What's new

[VIDEOS] Is Abdullah Shafique the most highly-rated young Pakistani batter of recent times?

Saj

PakPassion Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 1, 2001
Runs
96,138
There's been so much talk about this lad and just how good he is and the possibility of him being an all format performer.

Let's not kid ourselves, he couldn't have done much more on Test debut.

How good could he be? Is it all hype or is he the real deal? Could he emulate Babar Azam?
 
I hope he isnt over burdened with expectations. Its a good start but bigger tests await and as we know our openers are generally poor and don't last long.
 
Yeah it is a brilliant start to his test career - sadly haven't been able to watch any of this thanks to there being no UK TV rights but from what I've seen on YouTube and the reviews I've read, he seems to be technically very good, with a good temperament and an array of shots. Of course, as Bewal Express says, bigger tests are around the corner but have to give him an extended run now and allow him to develop.
 
Haider Ali is pretty good too.

I rate him highest just because of the his aggressive approach and intent.

Haider also has played more FC matches and has greater average and SR
 
You only have to watch him bat for few balls to see what the hype has been all about. What he has shown so far is a very solid defense that and a very wide array of strokes to score his runs. This game is a good test for him against spin bowling and apart from couple of mistakes in picking up the length of the ball, he has done really well.

We shall wait and see how he fares against better fast bowlers in the upcoming PSL and series after that but he has looked very special so far.
 
He has not played any domestic cricket but apparently he has played loads of club cricket for almost 10 years which is why Misbah felt he was ready for the big stage
 
overhyped, will get exposed.

A kid who has only played 3 first class games shouldnt be playing for Pakistan. We alll know how naseem and haider performed. Even hadier did good in his first t20 game and was over hyped to the full extent. Later on his lack of domestic experience showed up.
 
For a good reason too.

Like his temperament and fact that he has a no nonsense way about him.

Great product of the system and a true son of Pakistan's cricket soil.
 
Last edited:
overhyped, will get exposed.

A kid who has only played 3 first class games shouldnt be playing for Pakistan. We alll know how naseem and haider performed. Even hadier did good in his first t20 game and was over hyped to the full extent. Later on his lack of domestic experience showed up.

And who picked all of them? The guy in your profile pic.
 
Pak have some good young batsmen. All upto how they are handled now
 
We need a bigger sample to judge any player , once he plays 10- 12 innings against different oppositions and conditions , then we can form any opinion.
 
He could be technically gifted as misbah said but so was Asad Shafiq according to many.

The more important thing for Abdullah Shafiq will be who he chooses as a mentor, how he trains his brain... The mental aspect of the game will determine his future more heavily than the technical.

Fingers crossed and bismillah. Hopefully he is more of Babar/Rizwan mentally than Shafiq/Azhar... And I won't lower the benchmark by mentioning Umar Akmal /Shahzad when it comes to mental aptitude.
 
overhyped, will get exposed.

A kid who has only played 3 first class games shouldnt be playing for Pakistan. We alll know how naseem and haider performed. Even hadier did good in his first t20 game and was over hyped to the full extent. Later on his lack of domestic experience showed up.

He has ten years of club cricket experience behind him which is extremely rare. Misbah quoted that as the official reason why he rates him so highly and fast tracked him.
 
We need a bigger sample to judge any player , once he plays 10- 12 innings against different oppositions and conditions , then we can form any opinion.

Exactly, talent is the main variable but intelligence, technique, motivation and mental toughness are just as important and if one of those is missing, the player fails to fulfil their potential.
 
I like him but we really need to see more from him. He'll need at the least 10 tests for us to know his true potential in Test cricket.

There never was doubt about his talent. Like Shafiq's shots his shots are aesthetically pleasing. But that ain't enough at this level.

Lets wait 4-5 months before declaring him the next best thing.
 
his technical skills and guitar skills are better than babar azam. future captaincy material
 
10 years of club cricket behind him?
He is 22 , does that mean he's been playing club cricket since the age of 12?
 
He’ll make a run of low scores against better fast bowlers happens to all opening batsmen how he does after will determine his career.

Haider has bigger potential in limited overs also Haider can be developed into a decent test batsman with more international experience.
 
Haider Ali is pretty good too.

I rate him highest just because of the his aggressive approach and intent.

Haider also has played more FC matches and has greater average and SR

Haider will proberly have better t20 and odi stat at the end but in tests Abdullah
 
overhyped, will get exposed.

A kid who has only played 3 first class games shouldnt be playing for Pakistan. We alll know how naseem and haider performed. Even hadier did good in his first t20 game and was over hyped to the full extent. Later on his lack of domestic experience showed up.

I think we should pick tabish Khan
 
Abdullah should be given a long run even if he fails becouse he has that much talent and his temperament is excellent he will do good in SENA conditions.
 
He is good enough to open in ODIs as well. The most talented young batsman in Pakistan along with Haider who has an even higher ceiling in LOIs
 
Can't say anything yet but next year will determine who is as a test player when Australia/NZ/Eng come to visit.

He's off to a good start though in his career.
 
Can't say anything yet but next year will determine who is as a test player when Australia/NZ/Eng come to visit.

He's off to a good start though in his career.

It's good that he will be settled in the team by the time the big teams tour
 
It's good that he will be settled in the team by the time the big teams tour

If i remember the FTP schedule, Pak face Australia next at home. Pak will prepare wickets which won't assist their fast bowlers so no excuse not to make runs.
 
He has ten years of club cricket experience behind him which is extremely rare. Misbah quoted that as the official reason why he rates him so highly and fast tracked him.

Is Club level cricket the barometer for Test selection in Pakistan now? what does that even mean, 10 years of bashing a bunch of low quality bowlers? Standards have fallen so low for you guys.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It is too early to say anything, but no doubt he is fantastic. Both of his fifties came with a six :)
 
Have not seen much of his game, just watched highlights ( match starts 11 PM US time ) but so refreshing to see an exciting talent was spotted on the base of his technique and did not let him waste years of grinding in Pakistan's FC cricket.

So far so good, nothing wrong with getting excited about him. Most of the great players started their career in early 20s . Early signs are very encouraging, his bigger test will be when he will face the tall and fast Australian fastmen.
 
Been hearing a lot about him lately. Will keep an eye out on him.

The one thing that stands out for me is how little fc experience he has. He must have been exceptionally talented at junior levels to be fast tracked into Test cricket.
 
If i remember the FTP schedule, Pak face Australia next at home. Pak will prepare wickets which won't assist their fast bowlers so no excuse not to make runs.

True to be honest Pakistan fast bowlers are better than their spinners however austrlia seem attack is world class.
 
Been hearing a lot about him lately. Will keep an eye out on him.

The one thing that stands out for me is how little fc experience he has. He must have been exceptionally talented at junior levels to be fast tracked into Test cricket.


Babar rates his really highly otherwise imaam would have been picked.
 
overhyped, will get exposed.

A kid who has only played 3 first class games shouldnt be playing for Pakistan. We alll know how naseem and haider performed. Even hadier did good in his first t20 game and was over hyped to the full extent. Later on his lack of domestic experience showed up.

Kindly remind me how many domestic matches Wasim, Waqar, Shaheen & Amir played for Pakistan before they made their debut for Pakistan. Wasim & Waqar are ATG's Amir could have been an ATG for Pakistan at least, if he wasn't greedy & by the looks of it Shaheen will also finish his career as an ATG for Pakistan.

Plus our domestic is not that great where you someone can polish their skills. I think it was good from the team management to keep him with the team & then give him a chance vs Bangla, although I would have liked if he had gotten this chance vs Zim, because Bangla away is a different beast but still, he has performed very well.

Abid Ali & Imran Butt has played more than 80 FC games but still, they look like a tailender vs top-quality sides especially Imran Butt.
 
Babar rates him very highly so he would be given a long rope to settle in.

This is Babar's team and he will have lots of say in team selection.
 
Kindly remind me how many domestic matches Wasim, Waqar, Shaheen & Amir played for Pakistan before they made their debut for Pakistan. Wasim & Waqar are ATG's Amir could have been an ATG for Pakistan at least, if he wasn't greedy & by the looks of it Shaheen will also finish his career as an ATG for Pakistan.

Plus our domestic is not that great where you someone can polish their skills. I think it was good from the team management to keep him with the team & then give him a chance vs Bangla, although I would have liked if he had gotten this chance vs Zim, because Bangla away is a different beast but still, he has performed very well.

Abid Ali & Imran Butt has played more than 80 FC games but still, they look like a tailender vs top-quality sides especially Imran Butt.

this is a poor argument.

1. those are bowlers.

2. Shaheen was not international ready, it took him two years in international to make his mark. His lack of experience was there.

3. The example of haider ali and Azam Khan is for everyone to see

anyone who claims taht domestic experience is irrelevant have still not learned anything about Pakistan cricket,

Waseem akram gave the same argument that lack of experience players getting selected, and waqar gave the same old lame excuse of raw talent and all that **.

Right now everyone is on the abdullah Shafique hoopla, after he starts performing badly due to lack of experience everyone will be bashing the pcb.
 
Are we really using club cricket experience as a gauge for test match readiness??

yup, thats what we do and we love doing... After the player gets exposed, we than bash pcb.....

Funny thing is, we dont learn from our mistakes.

We made same mistakes with Shaheen, Shahdab, Naseem, Musa, Hasnain, Haider Ali, Azam Khan.

Shaheen i remember was not even ready for itnernational yet he was playing. It took the guy 2 years of playing both domestic and international when he was ready. It was a fluke that he got ready or else his career could had easily been destroyed.

Shahdab is not even good enough for test cricket because of no experience of playing first class, yet he got his test debut based on "raw talent".

Haider ali scorer a 40-50 on debut in a t20 and everyone celebrated him as the next babar azam. Only to show some terrible performance afterwards.

I dont blame these young inexperience guys for bad performances. They were never ready in the first place. The fault lies with Selectors and fans who hype up such unknown players, because a 100 by a 19 year old is more attractive than a 100 by a 30 year old.

When this guy start doing bad due to his non experience than we remember that he needs to learn more and we throw him back to domestic. Why not utilize the current time for domestic.


Also the overseas posters making claims that club experience is enough... Let me tell you that in our club system we dont play 3day or 4day cricket. Our cricket is mostly 35-40 over cricket.
 
Hes looked more composed in temperament and technically in 1 game then the like of imran butt and imam ul haq.
 
There's definitely a lot of hype about him. He has done well so far.

But, he hasn't faced any real test yet. He can be assessed further once he face better oppositions.
 
THE BEST!!!!

Would love to hear [MENTION=79064]MMHS[/MENTION] views on Abdullah.
 
There's definitely a lot of hype about him. He has done well so far.

But, he hasn't faced any real test yet. He can be assessed further once he face better oppositions.

The ball was spinning throwout the test match atleast we can judge him based upon playing spin bowling.
 
For a good reason too.

Like his temperament and fact that he has a no nonsense way about him.

Great product of the system and a true son of Pakistan's cricket soil.

Few things i would like to add here, His Father and Uncle(former UAE captain) were professional cricketers. He is in to cricket because that is just his family thing.

His father Shafiq Ahmad has played cricket in Pakistan domestic but he moved to UAE in early 90s and along with his younger brother Arshad Ali(who later became a captain of UAE National team in early 2000s) played all their cricket there.

Now Shafiq Ahmad(Abdullah's father) is a coach at Gems Modern Academy in Dubai, which is basically a school.

Shafiq and Arshad both brothers claim to have scored the most centuries in UAE, according to him "We have cricket in our family. I along with my younger brother Arshad Ali hold the record of the most centuries in UAE’s domestic cricket with more than 100 centuries for both of us,”

And about Abdullah he feels,

“I still remember seeing him holding the bat for the first time,” Ahmed said. "It was just totally natural the way he held the bat and played drives like someone who had been playing for one or two years already.”

“I am proud of my son’s achievement to represent Pakistan,” the coach added, “and I wish him great success."

Source:

https://www.arabnews.pk/node/1763461/pakistan
 
Babar rates him very highly so he would be given a long rope to settle in.

This is Babar's team and he will have lots of say in team selection.

And he knows a thing or two about batting!
 
Young man inshallah you will do your talent justice. Beautiful to watch those drives.

Just imagine a mammoth partnership, him and Babar... In front of a full test match crowd...with ooohs and aaahs from the fans after every sumptuous drive.

Mouthwatering ...hopefully it will become reality one day.
 
this is a poor argument.

1. those are bowlers.

2. Shaheen was not international ready, it took him two years in international to make his mark. His lack of experience was there.

3. The example of haider ali and Azam Khan is for everyone to see

anyone who claims taht domestic experience is irrelevant have still not learned anything about Pakistan cricket,

Waseem akram gave the same argument that lack of experience players getting selected, and waqar gave the same old lame excuse of raw talent and all that **.

Right now everyone is on the abdullah Shafique hoopla, after he starts performing badly due to lack of experience everyone will be bashing the pcb.

Your argument isn't that great either.

I never said that domestic experience is irrelevant but QEA Trophy is not on the same level as Sheffield Sheild, English County, or Ranji.

Just have a look at what Haider Ali has done. Playing his 1st QEA Trophy game after quite some time & still he has murdered the bowling attack of Central Punjab with so much ease, same Haider plays like a tail-ender in most of his international matches. Even in his last game vs Ban where he scored some 40 odd runs most of the runs came via edges or mistimed shots.

If the experience of the QEA trophy was that relevant players like Abid Ali would have been the world-beaters by now. Abid Ali has scored tons of runs in the domestic circuit 21 centuries to be exact but whenever he faces quality opposition he looks like a scared cat.

Abid has an average of 27.80 vs England, 19 vs NZ & 18 vs W.I

Abdullah is probably the best opener we have in our system & it was a good decision from Misbah & co to induct him into the squad, now the management needs to back him fully as they did with Babar when he was failing in test matches early on in his career.
 
Last edited:
Young man inshallah you will do your talent justice. Beautiful to watch those drives.

Just imagine a mammoth partnership, him and Babar... In front of a full test match crowd...with ooohs and aaahs from the fans after every sumptuous drive.

Mouthwatering ...hopefully it will become reality one day.

For that to happen Babar will have to step up & be more consistent in test matches, apart from his purple patch of 1.5 or 2 years Babar has been simply awful in test matches.

But I believe they will create a lot of ooohs and aaahs from the fans in ODI's where Babar even after 80 odd games is an ATG for Pakistan.
 
Well, last few years getting likes of imran butt opener and imamulhaq, he is world class compared to them in spinning conditions, funny thing is beside our openers no one in our team was able to play spinners confident ly.. can't say how well he will play in English condition which will test his metal ..
 
I much as I am happy with the debut of Abdullah, it still bothers me considerably that he has only played 3 FC matches .

He has only scored 400 career FC runs.

Our batting greats and even the batting greats of India have never been inducted in to the test side with so few matches under their belt .

My concern is that he is essentially “ learning on the job “ in the cauldron of test cricket . Whilst his induction was perfect , it should not camouflage the fact that he has very little match experience.

A few bad knocks and the knives could be out
( as people have little patience ) and that lack of confidence could affect him mentally in the long run.

I hope I am wrong but I do worry for the guy .
 
Your argument isn't that great either.

I never said that domestic experience is irrelevant but QEA Trophy is not on the same level as Sheffield Sheild, English County, or Ranji.

Just have a look at what Haider Ali has done. Playing his 1st QEA Trophy game after quite some time & still he has murdered the bowling attack of Central Punjab with so much ease, same Haider plays like a tail-ender in most of his international matches. Even in his last game vs Ban where he scored some 40 odd runs most of the runs came via edges or mistimed shots.

If the experience of the QEA trophy was that relevant players like Abid Ali would have been the world-beaters by now. Abid Ali has scored tons of runs in the domestic circuit 21 centuries to be exact but whenever he faces quality opposition he looks like a scared cat.

Abid has an average of 27.80 vs England, 19 vs NZ & 18 vs W.I

Abdullah is probably the best opener we have in our system & it was a good decision from Misbah & co to induct him into the squad, now the management needs to back him fully as they did with Babar when he was failing in test matches early on in his career.

We can pad up stats as much as we want to support a certain narrative , but the reality is when I go on cricinfo and search Abid Ali it says he averages 49.60 and is therefore doing a damn good job .

Our next few test assignments are in subcontinent conditions, and we don’t tour England and Australia again anytime soon so Abid can potentially be a beast for us for another 12-18 months providing he performs against Australia .
 
We can pad up stats as much as we want to support a certain narrative , but the reality is when I go on cricinfo and search Abid Ali it says he averages 49.60 and is therefore doing a damn good job .

Our next few test assignments are in subcontinent conditions, and we don’t tour England and Australia again anytime soon so Abid can potentially be a beast for us for another 12-18 months providing he performs against Australia.

Next time whenever you're on Cricinfo take a deep dive into the stats & you will see that he is absolutely pathetic vs top-quality bowling sides.

When SA toured Pakistan in 2021 Abid played 2 matches & in 4 innings he scored just 33 runs at an average of 8.25 with 13 being his best score. So he is not going to perform against a quality bowling side in Pakistan as well.

With Pakistan going to play 10 matches in 2022 (3 vs Aus, 2 vs SL, 3 vs Eng, 2 vs NZ). I don't expect him to score runs at all in those games, he might get a fifty or 2 on the SL tour but on Pakistani pitches vs Cummins, Hazlewood, Anderson, Broad, Southee & Boult he is definitely gonna flop.
 
He’ll have to improve his strike rate to make it as an international opening batsman otherwise he’ll struggle to overcome a run of low scores against tougher fast bowlers.

What we are seeing is typical hype from fans for what looks like another slow player in test cricket.
 
He’ll have to improve his strike rate to make it as an international opening batsman otherwise he’ll struggle to overcome a run of low scores against tougher fast bowlers.

What we are seeing is typical hype from fans for what looks like another slow player in test cricket.

Yet again fans based it upon 1 innings.
 
yup, thats what we do and we love doing... After the player gets exposed, we than bash pcb.....

Funny thing is, we dont learn from our mistakes.

We made same mistakes with Shaheen, Shahdab, Naseem, Musa, Hasnain, Haider Ali, Azam Khan.

Shaheen i remember was not even ready for itnernational yet he was playing. It took the guy 2 years of playing both domestic and international when he was ready. It was a fluke that he got ready or else his career could had easily been destroyed.

Shahdab is not even good enough for test cricket because of no experience of playing first class, yet he got his test debut based on "raw talent".

Haider ali scorer a 40-50 on debut in a t20 and everyone celebrated him as the next babar azam. Only to show some terrible performance afterwards.

I dont blame these young inexperience guys for bad performances. They were never ready in the first place. The fault lies with Selectors and fans who hype up such unknown players, because a 100 by a 19 year old is more attractive than a 100 by a 30 year old.

When this guy start doing bad due to his non experience than we remember that he needs to learn more and we throw him back to domestic. Why not utilize the current time for domestic.


Also the overseas posters making claims that club experience is enough... Let me tell you that in our club system we dont play 3day or 4day cricket. Our cricket is mostly 35-40 over cricket.

You don't know anything.

He isn't talking regular club cricket.

He is talking regional cricket where they play 3 day and 50 overs. Do your research.
 
THE BEST!!!!

Would love to hear [MENTION=79064]MMHS[/MENTION] views on Abdullah.

Because you're backing him, I don't think he will experience long term success at all. Happy to be proven wrong though.

Even you'll admit your track record of players is sub-par.
 
This wasnt that great from Abdullah.

<div style="width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 55.331%;"><iframe src="https://streamable.com/e/1qd0vz" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="100%" allowfullscreen style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute;"></iframe></div>
 
Because you're backing him, I don't think he will experience long term success at all. Happy to be proven wrong though.

Even you'll admit your track record of players is sub-par.

Yes, got it totally wrong on Joe Root. Oops.
 
I think he's a special talent, even with the lack of first class cricket. He's well ahead of his years, just need to be patient with him. Too many "experts" thought he wasn't ready and he's not justified his selection, give people proper chances before criticising hastily.
 
We can pad up stats as much as we want to support a certain narrative , but the reality is when I go on cricinfo and search Abid Ali it says he averages 49.60 and is therefore doing a damn good job .

Our next few test assignments are in subcontinent conditions, and we don’t tour England and Australia again anytime soon so Abid can potentially be a beast for us for another 12-18 months providing he performs against Australia .

Away you go you casual go look at his stats in depth on Cricinfo as oppose to just his average
 
Abdullah is a special talent, i hope he's given the chance to show his talent in ODIs as well because I feel he'll be a better ODI player than our current openers.
 
He is more than just Asad Shafiq’s namesake. He is his second coming.

Mentally weak and timid. Never looks confident at the crease. That technique is for show and not dough.

Anyone who has high hopes from him is setting himself up for disappointment.

He will always be a highly frustrating player and I bet he will mirror Asad Shafiq’s career in terms of stats and impact.
 
He is more than just Asad Shafiq’s namesake. He is his second coming.

Mentally weak and timid. Never looks confident at the crease. That technique is for show and not dough.

Anyone who has high hopes from him is setting himself up for disappointment.

He will always be a highly frustrating player and I bet he will mirror Asad Shafiq’s career in terms of stats and impact.

commenting on his mental strength after hes played 5 fc games, lol, fwiw if he could average 40 (like shafiq did before he completely lost it) whilst opening hed walk into any international test team.
 
commenting on his mental strength after hes played 5 fc games, lol, fwiw if he could average 40 (like shafiq did before he completely lost it) whilst opening hed walk into any international test team.

He’ll do well to average 35 in test cricket his impact will be limited in international cricket not the great player some people are hyping him up
to be.
 
If Mamoon believes someone is crap, then the lad has some serious potential
 
Playing ATG attack for the 1st time and with so little FC cricket behind him and under so much pressure, he looked OK. Although he has opened up his stance, he still plays around his front pad a little too much for my liking and that has to be worked on. Overall a solid start
 
Looked good considering its his first test and how young he is

Didnt look out of his depth whatsoever Good solid start to his career
 
He had a couple of rash moments. Early on he went after two deliveries and lost his composure a bit. Then the shot before lunch was unnecessary. But he seems like someone who will learn and come back strong.
 
He had a couple of rash moments. Early on he went after two deliveries and lost his composure a bit. Then the shot before lunch was unnecessary. But he seems like someone who will learn and come back strong.

I think he should continue to try play his shot but needs more match awareness which will come with experience.
 
He is more than just Asad Shafiq’s namesake. He is his second coming.

Mentally weak and timid. Never looks confident at the crease. That technique is for show and not dough.

Anyone who has high hopes from him is setting himself up for disappointment.

He will always be a highly frustrating player and I bet he will mirror Asad Shafiq’s career in terms of stats and impact.
I would happily take an average of 38 for a Pakistan test opener.
 
Playing ATG attack for the 1st time and with so little FC cricket behind him and under so much pressure, he looked OK. Although he has opened up his stance, he still plays around his front pad a little too much for my liking and that has to be worked on. Overall a solid start

I am not the only one who thought he has opened his stance.
 
Back
Top