ahmedwaqas92
ODI Debutant
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2013
- Runs
- 10,581
- Post of the Week
- 4
For a good number of days I had been itching to compile a relevant piece on the difference or primarily, the drop in numbers that a budding player might need to go through when he eventually makes that domestic to international leap from Pakistani First Class cricket. For this very reason I had taken into account the test debuts of all the players that occurred over the last decade, their first class records (prior to the debut) and how they fared in domestics once they had that relevant international exposure.
While I was researching this (which still happens to be incomplete as of now
) I delved into Fawad Alam’s domestic records of nearly the entire last half a decade; 4 years to be precise and what I found was as astonishing and frustrating in equal measure, as I’ve ever been in my life. I am not sure where to even begin in justifying the idiocy of whoever doesn’t let Fawad get selected but apparently he has numbers that are almost unparalleled in any era of Pakistani First Class Domestics.
For starters, in the last four seasons (I.e. four years) of Pakistan domestic tournaments Fawad Alam is the only person that has regularly featured as a top performer over and over again. The sample size accumulated by all these numbers is a mind boggling 99 games across 4 day, list-A and T20 matches for varying regions, departments and other domestic teams. There is also this weird notion that Fawad Alam is quite a vulnerable candidate in representing a limited overs Pakistani side however, the research that I periodically conducted suggested that Fawad is the only candidate in the entire domestic setup who comfortably averages over 50 in every format of the game. To give matters a bit more perspective let’s initially look at the First Class numbers of Fawad in the last 4 years:
Until season 2015/2016 Fawad was a vital cog in the batting lineup of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) after which during the preceding last season he made a surprisingly bold move and switched to SSGC (Sui Southern Gas Corporation).
In a tally of 35 games Fawad averages almost 60 runs per dismissal which is almost Brandmanesque if you consider that these numbers were achieved over four different cycles of form and a varying degree of changes in opposition. Never in the entirety of these 35 games does Fawad average ever drops lower than 55 a piece which clearly points to how impressively consistent this lad has been over the course of nearly half a decade of domestic cricket.
In addition to these feats Fawad managed to hit six centuries (inclusive of two double tons) and fourteen half centuries. These unique qualifiers put him as good as anyone representing the national team because according to the match per century ratio Fawad sits in at 5.83 which is almost neck and neck to what Asad Shaqid provides us at the international level. His century per match ratio is even better than Babar Azam, Misbah ul Haq, Salman Butt, Usman Sallauddin, Sami Aslam, Harris Sohial Imam-ul-Haq; individuals who were, are or have been touted to represent Pakistan cricket in the near future. His twin double daddy centuries gives us a glimpse that similar to Younis Khan, Fawad has this uncanny ability to go big once he gets a start or a decentish score on the board. The only two people currently in the Paksitani XI who have a better match per century ratio are Azhar Ali and Younis Khan.
To get an even better understanding of Fawad’s sustained progressive performance I did a progression chart on his season averages starting from 2013 up until the last 2016 one, the plotted result was as follows:
The above picture clearly showcases that the lad hovers mid 50s even when he’s going through lean patches of form (which could probably be a career high for someone like an Umer Akmal) but it is almost mind numbing to realize that this guy, a guy who averages almost 60 in the previous four SEASONS can’t find a place in the Pakistani middle order and yet over the last 7 years we’ve had players like Ifthikhar Ahmed, Muhammad Rizwan, Umer Akmal, Nasir Jamshed and all sorts of rubbish debut one after the other.
Most Fawad detractors claim that his high number of not outs help him to maintain this kind of a healthy average but even so if we remove all the not outs from Alam’s numbers his RPI (Runs per Innings) would still be above 50 which I firmly believe could very well be his international test average if our management ever grows a pair of brain cells and be smart enough to give him a proper go.
Another extremely common Anti-Fawad rhetoric that I most often encounter is how people in general do not associate him as a viable option in limited overs cricket. Being the bean pole that he is, I too somewhat believed it until I came across these subsequent numbers.
Before I start breaking down the obvious I would like to point out that the blue table are his numbers from (2013-most recent) for all List-A 50 over games while the yellow table are T20 games for the same said period.
In 42 fifty over encounters Fawad averages 55.60 and his most modest season is the 2016 one with a runs per dismissal of 45.00, extremely low considering Fawad’s high standards but at the same time and during the same stretch of seasons Fawad also averages more than fifty in all T20 games he’s played since the starting period of the progression.
Any informed cricket viewer will testify that an average over 50 in any given format is a remarkable achievement in its own and while Fawad, a guy who gets ridiculed for being the ugly batting duckling manages to somehow carry out the latter without any fuss or complain.
However, the problem with Fawad’s Limited overs game identifies that he does not have the same consistency as of what he has in his 4 day encounters and if we look at the below representation of his moving averages then clearly this in effect becomes more apparent.
Let’s get one thing addressed straight off the bat, Fawad by no means is a T20 player at all. Being one of his well-wishers I will humbly admit that he is not top drawer (by any stretch of imagination) when it comes to the shortest format of the game. This is evidently proved by the dotted line in the T20 average graph as it represents a projection of how his average would’ve reflected had he represented any domestic team in 2014, he was dropped and rightly so. It can also be noted that ever since his 2013 all-time high in the format, Fawad’s T20 average is at a declining trend which makes him an extremely over hill investment for T20 internationals. There should be no confusion that Fawad is at best a league player for T20s at the moment, while even with his sharp ground fielding and part time slow left arm the best he can provide is a 30 (25) type of an innings with some run saving efforts, which for someone who is 31 years old is nothing but a stop gap solution.
In contrast his One Day numbers, although also not as impressive as his First Class record, literally begs to give this lad a proper go. In 42 games (a decent enough sample size as well, across four seasons i.e.), Fawad manages to average 55.60 per dismissal including two centuries and 10 fifties. This mathematically signifies that every 4th innings he plays, the bloke ends up scoring fifty or more and converts one in every five of these into a ton without fail. That is almost gold dust for a team like Pakistan that more often than not struggles to play out their full quota of deliveries.
Over the years I’ve heard many folks complain that the Fawad even though, unjustly ousted, is now heading towards the latter part of his cricketing career and while this may be a valid concern we have to understand that Fawad is one of the fittest individuals (a rarity in itself) in the Pakistan domestic circuit at the moment. With regards to how old he is, let us also not forget that Hafeez (36 officially) and Malik (35 officially) are both valid contributing members of the team and as per reports are touted to play until 2019 Word Cup, which would make them 38 and 37 respectively at the time of the tournament.
Misbah was reintroduced to save Pakistan cricket at the mature age of 36 and while I am in no measure comparing the two individuals, Fawad, who is officially 31 years old can become an integral part of the team (tests, and ODIs; ad hoc basis) if only the management and the Pakistan selection committee show their trust in his abilities and the numbers he has accumulated for the last four seasons, you can’t fluke your way across a hundred games.
Just to further shed light on the perspective of age Salman Butt (32 years) Wahab Riaz (32 years), Kamran Akmal (35 years) all are either part of, looking to be a part of or had been a part of the national team in the recent past and all three of them do not hold a candle in comparison to how Fawad has performed domestically AND INTERNATIONALLY as well.
Furthermore, many folks forget that Fawad is a seasoned international that has represented Pakistan in the past and unlike his competing peers he has an extremely favorable record as well. This moot argument that somehow the lad will be ‘found out’ is as bogus as it can get since factually Fawad debuted around 2007 and has played almost 40 odd games across three formats while averaging more than 40+ in two of them. Take a look at this:
Tried and Tested ‘seniors’ would undoubtedly kill for these dream international numbers yet after only half a good season well call them on the basis of ‘performance’ ignoring that for fifteen years these same seniors can’t properly put bat on ball and putting a blind eye on the only individual who is making heaps of runs in domestic and has a more than healthy past international record as well.
Azhar Ali (Pakistan best Test Batsman) is officially 32 years old, a year older than Fawad while Asad Shafiq (A vital batting cog) and Sarfraz the standing skipper are only 100 days and year younger than Fawad respectively. Pakistani coaching and managerial staff should seize this opportunity to introduce someone who might play the vital Misbah role (batting wise) that is required in that middle order now and with Micky hinting at Osman Sallahuddin ready to open along with Sami, a middle order (hypothetically) consisting of Azhar, Asad, Fawad, Babar and Sarfraz would be a lot more secure than having flashy one tour wonders in the playing XI.
Before I conclude this piece, I would also like to point out that to Fawad’s credit the guy has never lashed out on Pakistan management for his continued absence from the field, even after scoring these many runs in first class cricket. He is the true embodiment of how a professional athlete should keep on persevering, even when the odds are stacked against you, and focus on performing and silencing critics on the field. I just sincerely hope that this piece would help (even if it’s a drop in the bucket) to shedding light on the injustice happening to one of our premier domestic batsmen in the country and someone who can most definitely help Pakistan win games on the field.
P.S. The domestic numbers relevant to the resource provided above can be found on the main Pakistan Cricket Board’s website and from other open source online resources as well. Anybody interested in seeing the full bit can contact me and I’ll be happy to forward you the links as needed.
Thank You for reading this in its entirety and here’s to hoping Fawad makes a successful return to national colors!
While I was researching this (which still happens to be incomplete as of now
) I delved into Fawad Alam’s domestic records of nearly the entire last half a decade; 4 years to be precise and what I found was as astonishing and frustrating in equal measure, as I’ve ever been in my life. I am not sure where to even begin in justifying the idiocy of whoever doesn’t let Fawad get selected but apparently he has numbers that are almost unparalleled in any era of Pakistani First Class Domestics.For starters, in the last four seasons (I.e. four years) of Pakistan domestic tournaments Fawad Alam is the only person that has regularly featured as a top performer over and over again. The sample size accumulated by all these numbers is a mind boggling 99 games across 4 day, list-A and T20 matches for varying regions, departments and other domestic teams. There is also this weird notion that Fawad Alam is quite a vulnerable candidate in representing a limited overs Pakistani side however, the research that I periodically conducted suggested that Fawad is the only candidate in the entire domestic setup who comfortably averages over 50 in every format of the game. To give matters a bit more perspective let’s initially look at the First Class numbers of Fawad in the last 4 years:
Until season 2015/2016 Fawad was a vital cog in the batting lineup of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) after which during the preceding last season he made a surprisingly bold move and switched to SSGC (Sui Southern Gas Corporation).
In a tally of 35 games Fawad averages almost 60 runs per dismissal which is almost Brandmanesque if you consider that these numbers were achieved over four different cycles of form and a varying degree of changes in opposition. Never in the entirety of these 35 games does Fawad average ever drops lower than 55 a piece which clearly points to how impressively consistent this lad has been over the course of nearly half a decade of domestic cricket.
In addition to these feats Fawad managed to hit six centuries (inclusive of two double tons) and fourteen half centuries. These unique qualifiers put him as good as anyone representing the national team because according to the match per century ratio Fawad sits in at 5.83 which is almost neck and neck to what Asad Shaqid provides us at the international level. His century per match ratio is even better than Babar Azam, Misbah ul Haq, Salman Butt, Usman Sallauddin, Sami Aslam, Harris Sohial Imam-ul-Haq; individuals who were, are or have been touted to represent Pakistan cricket in the near future. His twin double daddy centuries gives us a glimpse that similar to Younis Khan, Fawad has this uncanny ability to go big once he gets a start or a decentish score on the board. The only two people currently in the Paksitani XI who have a better match per century ratio are Azhar Ali and Younis Khan.
To get an even better understanding of Fawad’s sustained progressive performance I did a progression chart on his season averages starting from 2013 up until the last 2016 one, the plotted result was as follows:
The above picture clearly showcases that the lad hovers mid 50s even when he’s going through lean patches of form (which could probably be a career high for someone like an Umer Akmal) but it is almost mind numbing to realize that this guy, a guy who averages almost 60 in the previous four SEASONS can’t find a place in the Pakistani middle order and yet over the last 7 years we’ve had players like Ifthikhar Ahmed, Muhammad Rizwan, Umer Akmal, Nasir Jamshed and all sorts of rubbish debut one after the other.
Most Fawad detractors claim that his high number of not outs help him to maintain this kind of a healthy average but even so if we remove all the not outs from Alam’s numbers his RPI (Runs per Innings) would still be above 50 which I firmly believe could very well be his international test average if our management ever grows a pair of brain cells and be smart enough to give him a proper go.
Another extremely common Anti-Fawad rhetoric that I most often encounter is how people in general do not associate him as a viable option in limited overs cricket. Being the bean pole that he is, I too somewhat believed it until I came across these subsequent numbers.
Before I start breaking down the obvious I would like to point out that the blue table are his numbers from (2013-most recent) for all List-A 50 over games while the yellow table are T20 games for the same said period.
In 42 fifty over encounters Fawad averages 55.60 and his most modest season is the 2016 one with a runs per dismissal of 45.00, extremely low considering Fawad’s high standards but at the same time and during the same stretch of seasons Fawad also averages more than fifty in all T20 games he’s played since the starting period of the progression.
Any informed cricket viewer will testify that an average over 50 in any given format is a remarkable achievement in its own and while Fawad, a guy who gets ridiculed for being the ugly batting duckling manages to somehow carry out the latter without any fuss or complain.
However, the problem with Fawad’s Limited overs game identifies that he does not have the same consistency as of what he has in his 4 day encounters and if we look at the below representation of his moving averages then clearly this in effect becomes more apparent.
Let’s get one thing addressed straight off the bat, Fawad by no means is a T20 player at all. Being one of his well-wishers I will humbly admit that he is not top drawer (by any stretch of imagination) when it comes to the shortest format of the game. This is evidently proved by the dotted line in the T20 average graph as it represents a projection of how his average would’ve reflected had he represented any domestic team in 2014, he was dropped and rightly so. It can also be noted that ever since his 2013 all-time high in the format, Fawad’s T20 average is at a declining trend which makes him an extremely over hill investment for T20 internationals. There should be no confusion that Fawad is at best a league player for T20s at the moment, while even with his sharp ground fielding and part time slow left arm the best he can provide is a 30 (25) type of an innings with some run saving efforts, which for someone who is 31 years old is nothing but a stop gap solution.
In contrast his One Day numbers, although also not as impressive as his First Class record, literally begs to give this lad a proper go. In 42 games (a decent enough sample size as well, across four seasons i.e.), Fawad manages to average 55.60 per dismissal including two centuries and 10 fifties. This mathematically signifies that every 4th innings he plays, the bloke ends up scoring fifty or more and converts one in every five of these into a ton without fail. That is almost gold dust for a team like Pakistan that more often than not struggles to play out their full quota of deliveries.
Over the years I’ve heard many folks complain that the Fawad even though, unjustly ousted, is now heading towards the latter part of his cricketing career and while this may be a valid concern we have to understand that Fawad is one of the fittest individuals (a rarity in itself) in the Pakistan domestic circuit at the moment. With regards to how old he is, let us also not forget that Hafeez (36 officially) and Malik (35 officially) are both valid contributing members of the team and as per reports are touted to play until 2019 Word Cup, which would make them 38 and 37 respectively at the time of the tournament.
Misbah was reintroduced to save Pakistan cricket at the mature age of 36 and while I am in no measure comparing the two individuals, Fawad, who is officially 31 years old can become an integral part of the team (tests, and ODIs; ad hoc basis) if only the management and the Pakistan selection committee show their trust in his abilities and the numbers he has accumulated for the last four seasons, you can’t fluke your way across a hundred games.
Just to further shed light on the perspective of age Salman Butt (32 years) Wahab Riaz (32 years), Kamran Akmal (35 years) all are either part of, looking to be a part of or had been a part of the national team in the recent past and all three of them do not hold a candle in comparison to how Fawad has performed domestically AND INTERNATIONALLY as well.
Furthermore, many folks forget that Fawad is a seasoned international that has represented Pakistan in the past and unlike his competing peers he has an extremely favorable record as well. This moot argument that somehow the lad will be ‘found out’ is as bogus as it can get since factually Fawad debuted around 2007 and has played almost 40 odd games across three formats while averaging more than 40+ in two of them. Take a look at this:
Tried and Tested ‘seniors’ would undoubtedly kill for these dream international numbers yet after only half a good season well call them on the basis of ‘performance’ ignoring that for fifteen years these same seniors can’t properly put bat on ball and putting a blind eye on the only individual who is making heaps of runs in domestic and has a more than healthy past international record as well.
Azhar Ali (Pakistan best Test Batsman) is officially 32 years old, a year older than Fawad while Asad Shafiq (A vital batting cog) and Sarfraz the standing skipper are only 100 days and year younger than Fawad respectively. Pakistani coaching and managerial staff should seize this opportunity to introduce someone who might play the vital Misbah role (batting wise) that is required in that middle order now and with Micky hinting at Osman Sallahuddin ready to open along with Sami, a middle order (hypothetically) consisting of Azhar, Asad, Fawad, Babar and Sarfraz would be a lot more secure than having flashy one tour wonders in the playing XI.
Before I conclude this piece, I would also like to point out that to Fawad’s credit the guy has never lashed out on Pakistan management for his continued absence from the field, even after scoring these many runs in first class cricket. He is the true embodiment of how a professional athlete should keep on persevering, even when the odds are stacked against you, and focus on performing and silencing critics on the field. I just sincerely hope that this piece would help (even if it’s a drop in the bucket) to shedding light on the injustice happening to one of our premier domestic batsmen in the country and someone who can most definitely help Pakistan win games on the field.
P.S. The domestic numbers relevant to the resource provided above can be found on the main Pakistan Cricket Board’s website and from other open source online resources as well. Anybody interested in seeing the full bit can contact me and I’ll be happy to forward you the links as needed.
Thank You for reading this in its entirety and here’s to hoping Fawad makes a successful return to national colors!
