"We will continue with my opening partnership with Mohammad Rizwan": Babar Azam

[Saj]

They need to give someone else a go against B and C teams like the current NZ team.

I don't see any changes happening - they have already said they will open in this series.

 

[ahmadharis1]

No doubt in my mind that any decent batsman in Pakistan can put up the same numbers as Rizwan if given the same opportunity and task.

If you tell Khushdil Shah "go open the batting, take a few overs to get your eye in, don't mind dot balls just hit the occasional boundary and rotate strike", even he is capable of getting 50 off 40 every match.

 

[Energy]

No doubt in my mind that any decent batsman in Pakistan can put up the same numbers as Rizwan if given the same opportunity and task.

If you tell Khushdil Shah "go open the batting, take a few overs to get your eye in, don't mind dot balls just hit the occasional boundary and rotate strike", even he is capable of getting 50 off 40 every match.

That's where you're mistaken completely.

You think Rizwan is the first opener for Pakistan? Tell me the record for the openers before him. Go back as long as you want and find one player and come back. Easy to say things hypothetically.

 

[ahmadharis1]

That's where you're mistaken completely.

You think Rizwan is the first opener for Pakistan? Tell me the record for the openers before him. Go back as long as you want and find one player and come back. Easy to say things hypothetically.

Fair points. Statistically Rizwan is a solid opener, easily the best Pakistan has (either him or Babar, it's semantics).

All I'm saying is his style of play isn't anything remarkable or conducive to winning T20 cricket. Sure he's ranked second in the rankings, but can we honestly say he's even a top 10 t20 batsman today? We've seen him score countless runs in relatively meaningless bilaterals but disappoint in the big stage when it really matters.

His average innings is 46 off 38. I still honestly believe even Khushdil Shah can do that if given the same task and rope Rizwan has been given. And yes this is hypothetical, but when Rizwan continues to open every single match, any alternative is obviously going to be hypothetical.

I'm not trying to take anything away from him, or pretend like there's some youngster who's gonna average 100 immediately if given a chance. Maybe the issue isn't Rizwan but the Rizwan/Babar opening combo.

There's always room to improve. We improved from Salman Butt striking at 107 to Ahmed Shehzad (114) to Rizwan now. But now in his thirties can we honestly say Rizwan is gonna improve on that strike rate?

Why not open with more aggressive openers (Saim Ayub, Mohammad Haris, hell even Haider Ali). See if they can play the 46 off 38 Rizwan can, and maybe in a few years time that becomes 46 off 28, and that's the kind of innings that win tournaments.

 

[Energy]

Fair points. Statistically Rizwan is a solid opener, easily the best Pakistan has (either him or Babar, it's semantics).

All I'm saying is his style of play isn't anything remarkable or conducive to winning T20 cricket. Sure he's ranked second in the rankings, but can we honestly say he's even a top 10 t20 batsman today? We've seen him score countless runs in relatively meaningless bilaterals but disappoint in the big stage when it really matters.

His average innings is 46 off 38. I still honestly believe even Khushdil Shah can do that if given the same task and rope Rizwan has been given. And yes this is hypothetical, but when Rizwan continues to open every single match, any alternative is obviously going to be hypothetical.

I'm not trying to take anything away from him, or pretend like there's some youngster who's gonna average 100 immediately if given a chance. Maybe the issue isn't Rizwan but the Rizwan/Babar opening combo.

There's always room to improve. We improved from Salman Butt striking at 107 to Ahmed Shehzad (114) to Rizwan now. But now in his thirties can we honestly say Rizwan is gonna improve on that strike rate?

Why not open with more aggressive openers (Saim Ayub, Mohammad Haris, hell even Haider Ali). See if they can play the 46 off 38 Rizwan can, and maybe in a few years time that becomes 46 off 28, and that's the kind of innings that win tournaments.

You're right. Saim is in good form, Haris is upcoming as well. But allowing them to freely wander in to open to demote Rizwan isn't fair at all. Let them continue to impress in the chances their getting and they will eventually take over from Babar and Rizwan.

We don't need to be short sighted and ridicule the one thing in the batting that's actually working. We'd rather constructively work toward these younger guys rising. I think Haris needs to be part of the XI over Iftikhar.

 

[Mamoon]

That's where you're mistaken completely.

You think Rizwan is the first opener for Pakistan? Tell me the record for the openers before him. Go back as long as you want and find one player and come back. Easy to say things hypothetically.

On the contrary, Rizwan’s success as an opener compared to his pathetic output in the middle-order shows that Pakistan should have been more flexible with batting positions over the years.

In fact, there is a long list of struggling middle-order batsmen who turned their careers around by opening in limited overs.

 

[zarak]

No doubt in my mind that any decent batsman in Pakistan can put up the same numbers as Rizwan if given the same opportunity and task.

If you tell Khushdil Shah "go open the batting, take a few overs to get your eye in, don't mind dot balls just hit the occasional boundary and rotate strike", even he is capable of getting 50 off 40 every match.

Does that mean Fakhar is not decent

 

[zarak]

Fair points. Statistically Rizwan is a solid opener, easily the best Pakistan has (either him or Babar, it's semantics).

All I'm saying is his style of play isn't anything remarkable or conducive to winning T20 cricket. Sure he's ranked second in the rankings, but can we honestly say he's even a top 10 t20 batsman today? We've seen him score countless runs in relatively meaningless bilaterals but disappoint in the big stage when it really matters.

His average innings is 46 off 38. I still honestly believe even Khushdil Shah can do that if given the same task and rope Rizwan has been given. And yes this is hypothetical, but when Rizwan continues to open every single match, any alternative is obviously going to be hypothetical.

I'm not trying to take anything away from him, or pretend like there's some youngster who's gonna average 100 immediately if given a chance. Maybe the issue isn't Rizwan but the Rizwan/Babar opening combo.

There's always room to improve. We improved from Salman Butt striking at 107 to Ahmed Shehzad (114) to Rizwan now. But now in his thirties can we honestly say Rizwan is gonna improve on that strike rate?

Why not open with more aggressive openers (Saim Ayub, Mohammad Haris, hell even Haider Ali). See if they can play the 46 off 38 Rizwan can, and maybe in a few years time that becomes 46 off 28, and that's the kind of innings that win tournaments.

Ahh I see your point. I have the same feeling. Something is off with Rizwan. He can look like a million bucks on some days, others he looks like a complete amateur. Plays and misses, falls over. Yet he seems to churn out decent runs has even done well in pressure games vs India. I don't know what to make of it.

 

[daytrader]

One thing for sure is that these two don't compromise on taking singles

 

[ahmadharis1]

You're right. Saim is in good form, Haris is upcoming as well. But allowing them to freely wander in to open to demote Rizwan isn't fair at all. Let them continue to impress in the chances their getting and they will eventually take over from Babar and Rizwan.

We don't need to be short sighted and ridicule the one thing in the batting that's actually working. We'd rather constructively work toward these younger guys rising. I think Haris needs to be part of the XI over Iftikhar.

I wouldn't try to think of it as a demotion. Let Rizwan stay as the incumbent opener, but also use the random bilateral series to test out younger guys. Then a few series before a World Cup or Asia Cup, bring back Rizwan to ease him back to Internationals so he's set for the big stage.

Agree 100% that we don't need to be shortsighted by debuting new guys in big tournaments or right before one. But a year before the next T20 world cup is the right time to do it.

Ahh I see your point. I have the same feeling. Something is off with Rizwan. He can look like a million bucks on some days, others he looks like a complete amateur. Plays and misses, falls over. Yet he seems to churn out decent runs has even done well in pressure games vs India. I don't know what to make of it.

Yeah credit where it's due, Rizwan has done well in some matches and has looked world class at times. I just wouldn't be opposed to trying out new guys

 

[ahmadharis1]

Does that mean Fakhar is not decent

I never said that. Fakhar plays a different style than Rizwan. In my view Fakhar does T20 opening the right way. Averages 26 as an opener with a strike rate of 140 which is solid for an opener.

If management gave Fakhar the same edict as Rizwan to play more defensively it's hard for me to see him not doing as well as Rizwan

 

[daytrader]

I never said that. Fakhar plays a different style than Rizwan. In my view Fakhar does T20 opening the right way. Averages 26 as an opener with a strike rate of 140 which is solid for an opener.

If management gave Fakhar the same edict as Rizwan to play more defensively it's hard for me to see him not doing as well as Rizwan

They almost have the same strike rates and Rizwan's six hitting ratio is much greater. Fakhar can't be more defensive as he's already at the bare minimum in T20Is

 

[shamaan]

You're right. Saim is in good form, Haris is upcoming as well. But allowing them to freely wander in to open to demote Rizwan isn't fair at all. Let them continue to impress in the chances their getting and they will eventually take over from Babar and Rizwan.

We don't need to be short sighted and ridicule the one thing in the batting that's actually working. We'd rather constructively work toward these younger guys rising. I think Haris needs to be part of the XI over Iftikhar.

Rizwan can open with Haris or Saim Babar can bat at 3.

 

[ads101]

I never said that. Fakhar plays a different style than Rizwan. In my view Fakhar does T20 opening the right way. Averages 26 as an opener with a strike rate of 140 which is solid for an opener.

If management gave Fakhar the same edict as Rizwan to play more defensively it's hard for me to see him not doing as well as Rizwan

Not true. Average of 22.55 as opener, SR 136.24.

That is mostly down to the stellar year he had back in 2018 where he averaged 33.88 SR 148. Every other year he has been very poor at bad SR. In 2019 he averaged 6.25 at SR 104.16. In 2020 he averaged 16.40 at SR 113.88.

Rizwan came in and averaged several times more than Fakhar at a better SR. That is why Fakhar can't get back his place.

I'd like Fakhar to have another run at opening. But it became abundantly clear that Fakhar was wasting the opening position all these years. As were guys like Shehzad, Sharjeel etc.

 

[FearlessRoar]

Another solid 50 runs partnership between Babar & Rizwan

 

[BouncerGuy]

Undoubtedly 2 best batters of the Pakistani Team. Still there is a long way to go.