced middle order, these things are said since ages, its nothing new. If you will not have dynamic players at the top your middle order will always play under pressure be it experienced or not. And a wicketkeeper opening in a Test match is a big ask rather than in an ODI game. There are many examples of succesfull ODI wicketkeepers who were successfull openers too. And Rizwan should have played as an opener first in a List A game is also an ancient age mentality which Pakistan is having. For your info Sachin, Ganguly, Sehwag, Rohit never opened in List A matche before opening in internationals, but Pak will not follow others blindly. They are really intelligent peoples, have their own standards which they follow and are highly successfull in that from last 2 decades. You need to build better openers & give them confidence rather than depending on List A matches.
 
A bit stretch from fitness point of view but i think he will be ok opening in odis .Current form in t20i shows he is more than capable opener likes of fakhar ,abid in odis

no becuase in ODI you can afford to have 3 slips in the power play. he will knick one to the keeper or slips. He is techincally not that sound to open ...tuka cricket t20 ..he is ok
 
Looking at the stats I'm not sure that's necessarily true.

On the 39 occasions they've opened together, they've set up an opening stand of 50+ 13 times, and passed 100+ on 5 of those times. They average at about 46 runs per game. Surprisingly, they're already the 4th highest run scoring opening partnership (total volume of runs) in Pakistan's ODI history, and already in the Top 30 (26th) across all teams of all times. Most partnerships ranked around them have played significantly more number of innings.

The stats may be inflated due to some lower-ranked team 'bashing', but surely Fakhar-Imam's opening combo isn't as bad as it might be made out to be.
4 out of 5 of those 100+ times were against Zimbabwe. It's massively inflated. And compare to how each of them perform with Babar. Regardless of stats just watching them it doesn't feel like it's working. When two guys average near 50 up top, you expect regular opening stands, stability at top. Somehow we don't have that despite that, even with Babar coming in at 3. Usually a wicket falls early or if they stay in run rate is an issue.

But really it's more about taking a gamble on Rizwan. We've seen this guy in tests, T20s, PSL. Especially how he's dominated in T20s and PSLs as soon as he opened. If Rizwan is able to play in the same way as he does in T20s and PSL he will be better than either Imam and Fakhar who despite good players have severe limitations.

Rizwan despite his bad start, has the 5th best batting T20 average of all time. Babar has the 3rd. Given our top order still doesn't look that secure despite the averages it's worth a risk based on that I feel. Rizwan's potential just isn't being unlocked in ODIs at the moment, and that's a huge problem for Pakistan and if there's a chance opening can solve that just like it did for T20s and PSL, I'd gladly take a gamble on that opposed to hoping the Fakhar-Imam partnership will finally come good after years of them playing.
 
Hahaha! Pakistan have always their own ways leaving rest of the world.
The reality is they that they are in 12/2 situation very often still after playing these sort of players. And they have currently an inexperienced middle order, these things are said since ages, its nothing new. If you will not have dynamic players at the top your middle order will always play under pressure be it experienced or not. And a wicketkeeper opening in a Test match is a big ask rather than in an ODI game. There are many examples of succesfull ODI wicketkeepers who were successfull openers too. And Rizwan should have played as an opener first in a List A game is also an ancient age mentality which Pakistan is having. For your info Sachin, Ganguly, Sehwag, Rohit never opened in List A matche before opening in internationals, but Pak will not follow others blindly. They are really intelligent peoples, have their own standards which they follow and are highly successfull in that from last 2 decades. You need to build better openers & give them confidence rather than depending on List A matches.

I'm not sure you're aware but playing players at positions that they have never trained for is synonymous with Pakistan, essentially the opposite of what you just said. A good example of this is debuting Fakhar as a slogger at 6 when he racked up scores in List A as a top order bat. Also, in terms of being dynamic, we even tried opening with Faheem of all people in NZ during that 2018 series. It's also not that Pakistan doesn't experiment with floating players around the batting order (Haider Ali a recent example, while Hafeez, Sarfraz, Umar Akmal in the past), it's just that those experiments rarely work out. We tried loads of things before Imam-Fakhar. Needless to say, none of them worked out.

I can see why you would want Rizwan to open the innings, but the question is why not address the question of the middle order first, and then see how you you could re-jig the opening combo. Let's say you drop Imam (which would be ridiculous) and open with Rizwan, who are you planning on playing at 5, who can consolidate well, rotate strike to inject momentum into an innings and negotiate collapses?

Imam is coming off a decent SA ODI series (2 50+ scores) and Fakhar too (2 100+), so why mess with something of lower priority, if at all (i.e. top order), when you have more impending problems to solve (middle order & lower-middle order). Learning to prioritize is quite essential.
 
4 out of 5 of those 100+ times were against Zimbabwe. It's massively inflated. And compare to how each of them perform with Babar. Regardless of stats just watching them it doesn't feel like it's working. When two guys average near 50 up top, you expect regular opening stands, stability at top. Somehow we don't have that despite that, even with Babar coming in at 3. Usually a wicket falls early or if they stay in run rate is an issue.

But really it's more about taking a gamble on Rizwan. We've seen this guy in tests, T20s, PSL. Especially how he's dominated in T20s and PSLs as soon as he opened. If Rizwan is able to play in the same way as he does in T20s and PSL he will be better than either Imam and Fakhar who despite good players have severe limitations.

Rizwan despite his bad start, has the 5th best batting T20 average of all time. Babar has the 3rd. Given our top order still doesn't look that secure despite the averages it's worth a risk based on that I feel. Rizwan's potential just isn't being unlocked in ODIs at the moment, and that's a huge problem for Pakistan and if there's a chance opening can solve that just like it did for T20s and PSL, I'd gladly take a gamble on that opposed to hoping the Fakhar-Imam partnership will finally come good after years of them playing.

That's equivalent of saying that since Rohit-Kohli and Dhawan-Kohli partnerships are vastly superior (both avg 64 vs Top 8) than the Rohit-Dhawan partnerships (44 vs Top 8), that somehow a change/gamble is warranted. Losing one of the openers of the pair comes with the territory. Plus, it's still a young-ish partnership.

I definitely understand your point about RR, but my only concern is why take a gamble on perhaps the most consistent part of the team (i.e our Top 3) when the rest of the team is already extremely volatile. In reality, you know there isn't sufficient justification to drop Imam and/or to replace him with Rizwan who hasn't had the best time of it in the ODIs himself. If we suddenly get a few players in the middle order who are quite solid and we don't seem to need Rizwan in there, then *perhaps* it's worth a gamble to change up the opening combo (personally don't like fixing things that aren't relatively as broke).

I can't remember the last time we had openers who had both scored 150+ scores against a Top 5/6 team in the recent past.
 
Last edited:
This is ridiculous.

What has Rizwan done to suggest he'll be better than a 50 averaging opener?

What do we do with Imam in that case? Drop him? For who? What great batsman is hiding in Pakistan that we don't know about?

There's making changes based on evidence then there's just being cluelessly emotional, which is anyone who think we drop Imam for Rizwan right now.
 
I'm not sure you're aware but playing players at positions that they have never trained for is synonymous with Pakistan, essentially the opposite of what you just said. A good example of this is debuting Fakhar as a slogger at 6 when he racked up scores in List A as a top order bat. Also, in terms of being dynamic, we even tried opening with Faheem of all people in NZ during that 2018 series. It's also not that Pakistan doesn't experiment with floating players around the batting order (Haider Ali a recent example, while Hafeez, Sarfraz, Umar Akmal in the past), it's just that those experiments rarely work out. We tried loads of things before Imam-Fakhar. Needless to say, none of them worked out.

I can see why you would want Rizwan to open the innings, but the question is why not address the question of the middle order first, and then see how you you could re-jig the opening combo. Let's say you drop Imam (which would be ridiculous) and open with Rizwan, who are you planning on playing at 5, who can consolidate well, rotate strike to inject momentum into an innings and negotiate collapses?

Imam is coming off a decent SA ODI series (2 50+ scores) and Fakhar too (2 100+), so why mess with something of lower priority, if at all (i.e. top order), when you have more impending problems to solve (middle order & lower-middle order). Learning to prioritize is quite essential.
Actually you are not getting my point what i am trying to convey. I didn't meant that imam has not done well in the past but his innings are hardly of any impact but still he was performing that was good. But now if you have a far better option in rizwan than why not give him that position, he is more impactfull than imam by any means and that will help pakistan gain momentum in the middle. And Imam can play an accumulators role in the middle where pakistan needs some solidity.
And the experiments you are talking about opening with faheem, floating the positions of umar akmal and sarfaraz were brainless decisions. Umar akmals failure in international cricket is due to not playing at the right position throughout his career as he was forced to turn out into a sloggers role. Whereas in my opinion he was even a better option for the opening slot than rizwan. Need is not to experiment without any logic or thinking whereas its all about knowinf about the abilities of your batsman and utilizing them in the right slot.
 
kick Imam out. He hasn't learnt from his mistakes and he has no thirst to improve his game. Boot asap
 
M.Rizwan should not be exposed to new ball in Odis.

Not that he can't negotiate it, he's premium test player after all but he tries to score due to dot ball pressure and good ball gets him. This was seen with few balls that missed his edge today or rapped his body but they due to ball condition they did not result in wicket. This should end the debate on promoting Rizwan as opener in Odis as we know conditions are somewhat slightly different than this and Better to let him score freely with old ball plus we need someone like him at 4 and there's no replacement for now.

That said, if Imam struggles with seaming ball we can try Saud as opener he's technically solid and good through gaps in PP. Saud is basically useless at 5 coming after 30 over mark.
 
If he has to play, then no.4 or 5 is fine

Pakistan are slowly but surely building a very good top 5 in ODI cricket. They just need to turn up and play as a unit.
 
If he has to play, then no.4 or 5 is fine

Pakistan are slowly but surely building a very good top 5 in ODI cricket. They just need to turn up and play as a unit.

Agreed, Pakistan potentially have a pretty good Top 5. However, my only concern is that most of our top 5 have some vulnerability or the other to quality spin bowling. Hopefully someone works on their feet-movement and helps their confidence in shots like sweeps/reverses.
 
Back
Top