The Post MisYou Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq

[JibranAnsari]

Azhar Ali



Asad Shafiq




Both were expected to take the pakistani team ahead after the retirement of MisYou but they have failed badly.

Whereas the two new ones , babar and haris , have both averaged 43 in this period.

sarfraz has averaged 25.

 

[JibranAnsari]

outside UAE azhar averages 13 and asad averages 23.

 

[ElRaja]

both of shafiqs hundreds came in lost matches, the first agains sri lanka when the match was pretty much gone chasing 320, the second when he should have taken pak home, but instead totally lost concentration after grinding through the nineties to be dismissed right after scoring his hundred.

the stats for pak wins post misyou are daming, even mohammad amir averages more than these two.



i give azhar a bit more leeway, since hes played some good knocks right up the order for pak. shafiq on the other hand i have no patience for anymore.

 

[JibranAnsari]

both of shafiqs hundreds came in lost matches, the first agains sri lanka when the match was pretty much gone chasing 320, the second when he should have taken pak home, but instead totally lost concentration after grinding through the nineties to be dismissed right after scoring his hundred.

the stats for pak wins post misyou are daming, even mohammad amir averages more than these two.

View attachment 86920

i give azhar a bit more leeway, since hes played some good knocks right up the order for pak. shafiq on the other hand i have no patience for anymore.

one may be better than the other but both have failed miserably , it is quite clear from their batting performances their best years are behind them now and they are not going to get any better. After 10 years of playing cricket you either perform or you are done .

 

[Ab Fan]

Asad should be discarded from the XI because he was about to be dropped during MisYou time only and with no improvement, I believe now is the perfect time when he should be dropped from the XI.

However, 11 matches arent enough to discard Azhar Ali, who just 11 matches ago was the best batsmen in the team and was going through a peak.

Although stats don't justify but he has played a few quality innings and these drop-in-form can happen to many great players, let alone Azhar. I remember post KP-era, Cook had two years phase(2013 & 2014) when he averaged 31 & 33 over a longer sample. He is a top order batsmen and should be given a fixed slot in top 3. With Haris and Babar as more prolific scorers, Azhar will come good in his role eventually.

 

[ads101]

Azhar has played top order/opener in the hardest positions to bat and averages mid 40. People were raving about him and now one mediocre year and he suddenly trash. Really unfair, especially when you compare the openers/top order players we've had from Pakistan in recent memory. He's been a big part of many of our wins, and performed a job when Misbah and YK were there, even those two were probably worse against the new ball early up against pace which Azhar fufilled.

Asad batted down the order, in the easiest position, not impactful, averaging 30 for 3 years in a row, fails to take responsibility, gifts his wicket. I don't get why he's clumped in with Azhar, totally different standard of player.

 

[QalandarFan]

Bit disappointed with Azhar but he has shown he can handle the pressure and bat when required he was just going through a bit of a rough patch. He played a bat shot in the last innings and he will know that.

Asad has been pathetic as he always has been when there is an ounce of pressure on him. Even in zero pressure he has failed. Only time Asad did well was during 2014-15 in UAE, when Azhar, Misbah, and Younis has already piled on 400 runs. Without that 400 run cushion he can't score. Pathetic player the quicker we dispose of him the better for Pak cricket. Infact along with Misbah and Younis he should of also retired.

 

[QalandarFan]

Asad should be discarded from the XI because he was about to be dropped during MisYou time only and with no improvement, I believe now is the perfect time when he should be dropped from the XI.

However, 11 matches arent enough to discard Azhar Ali, who just 11 matches ago was the best batsmen in the team and was going through a peak.

Although stats don't justify but he has played a few quality innings and these drop-in-form can happen to many great players, let alone Azhar. I remember post KP-era, Cook had two years phase(2013 & 2014) when he averaged 31 & 33 over a longer sample. He is a top order batsmen and should be given a fixed slot in top 3. With Haris and Babar as more prolific scorers, Azhar will come good in his role eventually.

Agreed we need to be patient with Azhar he hasn't done that bad in the past 4 odd Test Matches either apart from this one where he didn't play a good shot.

In fact in the last Test Series against NZ Azhar was the second highest run scorer. Here are the stats.

Innings - 5
Runs - 307
Ave - 61.40
50's - 2
100's - 1

 

[The Viper]

Still think Azhar is good enough as he was looking good in first innings.

 

[Markhor]

They are both support acts at best but you can't build your batting lineups around them.

Azhar is a gritty batsman but lacks the strokemaking range necessary for a #3 or #4 batsman. We saw how painfully limited he was in the runchase in the 1st Test vs NZ when Williamson pushed the fielders back. He could not manouvre the gaps or trust his power game in that crunch situation. His 4th innings record is woeful.

Shafiq goes missing under the slightest pressure and his inconsistency is infuriating. The selectors and coaches must be held responsible for giving him a free ride for 60+ Test matches without ever being dropped. No other young batsmen has received this unstinting loyalty.

 

[Saj]

There were some who said Pakistan's Test team would thrive and improve after Misbah and Younis retired.

How wrong they were.

 

[hadi123]

They need to step up.

 

[Sadozai]

Bit disappointed with Azhar but he has shown he can handle the pressure and bat when required he was just going through a bit of a rough patch. He played a bat shot in the last innings and he will know that.

Asad has been pathetic as he always has been when there is an ounce of pressure on him. Even in zero pressure he has failed. Only time Asad did well was during 2014-15 in UAE, when Azhar, Misbah, and Younis has already piled on 400 runs. Without that 400 run cushion he can't score. Pathetic player the quicker we dispose of him the better for Pak cricket. Infact along with Misbah and Younis he should of also retired.

I think you missed his inning against New Zealand in the 1st test during recent series

 

[QalandarFan]

I think you missed his inning against New Zealand in the 1st test during recent series

I actually did, But the whole team failed there hard to blame one guy when the whole feeble batting line up collapses.

 

[Muhammad10]

Azhar should be opening. Shan looks like an ideal number 3, who can also open if Imam's fifty turns out to be a fluke, in which case Haris can bat at 3.

Asad... needs to leave the team and play domestic cricket. He should not be recalled any time soon if the selectors know what's good for Pakistan.

 

[Abdullah]

There were some who said Pakistan's Test team would thrive and improve after Misbah and Younis retired.

How wrong they were.

If asad azhar and sarfaraz had not got worse post misyou and maintained the performance they had when misyou were around ,no way we would have lost 5 of those six games
The hope was that they would make a step up, but even if they had stayed the same level we would have been ok
We have actually blown most of these 6 games from WINNING POSITIONS

 

[goran]

To be honest, both of them need to be dropped. They have been given a long rope to prove themselves but failed to impress. It's high time we give chance to some youngsters and let Azhar and Asad go back to domestics and earn their place back.

 

[Abdullah719]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Since Misbah-ul-Haq & Younis Khan retired Pakistan have batted 22 times in Test cricket. In 11 of those innings the scores have been:<br><br>177<br>181<br>190<br>156 (UAE)<br>227 (UAE)<br>171 (UAE)<br>174<br>134<br>262 (UAE)<br>248 (UAE)<br>114 (UAE)<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cricket?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cricket</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) <a href="https://twitter.com/Saj_PakPassion/status/1080906319404527617?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>