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The rise and fall of Ahmed Shehzad

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MenInG

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A player of immense potential who was once touted as the future of Pakistan cricket is facing a crisis to his career.

His aggressive batting style was supposed to be the template for a new style of cricket for Pakistan players but the inability to score started to become a problem which the Pakistan management could not ignore for long.

He started off as a specialist LOI player then moved onto Tests but it was soon clear that he was out of his depth in the longer format. Whilst he continued to get chances in LOI games, his embarrassments have been accumulating with him started from being dropped during the Champions Trophy. When he was picked again for series again Sri Lanka in 2017, he disappointed again with low scores. Similarly his T20I stats arent earth shattering again.

And whatever goodwill he had left with his fans and admins has now gone down the tube with his latest doping ban.

His PSL4 selection as a 'supplementary' player should hopefully open his eyes to the realities of life and what he needs to do fix himself. Many other talented players are now waiting in the wings and Shehzad should know that his time could be up, sooner than later.
 
I don't think he was out of his depth in the Test format. It was the perfect format for him but the management did not persist with him for too long.
 
He played well in NZ T20Is tbh, but yeah his stocks have fallen very low and that showed in the PSL Draft. He will have to work pretty hard to earn his place back into the team filed with below average batsmen and oldies and this speaks something about his standard
 
Unfortunately after getting hit on the head he has never been the same. He does occasionally show glimses of the old Shehzad. Its a mental block more than anything else
 
A bit sad because he was at least pretty good in domestic and in second season of PSL.
 
I thought this would be the end, but alas ofcourse he would be selected.
Maybe next year he'll get relegated to grade 2 cricket, where he deserves to be.
 
Was never an aggressive batsman, I saw his debut serious vs Australia and he looked good but too many dot balls. Has not learned the simple art of rotating strike and so will never be world class. He will be back in psl in 2 years
 
If he could have played with the SR of around 85 even with his current average he would have been pretty valuable.

He had a SR of 88 in his first 10, 15 ODI matches.

With the style of play Ahmed Shehzad has molded himself into Imam is a better player of that mold.

He has let his natural self fade away which was an aggressive, stroke player kind of batsman, rather than working on his lack of rotation and getting out by throwing his wicket away he went too much into his shell and started scoring soft runs just to keep himself into the team.
 
Titan24 said:
If he could have played with the SR of around 85 even with his current average he would have been pretty valuable.

He had a SR of 88 in his first 10, 15 ODI matches.

With the style of play Ahmed Shehzad has molded himself into Imam is a better player of that mold.

He has let his natural self fade away which was an aggressive, stroke player kind of batsman, rather than working on his lack of rotation and getting out by throwing his wicket away he went too much into his shell and started scoring soft runs just to keep himself into the team.
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He did not. It was around 70.
 
much like Umar Akmal, Shehzad is mentally weak and not a hard worker.

Working hard to show off on social media =/= working hard in real life
 
Never had a rise.

When was it?

Never had potential either.
 
Ahmed Shehzad's rise was for a very short period of time, if at all he had any. He always came across as a limited cricketer who would get bogged down if the boundary balls were cut off. Something common to most Pakistan batters of current generation.
 
giri26 said:
Ahmed Shehzad's rise was for a very short period of time, if at all he had any. He always came across as a limited cricketer who would get bogged down if the boundary balls were cut off. Something common to most Pakistan batters of current generation.
Click to expand...

Apart from that one fluke hundred in NZ, that too in 70s strike rate, there never was any rise...

The only rise was in his hype and social media followers.

I'd love to know in what other period he showed any potential.. always vulnerable against the moving ball, couldn't score against non moving ones either.

Planted feet, easy to get bogged down, no placement.
 
Abdullah719 said:
He was a poor batsman before that and remained a poor batsman after...
Click to expand...

His performance got effected after the incident.

International Career

2015 - 2018 : 26.96 Average | 0 - 100s
2009 - 2014 : 34.81 Average | 10 - 100s
 
Well, he did actually look like if was going to be the modern face of Pakistan cricket when he first burst onto the scene but is just a laughing stock now.
 
he never had a rise.He has always been a poor mediocre limited batsman with ugly stance and technique.I don't know what people see in him.He should have never played international cricket.
 
India losing to Australia C such shame
No hope for indian cricket future now
 
The only rise Shehzad saw was the run rate as he nudged yet another ball back to bowler for no run.

People talk smack about Misbah and his tuk tuk constantly, but Shehzad cost us many more games with an even worse approach, at least Misbah did his antics with many wickets down and many overs still left.
 
Thanks for the correction [MENTION=133760]Abdullah719[/MENTION] and [MENTION=726]Chief destroyer
 
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Hawkeye said:
Apart from that one fluke hundred in NZ, that too in 70s strike rate, there never was any rise...
Click to expand...

I'm no Ahmed Shehzad supporter but that is false.

He looked extremely good in that series versus New Zealand. I vividly remember Simon Doull praising him.

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After that he just didn't live up to the hype.
 
coy0607 said:
much like Umar Akmal, Shehzad is mentally weak and not a hard worker.

Working hard to show off on social media =/= working hard in real life
Click to expand...

Actually the opposite, apart from the colossal amounts of arrogance, Shehzad and UA are very different individuals.

Say what you may about Shehzad the guy was a hard worker. He is known for putting in the hours during nets and always maintained top fitness. I have never seen Shehzad unfit or put on weight.

He also came across as someone lot smarter than UA. I know it's a low benchmark, but seemed like Shehzad has had some education and the ability to think before uttering his words.

giri26 said:
Ahmed Shehzad's rise was for a very short period of time, if at all he had any. He always came across as a limited cricketer who would get bogged down if the boundary balls were cut off. Something common to most Pakistan batters of current generation.
Click to expand...

Very correct, he is a limited batsman. Never naturally gifted like say UA, Shehzad didn't have the skills to make it against top bowling attacks. Looked technically correct, and was pretty when executing a shot, that's the only positives one can thing about his batting.

Did not have batting genius, wasn't a gifted timer, could never pierce gaps, built pressure on himself consuming dot balls, no real power....... very average tbh!
 
Ahmed Shehzad problems were his anger management issues and technical issues with his batting which he failed to iron out.
 
Nadeem Omar said he didn’t like no franchise picked Shahzad
So he had to pick him as he doesn’t feel player of such caliber deserves that so he wanted to give him one more opportunity to prove himself
 
gazza619 said:
Unfortunately after getting hit on the head he has never been the same. He does occasionally show glimses of the old Shehzad. Its a mental block more than anything else
Click to expand...

Yeah pretty much this. It’s not like he was setting the world on fire even at that time. But yes that blow on the helmet accelerated the demise of a largely indifferent career
 
He is fine for tests..where you're only suppose to tickle at 3 rpo.

His game is not for odis...finds fielders all the time and doesnt have the strike rotation ability.

T20s...passable if ur only looking for quickfire 20 at 150-200 sr.
 
This is possibly the worst PSL innings ever. Even the commentators wanted him to get out.
 
Horribly out of touch for few months now. His 4 matches in National T20 cup were good but it has all gone downhill since he was selected for Srl series.
 
His SR in ODIs is 72.....SEVENTY TWO. And in T20s 115.

Why is this utter joke of a cricketer ever selected for anything?
 
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ARK Rafay said:
Ever since he was hit on the head. He wasn't the same
Click to expand...

his stats before and immediately after the hit were fairly similar. Though different story that they were utterly mediocre in both cases.
 
ARK Rafay said:
His performance got effected after the incident.

International Career

2015 - 2018 : 26.96 Average | 0 - 100s
2009 - 2014 : 34.81 Average | 10 - 100s
Click to expand...

this cannot be true.

Because he scored a century in his first game back from the hit.
 
He was never particularly successful in T20 cricket and only had a small purple patch in ODIs, but his SR was still very low.

However, he was treated terribly in Test cricket. Needs to score runs in FC and get himself back in contention.
 
Pete Rose said:
Yeah pretty much this. It’s not like he was setting the world on fire even at that time. But yes that blow on the helmet accelerated the demise of a largely indifferent career
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dont think it had much of an impact.

his stats prior to the hit and for a while after it were very similar. His stats have nosedived since Mickey Arthur started but you can't blame those on the hit.

Surely there no 2 year lag between the hit and his form.
 
Pakpak said:
His SR in ODIs is 72.....SEVENTY TWO. And in T20s 115.

Why is this utter joke of a cricketer ever selected for anything?
Click to expand...

he once said he batted slow so that the shine goes out of the new ball and then middle order have super easy conditions courtesy of him.... not sure if he said their runs should count for his but wouldnt put it past him. Once he said his 50s should count for 100s and on another occasion said that Pakistan missed out on his peak when he was dropped and that his domestic stats should be part of his international record.
 
Slog said:
he once said he batted slow so that the shine goes out of the new ball and then middle order have super easy conditions courtesy of him.... not sure if he said their runs should count for his but wouldnt put it past him. Once he said his 50s should count for 100s and on another occasion said that Pakistan missed out on his peak when he was dropped and that his domestic stats should be part of his international record.
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This is insane stuff :)) What on earth has he been snorting?

This is the guy Misbah called up in his first series. Thank our lucky stars he failed, otherwise we'd be taking him along with Hafeez, Malik or even Akmal to the WC.

How pathetic is our setup that if Shehzad scores a century this PSL I can bet my bottom cent he will be recalled.
 
Salman But after his ban and Ahmed Shehzad at senior level, these two are the worst batsmen I have watched. Painful and embarrasing.
 
Shehzad should give up cricket, not only for the sake of every long suffering Pakistan fan out there but for his own mental well-being.
 
He is truly horrible. Never seen a worse T20 innings in the PSL. He wasted 3 overs. Has done this many times playing for Pakistan.

How can this guy say "Babar Azam ko player banagaya" while he is the one that got gazillion chances while Babar has consistently been performing since 2015.
 
Shazad is out of nick.He couldn't place bat on ball.Whose idea was it to play him today ?
 
The commentators were on his case left right and centre today awful showing
 
People think this guy is out of nick. No, he just isn’t a good batsman. Nothing to do with form. This guy has been lucky since day 1. We persisted with him because we had even worse openers. So, he was the lesser worse option. When was the last time this guy scored meaningful runs against a top side? He went missing in all important matches and came back to score runs against Zim, WI etc. He has a SR of 72! Just blows my mind seeing people support him. What’s worse is he has the attitude of Kohli with a batting ability of Mohammad Irfan. I’m sure this isn’t the end, he will once again come back and score a fifty.
 
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he has everything going for him as a modern cricketer except the skills to succeed.
 
A good cricketer who is going through a rough period. I back him to come good and continue to be one of the best domestic performers in Pakistan.
 
hitthestump said:
A good cricketer who is going through a rough period. I back him to come good and continue to be one of the best domestic performers in Pakistan.
Click to expand...

His is mental issue, not technique or skill. In white ball cricket, particularly in T20, he is very nervous not to get out and can;t keep up the scoring rate and then throws his wicket away. He should aim for test cricket and may be ODI, but not for T20 in Pakistan team.
 
There needs to be an investigation on how so many average players from Lahore were persisted with for so long while people like Fawad Alam never got many chances despite constantly scoring runs in domestic and even delivering some decent performances at the international level. Shehzad from day 1 looked like a hack yet still I hear reputable Pakistani commentators ( Ramiz and Waqar) call him talented, if he's talented then I question their ability to spot talent.
 
He hits too many balls to fielders , not finding gaps is the main issue with him. Possibly he should have looked to play the balls a bit late , and not try to hit too hard. If he finds gaps , even if its not boundary , he will be getting runs , and then the pressure would not build.
 
God his batting has worsened. Now mind you I wasn't a fan of his but this is just sad.
 
Woefully out of touch , really needs to stand up & gain some mental strength, his fitness is very good & he is amongst best fielders in Pakistan , he will also need to get rid of the arrogance & the entitlement , we could do with him in the test team after Azhar & Shafiq’s departure,
 
Bewal Express said:
The blow to head has destroyed his career
Click to expand...

it did not.

he was always a mediocre player.

he was bog average and consistent in that till 2015 or so but 2016 onwards he has left even his own mediocre standards behind and is truly helpless now. But I dont think you can blame a trend whcih happened 2 years after the blow to the said blow
 
Soon the day will come when he would be available on some agency website selling ex pros to cricket clubs in UK, Holland and Australia.

What a sad demise of a decent player once
 
His inconsistency is frustrating. He gets into good form in domestic cricket and then loses it on the big stage.
 
Rana said:
Soon the day will come when he would be available on some agency website selling ex pros to cricket clubs in UK, Holland and Australia.

What a sad demise of a decent player once
Click to expand...

You know Shehzad isn’t doing well if such a post is coming from [MENTION=2016]Rana[/MENTION].

Eventhough you can hardly call me a fan even. I feel a bit for him. I don’t think he was ever even half as talented as he was hyped to be but right now he is just in miserable touch. This is all the more confusing because he is probably the fittest he’s been and has also stopped his shoday baazi
 
When did Shehzad 'rise'? Has always been a mediocre player. Not sure what people saw in him. Pre-meditates every shot, which will never work in international cricket.
 
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Surprised that it took this long, fans have been saying this for a while. About time.
 
Some awful players have been given a decade long rope to succeed and we have nothing to show. I include, Shazad, Hafeez and Malik in this category
 
Slog said:
this cannot be true.

Because he scored a century in his first game back from the hit.
Click to expand...

So what are we supposed to do? Keep playing him and accumulate more failures.. Yuvraj Singh recovered from cancer and yet played well for a while.. This guy still saying he got affected by Corey Anderson bouncer at 95 kph..People just want to find excuses..We sympathize he got affected, but has he done a bit from his side to improve his game. NONE..Chapter closed!
 
Cricket judges you well and teaches you a lesson if you dont play this game the right way. Sadly, most of our players don't understand this and continue to play for themselves. Ahmed Shehzad is one of them.
 
How does Babar Azam not make it into the 5 teams he mentioned?
 
Shehzad before his concussion vs New Zealand:

Before: 47.86 AVG in Tests (3 hundreds)
Post: 29.33 (0 hundreds)

ODI's before: 34.40 (5 hundreds)
Post: 29.50 (1 hundred)

He's been poor in T20 since then too. Probably affected him quite a bit. That and he just never made the necessary adjustments such as strike rotation and working on finding gaps more often.
 
"Down't you dwareeee"...-Shezzy to his Haters

On topic, too much hoopla over a mediocre cricketer. He was never good enough to play for Pakistan and kept making appearances because of Afridi's liking for him. His concussion against New Zealand only turned a mediocre cricketer to an even more mediocre cricketer.
 
Time to realize that he was always mediocre. Shehzad is just poor man's Misbah but even more limited.
 
Nasty Naz said:
Shehzad before his concussion vs New Zealand:

Before: 47.86 AVG in Tests (3 hundreds)
Post: 29.33 (0 hundreds)

ODI's before: 34.40 (5 hundreds)
Post: 29.50 (1 hundred)

He's been poor in T20 since then too. Probably affected him quite a bit. That and he just never made the necessary adjustments such as strike rotation and working on finding gaps more often.
Click to expand...

How this is going to help Pakistan team?? Be it concussion or something else, his performance was degrading, and becoming worse than before his worst attempt..

Shall team interests be sacrificed for one persistent non performing individual..We empathize with him. But cricket is not a charity..
 
Nasty Naz said:
Shehzad before his concussion vs New Zealand:

Before: 47.86 AVG in Tests (3 hundreds)
Post: 29.33 (0 hundreds)

ODI's before: 34.40 (5 hundreds)
Post: 29.50 (1 hundred)

He's been poor in T20 since then too. Probably affected him quite a bit. That and he just never made the necessary adjustments such as strike rotation and working on finding gaps more often.
Click to expand...

These are fake stats.

For Post-injury you should do a cut off at mid- 2015 or so.

Because post-2016 he has had an enormous dip in form and run scoring. Surely it was not a 2 year delayed reaction to the 130kph Corey Anderson bouncer which he couldn't negotiate?

He scored a century in his first series back from the head injury
 
Shehzad scored a century and a fifty in his first series back from the head injury due to the 130 kph Corey Anderson bouncer.

It is actually one of his better ODI series in terms of returns.

It is a myth that his mediocrity is due to the head injury. He was always mediocre.
 
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