Have you bothered checking Malik's record in England before making this sarcastic comment? You dont need to make a mountain of runs to better than Malik. In 24 matches he averages 13.67 in England with 1 50 in 23 innings. So there you go, you just need to make 15 runs to better than Malik. I can bet on few domestic players to do so.
I am pretty certain Malik will do better than an average of 13 in the World Cup. In fact, he averaged around 30 in the 2016 series in England, and although his returns in the Champions Trophy were poor, it was a bizarre tournament for him.
He looked good in the opening game against India before he was run out by Jadeja. Against South Africa, he looked good again before the match was cut short because of the rain.
He did not bat in the SF and in the final, he was trying to go for big shots early in his innings which cost him his wicket. On another day, he might have clicked like Hafeez (another poor performer in England) and scored a few runs.
His only genuine failure was against Sri Lanka.
I don't see any purpose in using his years old record in England as a stick to beat him with. On the other end of the spectrum, his record in South Africa is very good. Does that mean that if there is a World Cup in South Africa today, he would be among the best players in the tournament? Obviously not, because he is not a world beater. Similarly, Sarfraz averaged 60 in 2016, but he is unlikely to match that record even if he gets two lives in every innings this time around.
Past records are only an indicator and they are not something that you can go with while ignoring everything else. Besides, years old record hardly have any relevance. There was a time when he couldn't even buy a run in Asia, i.e. from 2010 to 2014, he was a walking wicket. However, since coming back to the team in 2015, he has been prolific in Asia.
The English pitches today are not the wickets that Malik failed on in the 2000s. Pakistan will need his experience and cool head in the middle-overs against the opposition spinners. He is still rapid between the wickets and can take on the spinners.
Against spinners like Kuldeep, Chahal and Rashid etc., he is still more capable of holding his own compared to some inexperienced, undercooked domestic player. There is a reason why he was our best batsman in the Asia Cup against some pretty high quality spin bowling that will play a big role in the middle-overs in the World Cup.
Malik is not a world beater and he probably won't make it into any lineup that is ranked above Pakistan. However, we must remember that there is a reason why we are ranked 5th. We are an average team with average players.
Since the Champions Trophy, we have played 15 ODIs against New Zealand, India and South Africa, and we have lost 11. Surely, Malik cannot be responsible for all of those 11 victories. Perhaps not even half of them, so if decide to pick players based on how they are going to fare against the top teams and in certain conditions, we will struggle to pick a squad of 11 players.
