Surely Azhar Ali cannot lead the Pakistan ODI side again after this win

[marlonbrowndo]

Hafeez was brilliant with his on field captaincy today and I'm sure had Azhar been captaining they would have got 50 more runs. The most important reason we won this game was the change in captaincy. Hafeez may not be a great player but he just showed us the importance of a good captain. Let's face it. Azhar is a terrible captain. Hafeez was absolutely brilliant with his field placings and bowling changes (4 men close to the bat and persisting with spin.) I think after this massive victory the management and chief selector should realize that we need to change the captain. Under Azhar we are never winning such big games against good sides. Azhar is a superb test batsman but that is all he is.

 

[dhump]

Hafeez or not Azhar is not an ODI player and not a captaincy material for Test or One day sooner our management accepts it earlier we will be on right track.

Both Asad and Azhar should be kept in test as players and thats is best for everyone including themselves.

 

[Rafay Shafiq]

Yes change captain. Anybody better than azhar

 

[WC-Passion]

Keep Hafeez or Sarfraz as captain for now, but we really need to groom a young captain like Imad or Babar.

 

[90MPH]

Yes totally agree.

Above all Azhar is not an ODI batsman.

He's a top class Test bat but no he's too old school for this format. And his captaincy is uninspiring and robotic.

 

[90MPH]

Hafeez actually surprised me, his field settings and bowling changes were spot on.

 

[marlonbrowndo]

Both Azhar and Asad have to go from ODI cricket. It's not a coincidence that most of the games Azhar plays in, we lose. Brilliant test player and I love the guy but should stick to Tests. Same with Asad

 

[Abdullah]

yeah agree to an extent but what u have to remember hafeez had the equivalent of a free hit today.
and when u have a free hit u play it slightly differently.
i wasnt too sure about his batting early but hopefully that was game situation.
ive always thought if his bowling was the same he should play

 

[MRSN]

Azhar doesn't have an ODI mode. once he is stuck he is stuck. He is same as Asad technique. If you can't merit a place in the side then team composition gets destroyed.

 

[lahoriyah1234]

Judging Asad over few chances. He should be persisted with at no.4. He will deliver trust me, Azhar needs to go though. Once sarfraz is back he should be given ODI captaincy until then hafeez should continue in this series, it is unlikely azhar will be back till last game.

 

[hadi123]

I agree, Azhar Ali if he has any respect should resign as captain now. Hafeez should captain for the rest of the series

 

[Prince of Pakistan]

No Azhar in the team at the least gives us 8 more overs to bat. We all know about his captaincy.

I still cannot believe that experienced people like Misbah, Shehryar went for him. It shows you that there were other things they found more important rather than strategical leadership or a pro-active attitude. They just wanted someone who could be a daddy figure and keep things controversial free.

May these people have mercy on Pakistan now after having done enough damage already.

 

[Arham_PakFan]

Judging Asad over few chances. He should be persisted with at no.4. He will deliver trust me, Azhar needs to go though. Once sarfraz is back he should be given ODI captaincy until then hafeez should continue in this series, it is unlikely azhar will be back till last game.

Few?He has played 50+ innings and has failed in 90% of them.

 

[MRSN]

No Azhar in the team at the least gives us 8 more overs to bat. We all know about his captaincy.

I still cannot believe that experienced people like Misbah, Shehryar went for him. It shows you that there were other things they found more important rather than strategical leadership or a pro-active attitude. They just wanted someone who could be a daddy figure and keep things controversial free.

May these people have mercy on Pakistan now after having done enough damage already.

if they wanted a controversy free captain then Hafeez wouldn't have been a bad choice either. He has never had any controversy. but Misbah wanted his buddy and SHK wanted a yes man so Azhar was brought back from his bed despite 2 years off ODI career. Incredible. It only happens in Pakistan.

 

[Arham_PakFan]

Azhar should not be the captain.We need a proactive young guy,Hafeez isn't young but he can be a stopgap,so can Sarfraz.Babar should be groomed,or maybe even Amir.

 

[MenInG]

One victory and Hafeez is suddenly the chosen one!

People conveniently forgetting that Malik is back and Hafeez himself dropped in first over

 

[Indiafan]

One victory and Hafeez is suddenly the chosen one!

People conveniently forgetting that Malik is back and Hafeez himself dropped in first over

Also this pitch was much better than the last one for bowling

 

[Hasan123]

Azhar should be booted out of this format with Sarfaraz taking over. Hafeez did good today but he still needs to earn his place in the line up. Sarfraz place seems settled.

 

[zyrus]

Honestly, Azhar is not as slow as Shafiq. So he can be useful down the order for some games in ODI, it won't be appropriate to discard him from ODI XI.

However, he was never a captain, always hated him there. Neither an opener. He killed so many 300+ games with his slow 50-60 as an opener.

 

[super hitter]

One victory and Hafeez is suddenly the chosen one!

People conveniently forgetting that Malik is back and Hafeez himself dropped in first over

with azhar captaining, we would've lost this one too, but yeah, malik was the difference by the end.

really missing Sarfraz

Hopefully, Kamran Akmal is next in the XI

 

[super hitter]

Honestly, Azhar is not as slow as Shafiq. So he can be useful down the order for some games in ODI, it won't be appropriate to discard him from ODI XI.

However, he was never a captain, always hated him there. Neither an opener. He killed so many 300+ games with his slow 50-60 as an opener.

go for kamran, azhar is not available for the next game most probably

 

[coy0607]

Azhar is total passenger in the ODI team

His captaincy sucks, his batting is a total burden on the batting lineup

Going to be interesting to see how they proceed here

 

[Barragan]

Azhar is miles better than shafiq and has a few shots in him, but he still isn't ODI material.

He shouldn't have been made captain in the first pace because he wasn't even part of the ODI squad.

 

[heddie19]

How can an opener who has an avg of 40 @ 80 does not deserve to be in ODI ?

My team till next world cup

Azhar
Sharjeel
Babar
Hafeez
Malik/Haris
Akmal/Rizwan
Sarfraz/Rizwan
Imad
Amir
Hassan
Junaid

Shehzad
Zaman
S. Hussain
Gohar
Aslam
Nawaz

 

[godzilla]

its not a surprise. hafeez was an excellent captain when given the reigns in t20, and fiercely defended his team, whether individual players were at fault or not. he was unseated by a management team and board full of cowards and snakes, and extremely stupid fans and media that created a pressure that was typically myopic and unintelligent that was too much to make his captaincy tenable.

that said, his skills and form are barely good enough for the format. he might just squeeze the skills threshold because of the poor squad. however, the only way he retains the captaincy is if the guy at the helm of the pcb says so, since he has ultimate say on the captain. if he doesnt, or is sleeping, or u-turning, or presser-ing, i dont think the team management have the authority to change captains.

the only other way it could happen is if azhar would resign, which would be grossly unfair to him, given the public own goals that shahryar has been scoring against him.

 

[90MPH]

Also this pitch was much better than the last one for bowling

That's nonsense, pitch was just more dry and obviously slower when compared to the GABBA as that's one of the quickest surfaces in the world.

So tell me aside from being a bit two paced on how was "it much better for the bowlers"??

Maybe 2 decent deliveries I would say - Warner and Shahjeel. That too with the new ball,that is allowed to happen right ?? I mean OMG The cricket ball moved a bit - is it ok to have even a 10% contest with the ball.

The bowling setup the victory and they bowled to the decent fields set by the captain. And that's where the credit should go - to the bowlers and not because they were miraculously aided.

 

[ask_analyse_act]

Hafeez actually surprised me, his field settings and bowling changes were spot on.

havent u seen him captaining in T20Is... once with lahore lions team i remember in a CLT20 important qualifier match he tried to defend 124 runs remarkably against a top aussie side they were reeling at 7 wickets down and a wonderful fifty from mitchell marsh took them to win...

 

[ask_analyse_act]

One victory and Hafeez is suddenly the chosen one!

People conveniently forgetting that Malik is back and Hafeez himself dropped in first over

yes but ideally after the CWC'15 it should have gone to Hafeez... Only in pakistan they bring in a player like Azhar ali from nowhere who was not part of the squad for 3 years to make him captain..Azhar was brought in as a yesman for waqar and others is as simple as that.....talking about his dropped catch, yes hafeez though a good captain he should continue to bat at 3 and push babar to open

 

[Deception]

Judging Asad over few chances. He should be persisted with at no.4. He will deliver trust me, Azhar needs to go though. Once sarfraz is back he should be given ODI captaincy until then hafeez should continue in this series, it is unlikely azhar will be back till last game.

Did u even watch Asad's innings of today? Such a horrible innings pakistan could have lost from that but malik's cameo saved it

 

[Varun]

if they wanted a controversy free captain then Hafeez wouldn't have been a bad choice either. He has never had any controversy. but Misbah wanted his buddy and SHK wanted a yes man so Azhar was brought back from his bed despite 2 years off ODI career. Incredible. It only happens in Pakistan.

Happened in England too, when they picked Alastair Cook to lead their ODI team after the 2011 World Cup even though he wasn't part of the ODI team for at least a year prior.

 

[MRSN]

Happened in England too, when they picked Alastair Cook to lead their ODI team after the 2011 World Cup even though he wasn't part of the ODI team for at least a year prior.

But it didn't end well so Morgan was given the captaincy and rightly so. England team has looked much better since Morgan took over.

 

[Slog]

Sometimes I wonder whether our fans live in a parallel universe

 

[Slog]

with azhar captaining, we would've lost this one too, but yeah, malik was the difference by the end.

really missing Sarfraz

Hopefully, Kamran Akmal is next in the XI

Not really

Hafeez captaincy was only slightly better than Azhar's and in his batting he had luxury of not many runs otherwise it was a poor innings and he looked out of place

 

[Manager101]

I think Hafeez's captaincy is been over-estimated here after just one match, most wickets were due to good bowling rather than anything else.

In 1st match aswell, we had a great chance of winning the match but Wade's innings completely turned the match, while we dropped his catch in a crucial stage. We batted poorly and Azhar getting injured in initial few overs was a big blow while other batsmen failed. If Azhar had not been injured then things could have been lot different in 1st match.

In short, the major difference in two matches:
1. Junaid
2. Amir
3. Pakistan's spin trio (Imad, Hafeez & Malik)

Today, we had a long batting line-up that gave our batsmen some safety cushion and batted with less pressure.

 

[Slog]

if they wanted a controversy free captain then Hafeez wouldn't have been a bad choice either. He has never had any controversy. but Misbah wanted his buddy and SHK wanted a yes man so Azhar was brought back from his bed despite 2 years off ODI career. Incredible. It only happens in Pakistan.

Yes Azhar is a YES MAN but said NO to Amir return and boycotted the camp putting his captaincy on the line

Some people just make up stories

 

[Slog]

I think Hafeez's captaincy is been over-estimated here after just one match, most wickets were due to good bowling rather than anything else.

In 1st match aswell, we had a great chance of winning the match but Wade's innings completely turned the match, while we dropped his catch in a crucial stage. We batted poorly and Azhar getting injured in initial few overs was a big blow while other batsmen failed. If Azhar had not been injured then things could have been lot different in 1st match.

In short, the major difference in two matches:
1. Junaid
2. Amir
3. Pakistan's spin trio (Imad, Hafeez & Malik)

Today, we had a long batting line-up that gave our batsmen some safety cushion and batted with less pressure.

Thank you

260 on that pitch should have been chased with ease

 

[Syed1]

Hafeez did very well as captain and so did Azhar in the first ODI but both are HUGE liabilities with the bat and ideally should be no where near the side.

 

[Zohaib Shah]

I am not suprised we won when Azhar Ali got injured honestly. His captaincy was always in question.

About time the management drops him for good to add players who will play attacking cricket.

 

[marlonbrowndo]

Not really

Hafeez captaincy was only slightly better than Azhar's and in his batting he had luxury of not many runs otherwise it was a poor innings and he looked out of place

Were we watching the same game?? Learn to give some credit where it's due. Hafeezs field placings and bowling changes were excellent. Would you see Azhar do this in the 40th over? Not even in his dreams. He's have all possible men on the boundary. Hafeez didn't even make use of the last power play where Azhar would have gone full defensive

 

[Justcrazy]

Hafeez actually surprised me, his field settings and bowling changes were spot on.

He was always good with that. He is smart with bowling changes and is pro active. As a batsman he is mentality weak. Probably needs to come down the order.

 

[Syed1]

Were we watching the same game?? Learn to give some credit where it's due. Hafeezs field placings and bowling changes were excellent. Would you see Azhar do this in the 40th over? Not even in his dreams. He's have all possible men on the boundary. Hafeez didn't even make use of the last power play where Azhar would have gone full defensive

Exactly and I was pleasantly surprised that Hafeez continued to use the spinners even in the death overs after he realized that the Aussies were struggling to put them away. With Azhar you would have never had that.

TBF Azhar wasn't half bad in the first ODI. However, Hafeez was miles better in the second one. You could almost sense the difference and see the plans being executed.

 

[zyrus]

go for kamran, azhar is not available for the next game most probably

Kamran is going to make the same mistakes. Azhar will be avb. after the series. We should be targeting to build our best XI for CT.

 

[Speedster777]

The best thing about hafeez is that unlike Misbah, he doesn't force the bowlers to bowl every ball according to his orders and defensive plans. Hafeez let the bowlers do their own thing and that helped us win the match. Misbah is an insecure man and discards valuable players because they're not his yes men. He prefers Rahat type of brainless bowlers. Even Yasir Shah and Amir have become stock bowlers in Misbah's Test team and failed to deliver in the Test series because of defensive captaincy.