Stats Thread: Which of the Pakistani batsmen feast on weaker teams in ODIs?

[Abdullah719]

These tables are to compare Pakistani batsmen's performances since the 2015 World Cup in terms of how they fared against the top five ODI teams (Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa and India) compared to their output against the weaker ODI sides.

The first table has the basic stats while the second table has more details.



[table=class:grid][tr][td][/td][td]V top 5[/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td]V others[/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Batsman[/td][td]Inns[/td][td]Runs[/td][td]Avg[/td][td]SR[/td][td]100s[/td][td]50s[/td][td]Inns[/td][td]Runs[/td][td]Avg[/td][td]SR[/td][td]100s[/td][td]50s[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Babar Azam[/td][td]25[/td][td]842[/td][td]38.27[/td][td]82.14[/td][td]1[/td][td]5[/td][td]15[/td][td]947[/td][td]72.84[/td][td]86.24[/td][td]6[/td][td]2[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Mohammad Hafeez[/td][td]21[/td][td]731[/td][td]40.61[/td][td]82.69[/td][td]1[/td][td]5[/td][td]23[/td][td]834[/td][td]37.90[/td][td]83.31[/td][td]1[/td][td]6[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Azhar Ali[/td][td]21[/td][td]583[/td][td]27.76[/td][td]71.79[/td][td]0[/td][td]5[/td][td]18[/td][td]810[/td][td]45.00[/td][td]83.59[/td][td]3[/td][td]3[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sarfaraz Ahmed[/td][td]16[/td][td]579[/td][td]38.60[/td][td]87.59[/td][td]1[/td][td]4[/td][td]20[/td][td]517[/td][td]36.92[/td][td]88.98[/td][td]0[/td][td]3[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Shoaib Malik[/td][td]20[/td][td]492[/td][td]28.94[/td][td]82.27[/td][td]0[/td][td]2[/td][td]23[/td][td]993[/td][td]76.38[/td][td]108.05[/td][td]2[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Fakhar Zaman[/td][td]7[/td][td]352[/td][td]58.66[/td][td]94.62[/td][td]1[/td][td]3[/td][td]6[/td][td]198[/td][td]33.00[/td][td]93.83[/td][td]0[/td][td]1[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sharjeel Khan[/td][td]10[/td][td]350[/td][td]35.00[/td][td]119.86[/td][td]0[/td][td]4[/td][td]4[/td][td]268[/td][td]67.00[/td][td]147.25[/td][td]1[/td][td]1[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Imad Wasim[/td][td]10[/td][td]242[/td][td]48.40[/td][td]100.00[/td][td]0[/td][td]2[/td][td]11[/td][td]188[/td][td]26.85[/td][td]96.90[/td][td]0[/td][td]1[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Shadab Khan[/td][td]6[/td][td]154[/td][td]38.50[/td][td]77.00[/td][td]0[/td][td]2[/td][td]1[/td][td]52[/td][td]-[/td][td]76.47[/td][td]0[/td][td]1[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Mohammad Rizwan[/td][td]10[/td][td]136[/td][td]17.00[/td][td]69.74[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][td]12[/td][td]324[/td][td]40.50[/td][td]102.20[/td][td]0[/td][td]3[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Haris Sohail[/td][td]2[/td][td]113[/td][td]56.50[/td][td]70.18[/td][td]0[/td][td]2[/td][td]5[/td][td]288[/td][td]96.00[/td][td]96.64[/td][td]0[/td][td]4[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Ahmed Shehzad[/td][td]4[/td][td]50[/td][td]12.50[/td][td]64.10[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][td]12[/td][td]343[/td][td]28.58[/td][td]73.44[/td][td]0[/td][td]2[/td][/tr][/table]

 

[Sirris]

Define weaker sides.

Let me set a criteria for who feast on weaker teams: If your career average is lower than your average against the weaker sides then you are a certified pro.

 

[Abdullah719]

Define weaker sides.

Let me set a criteria for who feast on weaker teams: If your career average is lower than your average against the weaker sides then you are a certified pro.

Defined in OP. Top 5 is Aus/Eng/Ind/SA/NZ and the rest are the 'others'.

Of course, these can't be taken at face value. Cricket isn't simply a game of statistics. Different situations and context must be taken into account.

However, makes for interesting reading!

 

[babajee]

Before the wrist slitting starts, just like to point out that before this series Babar was averaging 47.7 against the top 5. Obviously his failures in this series cannot be justified but he is not just a minnow basher.

The true minnow basher is Shoaib Malik.

 

[Sirris]

Harris with an average of 96. Stuff of the legends. While Fakhar has a higher average against the strong sides than the weaker one.

 

[Abdullah719]

I see no good reason for Azhar Ali or Shoaib Malik to be selected in the next ODI squad, whenever that may be.

We all know Mohammad Hafeez will be there so no point in dwelling on that.

 

[waleed88]

Shoaib Malik and Babar Azam the standouts

Azhar Ali should be the end

 

[Sirris]

For me the stand out is Ahmed Shehzad. Poor guy isn't even able to feast against the weaker sides.

 

[Usman Chadda]

Ahmed Shehzad is just useless everywhere.

Hafeez's stats are a bit surprising.

 

[Saj]

Hafeez's numbers surprise me - average of 41 against the top teams.

The rest, no surprises really, particularly Azhar Ali.

 

[j_kazmi]

Hafeez's numbers surprise me - average of 41 against the top teams.

The rest, no surprises really, particularly Azhar Ali.

Hafeez’s average against the top 5 since his comeback to team in 2011 is 32.

I would love to think he’s an improved batsmen since then but for some reason I don’t believe it.

 

[Rayyman]

Imad's stats are pretty good although there are not outs, still he needs to be back in the team ASAP.

 

[Abdullah]

Don't worry about the stats.
Sahibzada
Fakhar
Babar
Haris
Sarfaraz
Shadab
Fahim
Imad/Yamin
Hasan
Amir

Last player Talat Hafeez or a better bowler.
Just let them get on with it

 

[Square Drive]

Oh ho, Hafeez.

Azhar, Shehzad, Malik should be nowhere near the squad now.

Hafeez has actually done well based on these stats, and we know he's not removable anyway. Let's hope he gets his bowling back.

 

[aloo paratha]

Time for Malik and Azhar to leave the LOI team.

 

[ads101]

It's time to move on from Malik and Hafeez. Not surprised by Hafeez's stats. He's regularly been one of our best batsmen, often second best in the team most of the time. He's even been our highest ranked batsmen in ODIs many times sadly. The issue has been that the overall standard has been poor, Hafeez despite being substandard, outdid a lot of his peers.

Hafeez's batting generally improves when he doesn't bowl. Same when he first re-entered the team and when he was banned for bowling. Focusing on just batting for some reason he does better batting. As soon as he was first banned for bowling, I wanted him out. He however went ahead and started averaging 40 to my surprise, keeping his place on bat alone. Which made me think what's the point of chucking him out, if the rest are worse? Even as a poorer bat, the value he added as a bowler, he was a very valuable player to our team. I preferred that over what a slightly better bat who's a mediocre batsman. He was only amongst the best in the world as an allrounder, never a pure batsman. His bowling has been subpar even since the first bowling ban, he never fixed it properly.

My annoyance is the fact so many of the batsmen we've tried who seemed to be better prospects, better talents have failed and done worse than Hafeez. That's why Hafeez has been able to hang around. Maqsood, Jamshed, Shehzad, Umar Akmal, Asad, Azhar, Sharjeel, Shazaib, Latif etc. we've tried out so many good prospects who have lot form (and sometimes fitness).

The recent champions trophy for a long time was a point where Hafeez wasn't near the top of his own batting line up anymore. Fakhar looked good, Sarfraz, Babar, even Malik looked better than he did in the past (at least before the tournament). He looked droppable and should have been dropped for Haris. Somehow he had a great innings in the CT final to everyone's surprise and bought himself more time. And then we saw the decline again of players after that in Sarfraz and Malik. Though I'm sure Sarfraz will bounce back. Even now however given the fact that at the moment we have quite a few batsmen in our line up better than Hafeez, we should go ahead and drop him. We just didn't have guys like Babar, Fakhar, Haris around before they were either injured, too young or hadnt proven themselves in domestic yet. There was a plethora of great domestic batsmen wallowing around in domestic at the time. Even if people name people to come into the team, they will be younger guys like Saad Ali, talat etc who weren't around/not experienced years ago.

What is worse atm is Hafeez is clearly aged and poor reflexes. He can't comfortably start, and is using his experience to build on his innings if he somehow gets in. While on the other hand some of our other guys are looking good at the start but just throwing their wickets. Hence it's really best to move on from Hafeez. I expected better from Malik however given that he did look good new to the crease, but has really failed to deliver to the standards I thought he would.

I would drop both Hafeez and Malik now, I see little point in continuing them. Sarfraz is the best out of the seniors IMO and needs to lose weight, bat at 5 and focus on not throwing away starts. I also think we need higher standards to whom we bring in to the team seeing the success of Babar, Fakhar. Batsmen should only be brought in with great domestic records, and I mean great records. Averages of around/plus 50 in list A cricket, with a SR of 85 or more, with good fitness. And ideally with a good first class record if possible to prove they can bat in difficult conditions. Too many of the guys we've brought in have failed in one of these aspects and have thus failed in international cricket (e.g. umar akmal not prolific enough in list A and fitness). Make cricketers work hard to get into the team so they don't waste the opportunity.

Under that criteria, I'd give guys like Saad Ali and Talat a chance who both have great list A records. Maqsood could get a possible call back if he's sorted things out, and I'd only take umar back if he sorts out his fitness completely and starts scoring consistently in domestic again.

 

[Abdullah719]

For me the stand out is Ahmed Shehzad. Poor guy isn't even able to feast against the weaker sides.

Makes his domestic cricket form even more surprising. Even the weaker teams in international cricket have him figured out! But domestic sides don't know how to stop him

 

[TeymurBlake]

WOW surprised to see Hafeez's average agaisnt the top 5. It just pushes the claim more that Shoaib, Azhar and with that pretty impressive average Hafeez need to be out of the side. I feel like that's what Mickey was pointing out yesterday to.

 

[Kroll]

For me the stand out is Ahmed Shehzad. Poor guy isn't even able to feast against the weaker sides.

Shehzad's SR ) and here we are rushing to bring him back for the T20s

 

[Hamstead_joy]

Minnow-bashers are a thing of the past, now well-connected rudderless players get a free run like Ahmed Shehzad.

Chief selector Inzamam has somehow bring him back however he plays. If Mickey Arthur was not coach of our team Umar Akmal and Butt would also be in the team with Fakhar Zaman toiling in the domestics.

Inzamam played with Arthur thru out, first he selected KAmran Akmal and dropped Umar Akmal for WI tour, and then after Kamran's sorry display on-field he selected Umar Akmal to replace KAmran.

Umar Akmal again failed fitness test in UK and was sent back by Arthur.
They just selected Zaman due to PSL and they were all-slated to drop him but as Shehzad failed again against India in Champions Trophy, they threw the debutant infront of the best team of that tournament South Africa, who will fail, PAkistan will crash out, they will get rid of the coach but fate had other plans..

 

[BlueDoritos]

Malik is a giant against Zim, SL and WI. But against strong bowling attacks he's crap.

 

[BlueDoritos]

Just take a look at Shehzad's stats

 

[Imr4n_Khan]

*It would be nice to include # of matches played as well to get a clear picture. For example, if you only played 2 matches against top 5 and avg. 70 doesn't mean you are better then someone who played 20 matches vs top 5 and avg. 40*

Also, I am very surprised with Hafeez's average. However, an ageing Hafeez(official age is 38 but I presume he is few years older then that) who has an overall average of 32 and he can't bowel now doesn't deserve a place in the team.

Shahzad- little surprised he averages 13 against the top 5; I knew it was low but didn't know it was that low. He has been given many chances and each and every time, he approves that he is a tried tested failure.

Azhar- The man is simply not made for modern day LOI cricket and should stick to test only. I believe Azhar would have been a great ODI batsman had he played in the 1990s.

Malik- he has always been average player, except when he played under Bob Woolmer. Both Mailk and Hafeez have old mind set on the 1990s which needs to go so the team can progress in the modern day cricket.

Haris- Why didn't he play the first 3 ODIs? Why were Malik, Hafeez and Azhar preferred over him? Hopefully after his recent performance he has done enough to warrant a permanent place in the team.

Fakhar/Sharjeel- With an impressive strike rate between the two, I would like to have an opening combination of Sharjeel and Fakhar. ANY UPDATE ON SHARJEEL?

 

[Abdullah719]

*It would be nice to include # of matches played as well to get a clear picture. For example, if you only played 2 matches against top 5 and avg. 70 doesn't mean you are better then someone who played 20 matches vs top 5 and avg. 40*

The detailed stats including innings played, hundreds, etc. are in the second table.

 

[Imr4n_Khan]

The detailed stats including innings played, hundreds, etc. are in the second table.

Thank you for pointing that out; accidentally overlooked that.

 

[Kroll]

It's time to move on from Malik and Hafeez. Not surprised by Hafeez's stats. He's regularly been one of our best batsmen, often second best in the team most of the time. He's even been our highest ranked batsmen in ODIs many times sadly. The issue has been that the overall standard has been poor, Hafeez despite being substandard, outdid a lot of his peers.

Hafeez's batting generally improves when he doesn't bowl. Same when he first re-entered the team and when he was banned for bowling. Focusing on just batting for some reason he does better batting. As soon as he was first banned for bowling, I wanted him out. He however went ahead and started averaging 40 to my surprise, keeping his place on bat alone. Which made me think what's the point of chucking him out, if the rest are worse? Even as a poorer bat, the value he added as a bowler, he was a very valuable player to our team. I preferred that over what a slightly better bat who's a mediocre batsman. He was only amongst the best in the world as an allrounder, never a pure batsman. His bowling has been subpar even since the first bowling ban, he never fixed it properly.

My annoyance is the fact so many of the batsmen we've tried who seemed to be better prospects, better talents have failed and done worse than Hafeez. That's why Hafeez has been able to hang around. Maqsood, Jamshed, Shehzad, Umar Akmal, Asad, Azhar, Sharjeel, Shazaib, Latif etc. we've tried out so many good prospects who have lot form (and sometimes fitness).

The recent champions trophy for a long time was a point where Hafeez wasn't near the top of his own batting line up anymore. Fakhar looked good, Sarfraz, Babar, even Malik looked better than he did in the past (at least before the tournament). He looked droppable and should have been dropped for Haris. Somehow he had a great innings in the CT final to everyone's surprise and bought himself more time. And then we saw the decline again of players after that in Sarfraz and Malik. Though I'm sure Sarfraz will bounce back. Even now however given the fact that at the moment we have quite a few batsmen in our line up better than Hafeez, we should go ahead and drop him. We just didn't have guys like Babar, Fakhar, Haris around before they were either injured, too young or hadnt proven themselves in domestic yet. There was a plethora of great domestic batsmen wallowing around in domestic at the time. Even if people name people to come into the team, they will be younger guys like Saad Ali, talat etc who weren't around/not experienced years ago.

What is worse atm is Hafeez is clearly aged and poor reflexes. He can't comfortably start, and is using his experience to build on his innings if he somehow gets in. While on the other hand some of our other guys are looking good at the start but just throwing their wickets. Hence it's really best to move on from Hafeez. I expected better from Malik however given that he did look good new to the crease, but has really failed to deliver to the standards I thought he would.

I would drop both Hafeez and Malik now, I see little point in continuing them. Sarfraz is the best out of the seniors IMO and needs to lose weight, bat at 5 and focus on not throwing away starts. I also think we need higher standards to whom we bring in to the team seeing the success of Babar, Fakhar. Batsmen should only be brought in with great domestic records, and I mean great records. Averages of around/plus 50 in list A cricket, with a SR of 85 or more, with good fitness. And ideally with a good first class record if possible to prove they can bat in difficult conditions. Too many of the guys we've brought in have failed in one of these aspects and have thus failed in international cricket (e.g. umar akmal not prolific enough in list A and fitness). Make cricketers work hard to get into the team so they don't waste the opportunity.

Under that criteria, I'd give guys like Saad Ali and Talat a chance who both have great list A records. Maqsood could get a possible call back if he's sorted things out, and I'd only take umar back if he sorts out his fitness completely and starts scoring consistently in domestic again.

Such a shame none of our seniors can retire gracefully, they always have to be flunged out kicking and screaming. Malik and Hafeez have been around since the dial-up internet days. A lot of the guys on here won't even know what that is.

 

[Justcrazy]

Babar has talent but it has to show in numbers. He is not inclined to move towards next level. Its sad to see him fail again and again top sides.

 

[barah_admi]

These tables are to compare Pakistani batsmen's performances since the 2015 World Cup in terms of how they fared against the top five ODI teams (Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa and India) compared to their output against the weaker ODI sides.

The first table has the basic stats while the second table has more details.

View attachment 78311

[table=class:grid][tr][td][/td][td]V top 5[/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td]V others[/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Batsman[/td][td]Inns[/td][td]Runs[/td][td]Avg[/td][td]SR[/td][td]100s[/td][td]50s[/td][td]Inns[/td][td]Runs[/td][td]Avg[/td][td]SR[/td][td]100s[/td][td]50s[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Babar Azam[/td][td]25[/td][td]842[/td][td]38.27[/td][td]82.14[/td][td]1[/td][td]5[/td][td]15[/td][td]947[/td][td]72.84[/td][td]86.24[/td][td]6[/td][td]2[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Mohammad Hafeez[/td][td]21[/td][td]731[/td][td]40.61[/td][td]82.69[/td][td]1[/td][td]5[/td][td]23[/td][td]834[/td][td]37.90[/td][td]83.31[/td][td]1[/td][td]6[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Azhar Ali[/td][td]21[/td][td]583[/td][td]27.76[/td][td]71.79[/td][td]0[/td][td]5[/td][td]18[/td][td]810[/td][td]45.00[/td][td]83.59[/td][td]3[/td][td]3[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sarfaraz Ahmed[/td][td]16[/td][td]579[/td][td]38.60[/td][td]87.59[/td][td]1[/td][td]4[/td][td]20[/td][td]517[/td][td]36.92[/td][td]88.98[/td][td]0[/td][td]3[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Shoaib Malik[/td][td]20[/td][td]492[/td][td]28.94[/td][td]82.27[/td][td]0[/td][td]2[/td][td]23[/td][td]993[/td][td]76.38[/td][td]108.05[/td][td]2[/td][td]8[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Fakhar Zaman[/td][td]7[/td][td]352[/td][td]58.66[/td][td]94.62[/td][td]1[/td][td]3[/td][td]6[/td][td]198[/td][td]33.00[/td][td]93.83[/td][td]0[/td][td]1[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sharjeel Khan[/td][td]10[/td][td]350[/td][td]35.00[/td][td]119.86[/td][td]0[/td][td]4[/td][td]4[/td][td]268[/td][td]67.00[/td][td]147.25[/td][td]1[/td][td]1[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Imad Wasim[/td][td]10[/td][td]242[/td][td]48.40[/td][td]100.00[/td][td]0[/td][td]2[/td][td]11[/td][td]188[/td][td]26.85[/td][td]96.90[/td][td]0[/td][td]1[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Shadab Khan[/td][td]6[/td][td]154[/td][td]38.50[/td][td]77.00[/td][td]0[/td][td]2[/td][td]1[/td][td]52[/td][td]-[/td][td]76.47[/td][td]0[/td][td]1[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Mohammad Rizwan[/td][td]10[/td][td]136[/td][td]17.00[/td][td]69.74[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][td]12[/td][td]324[/td][td]40.50[/td][td]102.20[/td][td]0[/td][td]3[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Haris Sohail[/td][td]2[/td][td]113[/td][td]56.50[/td][td]70.18[/td][td]0[/td][td]2[/td][td]5[/td][td]288[/td][td]96.00[/td][td]96.64[/td][td]0[/td][td]4[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Ahmed Shehzad[/td][td]4[/td][td]50[/td][td]12.50[/td][td]64.10[/td][td]0[/td][td]0[/td][td]12[/td][td]343[/td][td]28.58[/td][td]73.44[/td][td]0[/td][td]2[/td][/tr][/table]

Every cricketer would have similar stats between "stronger" and "weaker" sides, one of those weaker sides is SL which beat supposedly unstoppable India in the CT. Regardless of what happened in bilateral series, a tournament is more important.

So, if one is looking to find fault, they can find them any and every where. Fact is, someone like Babar, at a very young age, has become Pakistan's best ODI batsman in a generation and done so quickly. He has runs in Australia and runs in the windies, the latter was difficult to score, as we saw, with the low bounce, almost sticky wickets and uneven pace. He also contributed well in the CT at times.

These types of analysis mean nothing without proper context my dear friend.

 

[sjahmed23]

I would like to see us move on from Hafeez and Malik but Pakistan's mentality is stuck in the 90s. I never understood the point of playing 4-5 one dimensional players in the top 6. If you look at them you can clearly see nobody from our batting order barring fakhar maybe is capable of accelerating the innings. Hafeez always looks good but we've seen too many times that he gives up his wicket at the wrong time thus he is not reliable enough.

 

[Abdullah719]

Every cricketer would have similar stats between "stronger" and "weaker" sides, one of those weaker sides is SL which beat supposedly unstoppable India in the CT. Regardless of what happened in bilateral series, a tournament is more important.

So, if one is looking to find fault, they can find them any and every where. Fact is, someone like Babar, at a very young age, has become Pakistan's best ODI batsman in a generation and done so quickly. He has runs in Australia and runs in the windies, the latter was difficult to score, as we saw, with the low bounce, almost sticky wickets and uneven pace. He also contributed well in the CT at times.

These types of analysis mean nothing without proper context my dear friend.

I already mentioned the limitations of these statistics in post #3. But the fact is that some of the players who are 'seniors' and are considered as crucial components of the team are simply not good enough. On this forum, plenty of posters have been clamouring for their removal and the stats just further that argument.

Babar is still 23 years old and has a long career ahead of him. Having said that, he does have some problems against stronger bowling lineups who have been able to, at times, expose his technical weaknesses. As long as he improves in future, that's not an issue.

 

[Abdullah719]

I would like to see us move on from Hafeez and Malik but Pakistan's mentality is stuck in the 90s. I never understood the point of playing 4-5 one dimensional players in the top 6. If you look at them you can clearly see nobody from our batting order barring fakhar maybe is capable of accelerating the innings. Hafeez always looks good but we've seen too many times that he gives up his wicket at the wrong time thus he is not reliable enough.

Every time squads are announced, people point out the lack of dynamism in them. Inzi may have included a few youngsters here and there but it's not enough for us to catch up with the rest of the world in ODI cricket. Decisions need to be taken.

 

[coy0607]

top 5 v bottom 5 is too general - doesn't help at all

for instance, India in SL or UAE is not exactly like facing Aus in Australia or NZ in NZ

Even England bowling in the subcontinent is very different that England outside the SC

 

[Abdullah719]

top 5 v bottom 5 is too general - doesn't help at all

for instance, India in SL or UAE is not exactly like facing Aus in Australia or NZ in NZ

Even England bowling in the subcontinent is very different that England outside the SC

We haven't played India, Australia, SA or NZ in Asia during this period. We played England in UAE and lost the series.

 

[barah_admi]

I already mentioned the limitations of these statistics in post #3. But the fact is that some of the players who are 'seniors' and are considered as crucial components of the team are simply not good enough. On this forum, plenty of posters have been clamouring for their removal and the stats just further that argument.

Babar is still 23 years old and has a long career ahead of him. Having said that, he does have some problems against stronger bowling lineups who have been able to, at times, expose his technical weaknesses. As long as he improves in future, that's not an issue.

Every batsman has problems against stronger bowling line ups.

Hafeez, as one of these "seniors" is batting better than most of the younger lot against the top 5 teams.

I agree that there should be some changes but criticism for criticism's sake does not help anyone. The team has done well and if people expected them to wipe out NZ then they don't fully understand the game. NZ have had a very good ODI team for a long, long time and are very good at home, especially in windy and cool conditions which came about this series.

Azam is still a good player and a world class ODI batsman, this hasn't changed over night. Shadab, Zaman, Imad are all burgeoning world level cricketers. There is a great core group there, which just needs a bit of moulding, not knee jerk reactions.

 

[sjahmed23]

Every time squads are announced, people point out the lack of dynamism in them. Inzi may have included a few youngsters here and there but it's not enough for us to catch up with the rest of the world in ODI cricket. Decisions need to be taken.

We've gone through I don't know 6-7 selectors in the last 10 year or so? It's the same approach every time. No selector has the guts to put out a team of youngsters and the batting order seems completely out of place with not a single playing knowing their role. This is because we have to carry seniors like Malik and Hafeez who spent their entire careers being allrounders but now take the crucial #4 and #5 spot with odi averages in the low 30s. This batting order was always going to fail, we only have 1-2 specialist batsmen and they are not performing either.

 

[MoJoJoJo]

Harris with an average of 96. Stuff of the legends. While Fakhar has a higher average against the strong sides than the weaker one.

because he had a poor series against lankans.. love to play bigger teams NZ,ENG,SAF and who can forget, INDIA!

 

[MoJoJoJo]

top 5 v bottom 5 is too general - doesn't help at all

for instance, India in SL or UAE is not exactly like facing Aus in Australia or NZ in NZ

Even England bowling in the subcontinent is very different that England outside the SC

i dont think that does really matter.. top 5 teams are top 5 regardless of the conditions you are playing in as rankings are calculated with overall performance in all conditions.. if rankings are calculated based on home or away.. india would have been in bottom tier in test rankings..

 

[MoJoJoJo]

Just take a look at Shehzad's stats

still manages to get into the side.. a real LEGEND..