What's new

What do we make of Imam-ul-Haq's performances?

Don't know why people want Babar to open in ODIs. I mean why fix a thing when it is working like a dream. We were craving for a no.3 batsman for decades who could construct an innings and bat through the innings and when we get him, we want him to open.

Imagine India suddenly promote Kohli to open just to accommodate a KL Rahul. Or Australia promote Smith to open and so on.

It doesn't happen or works anywhere but I don't know why Pakistan fans want it.
 
Don't know why people want Babar to open in ODIs. I mean why fix a thing when it is working like a dream. We were craving for a no.3 batsman for decades who could construct an innings and bat through the innings and when we get him, we want him to open.

Imagine India suddenly promote Kohli to open just to accommodate a KL Rahul. Or Australia promote Smith to open and so on.

It doesn't happen or works anywhere but I don't know why Pakistan fans want it.

Kohli has dropped down to 4 to acommodate Rahul at 3 in T20s.

It's totally understandable to keep Babar at three, and I think they will.

If you make Haris open, it's left-left, forcing Haris to do something he's not used to. Babar's used to opening. If Imam plays, Haris is out and left-left. If you get a right handed opener in, he'll be new and it's kind of pretty close to the world cup to blood in another new batsman.

It's kind of a special case that's all. In regular circumstances, you wouldn't need to consider it. And given Babar already opens with great success in T20s, it's not as bigger change as promoting him as it would be for other middle order bats.
 
I am sure Micky will let him know that he needs to improve on the dot ball %. Let’s give him a run, if he continues like this then he will need to be demoted.
 
Kohli has dropped down to 4 to acommodate Rahul at 3 in T20s.

It's totally understandable to keep Babar at three, and I think they will.

If you make Haris open, it's left-left, forcing Haris to do something he's not used to. Babar's used to opening. If Imam plays, Haris is out and left-left. If you get a right handed opener in, he'll be new and it's kind of pretty close to the world cup to blood in another new batsman.

It's kind of a special case that's all. In regular circumstances, you wouldn't need to consider it. And given Babar already opens with great success in T20s, it's not as bigger change as promoting him as it would be for other middle order bats.

T20s and ODIs are a different ball games altogether. You have to play 30 more overs in ODIs. Don't need to mix up both these formats. We have cried all decade that selectors are selecting player x in ODIs due to his performance in Tests or T20s (e.g Younis Khan). But now, we are doing the same mixing up all the formats. And we were at top of rankings in T20Is even before Fakhar-Babar opening combo.

And it doesn't matter if opening combo is left-left or right-right. England opens with both right handed batsmen with great success. India used to open with Sehwag-Tendulkar with great success. So all that matters is quality, not right-right or left-left combo.
 
Don't see what the issue is. Simply drop Imam and let Hafeez play who can easily squeeze out another 10-15 years for us. Only if Imam was a young batsman who showed a truly rare skill in Pakistan, consistency, only then we could risk giving him a chance instead of the legend. :hafeez2
 
I think that's his main issue, doesn't play to the level of ODI's today, you need to maintain a high strike rate for an opener. He needs to pick runs whenever he can
 
On a good batting surface, 110 off 120 is not good enough. It would almost always mean that the team achieves a below par total unless someone else scores a 20 ball 50 which is not possible in all matches.

Yaar too much criticism for him, Give him some breathing space. I would evaluate him after 25-30 ODI's. I'm sure he will improve specially while batting along with Fakhar.
 
He is a test player. Playing ODIs could ruin his test game.

I don't agree with you . He has good technique and would do well, I fail to understand why people wanted every batsmen to score with 100 or above strike rate. If you have 3 batsmen in top 6 with strike rate of 100 or above would be sufficient to pose 300+ in this case you have got Fakhar, Babar, Sarfi, Asif Ali and to a extend Malik. I'm happy if he maintain his strike rate between 90-95 this will reduce pressure on Fakhar where he can score freely. There is every chance that 2 out 3 innings Fakhar may fail in those situation there must be someone to consolidate the Innings keep his wicket and score some run we have plenty of option lower down if we have wicket in hand till 35 overs.
 
I don't agree with you . He has good technique and would do well, I fail to understand why people wanted every batsmen to score with 100 or above strike rate. If you have 3 batsmen in top 6 with strike rate of 100 or above would be sufficient to pose 300+ in this case you have got Fakhar, Babar, Sarfi, Asif Ali and to a extend Malik. I'm happy if he maintain his strike rate between 90-95 this will reduce pressure on Fakhar where he can score freely. There is every chance that 2 out 3 innings Fakhar may fail in those situation there must be someone to consolidate the Innings keep his wicket and score some run we have plenty of option lower down if we have wicket in hand till 35 overs.

He will start playing at balls that he shouldn't play at.

Lol there's no proof he can maintain a strike rate of 90 against better teams. So we'll have to wait and see for now.
 
He will start playing at balls that he shouldn't play at.

Lol there's no proof he can maintain a strike rate of 90 against better teams. So we'll have to wait and see for now.
I agree, but for now we have a kid who has 2 hundreds in his first 5 ODI's. He'll be tested when the time comes
 
Currently 30 off 47 with SR 63. Idc if he scored a double here. Needs to be dropped in the next game. Selfish player of the highest level.
 
Poor player. Not entirely his fault, lacks talent. Left handed version of Ahmed Shehzad. Odd boundary every two overs and he scores a couple meaningless centuries.

Also very similar to Azhar Ali. Give him 200 balls and he will still mistime every single ball. Looks like a tailender.

Next squad drop Hafeez, Nawaz, Yasir & Imam. Bring in Amin, Agha Salman/Farhan, Zafar & Imad.

Retain Harris Sohail.

Fakhar
Harris
Babar
Sarfraz
Malik/Amin
Asif
Faheem
Shadab
Hassan
Amir
Usman
 
His slow approach in the beginning will causes issues to Pakistan because good teams wont allow him to make up for it.

Also, Is it just me or does he hog the strike deliberately? A lot of times he plays a few dot balls in the over and finally take a single off the last ball? Whats up with this approach?
 
His slow approach in the beginning will causes issues to Pakistan because good teams wont allow him to make up for it.

Also, Is it just me or does he hog the strike deliberately? A lot of times he plays a few dot balls in the over and finally take a single off the last ball? Whats up with this approach?

He doesn't do it deliberately, bowlers offer him a delivery where he can take the single easily on the last ball, so that he remains on striker.

Anyway, he seems to be very good in the middle overs, wonder if he should come in at 3 and we get a faster opener
 
He doesn't do it deliberately, bowlers offer him a delivery where he can take the single easily on the last ball, so that he remains on striker.

Anyway, he seems to be very good in the middle overs, wonder if he should come in at 3 and we get a faster opener

And where would Babar go?
 
He can Score as many as want against mighty Zimbabwe. We will see his worth against top teams.He is just not good enough.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
He can Score as many as want against mighty Zimbabwe. We will see his worth against top teams.He is just not good enough.
If he did not score vs minnow Ireland we would have lost the test match to them be grateful atleast he is consistent
 
I was not convinced with Imam in that first match ,regardless of the 100. However he has shown me something in the last few months that few young batsman have shown Pakistan in recent times, that is, his ability to grit out. When we have Fakhar at the other end, possibly getting 30-40 runs off 35 or so balls, someone like Imam is perfect to keep the singles rolling. With the likes of Malik, Asif and possibly Talat able to score quicker later on and Babar to get runs, it is a very good line up and Imam has his place.
 
Underwhelming. If you've scored a ton and are struggling to score run a ball against such an attack then you know he's not good enough.
 
He is a great improvement and fresh of breath air after having openers like Shehzad and Azhar.

However he toke too much time to get going and had a SR of low 70s after facing around 70 deliveries with only 2 boundaries to his name. This was his 4th match against a minnow team like Zimbabwe and the word minnow doesn't even do justice to how bad this Zimbabwe side. If you aren't going to feast against Zimbabwe and try to get out of your shell then when are going to do it.

I would persist with him and see how he does against stronger opponents. We aren't spoilt for choices.

Need to test Farhan in T20Is first before thinking of him replacing Imam.
 
Want to see him against higher quality attacks.
Azhar Ali got off to an equally good start to his ODI career with some serious minnow bashing

Asia cup should be interesting
 
This will end in tears

We have wasted this series on him

There is nothing to suggest he will improve, if he was he would have shown it this tour
 
All the guys asking for his removal also need to suggest realistic alternatives otherwise what's the point.

He might be bashing minnows right now but atleast he is consistent in that regards. For typical Pakistani batsmen like Shehzad, Hafeez, Azhar and Akmal even consistent minnow bashing is a challenge.
 
All the guys asking for his removal also need to suggest realistic alternatives otherwise what's the point.

He might be bashing minnows right now but atleast he is consistent in that regards. For typical Pakistani batsmen like Shehzad, Hafeez, Azhar and Akmal even consistent minnow bashing is a challenge.

Farhan and Harris are lot better than Imam.
 
He has no excuse for not scoring better than a run a ball against Zimbabwe, especially when Fakhar is doing it so easily.
 
He's done enough to cement his place but he does need to punish bad balls, Misbah was the last batsman we had who would push forward and smother a bad ball with the full face of the bat. I think he has it in him to up his SR but he might have to work on his batting in the nets.
 
He is a great improvement and fresh of breath air after having openers like Shehzad and Azhar.

However he toke too much time to get going and had a SR of low 70s after facing around 70 deliveries with only 2 boundaries to his name. This was his 4th match against a minnow team like Zimbabwe and the word minnow doesn't even do justice to how bad this Zimbabwe side. If you aren't going to feast against Zimbabwe and try to get out of your shell then when are going to do it.

I would persist with him and see how he does against stronger opponents. We aren't spoilt for choices.

Need to test Farhan in T20Is first before thinking of him replacing Imam.

Glad some body have realise this also
And also now imam pushing out hafeez from opening for pakistan .
 
He is a great improvement and fresh of breath air after having openers like Shehzad and Azhar.

However he toke too much time to get going and had a SR of low 70s after facing around 70 deliveries with only 2 boundaries to his name. This was his 4th match against a minnow team like Zimbabwe and the word minnow doesn't even do justice to how bad this Zimbabwe side. If you aren't going to feast against Zimbabwe and try to get out of your shell then when are going to do it.

I would persist with him and see how he does against stronger opponents. We aren't spoilt for choices.

Need to test Farhan in T20Is first before thinking of him replacing Imam.

No he is not a fresh of breath air :)) instead he has shown zero ability to accelerate after reaching a substantial score.

You simply cannot end up at 90 strike rate in batting friendly conditions against minnows and that too after scoring a 100. Twice he has done this.

Not to mention he starts off so slowly. Good teams would strangle him and not allow him to even reach the 90 strike rate which he ends up on against minnows. Unless something miraculous happens, i dont see how he can suddenly improve upon these things.
 
Farhan and Harris are lot better than Imam.

Farhan should be tried in T20Is before giving a go in ODIs. He is a new kid even in domestics. While Harris is a sad case. I think his career is almost over due to bad man-managment. In the few matches he played as a middle order batsmen he struggled to get the big score.

Imam isn't the answer to all our troubles but at least he is giving us something better than before. For now his able to make up for his slow start and is providing us with a strong opening stand together with Fakhar. I'd at least wait till he fails against stronger teams before thinking of dropping him.

My main point is don't throw the baby out with the bathwater and don't count your chickens before they hatch.
 
No he is not a fresh of breath air :)) instead he has shown zero ability to accelerate after reaching a substantial score.

You simply cannot end up at 90 strike rate in batting friendly conditions against minnows and that too after scoring a 100. Twice he has done this.

Not to mention he starts off so slowly. Good teams would strangle him and not allow him to even reach the 90 strike rate which he ends up on against minnows. Unless something miraculous happens, i dont see how he can suddenly improve upon these things.

To me he is breath of fresh air since from my memory guys like Shehzad would provide us with 9 off 25 before getting crushed. Or a certain Azahr Ali would fight hard to get to his 50 once in a while. There was a time not all too long ago when no Pakistani batsman could even buy a century irrespective of the opponent. Now we have Fakhar, Babar and Imam.

Imam was extremly poor early on in today's match but at the lowest his SR was 66. While with Sehzad and Azahr SR of 40 was the norm. This isn't meant to justify Imam's poor SR but shows what I meant by "breath of fresh air".

Imam might be getting away with this due to poor quality of ZIM attack. I am not arguing about how great Imam as a player is. I am arguing that at least wait with the crucifixion untill the guys starts failing miserably against better sides. If this was Imam's 70th Odi and his 20th comeback I would be more inclined to support the calls for replacement. However he is a new player and I want all new players to be given a fair chance to prove themselves. Otherwise what's the point? We need to have a certain standard for new player which we adhere to. To me the standard consists of giving them a solid 2 or 3 series and then judge their future.
 
Imam is much better then some of our former captains ir misbah who couldn't manage a century in his entire career while imam has already got 3.
 
Imam puttar, jaldi khaid ya kur. He has talent but man he stills increase that strike rate.
 
At the very lest, he's scoring 100's.

Our formerly world class openers like Shehzad and Azhar have less than he has in like 9 games or so?
 
Farhan should be tried in T20Is before giving a go in ODIs. He is a new kid even in domestics. While Harris is a sad case. I think his career is almost over due to bad man-managment. In the few matches he played as a middle order batsmen he struggled to get the big score.

Imam isn't the answer to all our troubles but at least he is giving us something better than before. For now his able to make up for his slow start and is providing us with a strong opening stand together with Fakhar. I'd at least wait till he fails against stronger teams before thinking of dropping him.

My main point is don't throw the baby out with the bathwater and don't count your chickens before they hatch.

Imam cannot accelerate against this club level bowling attack so expecting him to perform against quality sides is foolishness. He is not a modern day ODI batsman and we are wasting our time with him just as we did with Farhat, Shehzad, Shafiq and Hafeez.

This series was a perfect opportunity to select young players who have shown potential at domestic level such as Farhan and Talat. Asif was tried in this series on the basis of potential instead of stats and he performed. Even Agha Salman is a better prospect than Imam in LOIs.
 
One of the best youngsters in the world cricket right now. An average of over 60 after 8 ODI's is brilliant.

He seems to be better than Rohit who is very inconsistent. Imam is very consistent and strikes at close to 87. This is world class numbers.
 
One of the best youngsters in the world cricket right now. An average of over 60 after 8 ODI's is brilliant.

He seems to be better than Rohit who is very inconsistent. Imam is very consistent and strikes at close to 87. This is world class numbers.


He's an average opener, at best. I hope u are just trolling.

He's having time to settle as he has Fakhar at the other end. And he was putting Fakhar under a lot of pressure, by not rotating strike, and retaining the strike on the last delivery of overs.

Yes, a lot better than Shahzad and Hafeez tho.

Pakistan should look for a proper replacement, as he may cost some important games.
 
One of the best youngsters in the world cricket right now. An average of over 60 after 8 ODI's is brilliant.

He seems to be better than Rohit who is very inconsistent. Imam is very consistent and strikes at close to 87. This is world class numbers.

If you havent seen him bat, you have been mislead by his stats.

Classic case of how stats can mislead.
 
Give him time will ya he's young with right coaching and some PSL experience the guy will improve in sha Allah
 
Poor player. Not entirely his fault, lacks talent. Left handed version of Ahmed Shehzad. Odd boundary every two overs and he scores a couple meaningless centuries.

Also very similar to Azhar Ali. Give him 200 balls and he will still mistime every single ball. Looks like a tailender.

Next squad drop Hafeez, Nawaz, Yasir & Imam. Bring in Amin, Agha Salman/Farhan, Zafar & Imad.

Retain Harris Sohail.

Fakhar
Harris
Babar
Sarfraz
Malik/Amin
Asif
Faheem
Shadab
Hassan
Amir
Usman

No Sahibzada?
 
The thing that annoys me the most about him is that he is the kind of player who blocks 5 balls and then takes a single off the final ball. At least when Babar plays slowly he is still consistently sharing the strike
 
He's an upgrade over Azhar and Shehzad. He bats at similar strike rate but he can at least score 100s.
 
Azhar Ali had a similar rapid start to ODI cricket and we know how he's ended up. Let's see if Imam is that same article, or if he has it in him to accelerate his game.
 
The thing that annoys me the most about him is that he is the kind of player who blocks 5 balls and then takes a single off the final ball. At least when Babar plays slowly he is still consistently sharing the strike

Yes whats up with this? Annoying approach.
 
The problem is he is not doing one or the other.

Imam will start slowly but in fairness to him he goes on to get big scores. The problem is (i) the opposition has been weak (will he convert against stronger teams?) and (ii) even if he goes on to score his s/r will only get up to around 100.

If you want to be a slow starter you need to have the power game to make up for it a la Rohit or Gayle. He currently lacks the range or the power to do so. Both times he has tried to put his peddle on the gas this series against Zimbabwe he has struggled and got out.

Meanwhile his struggles to rotate the strike early means he is constantly behind and puts pressure on Fakhar. If he wants to bat through until the 40th over then he needs to be batting at a constant 90 s/r throughout his innings.

In short he needs to improve his strike rotation and/or power game. Preferably both.
 
He is a great improvement and fresh of breath air after having openers like Shehzad and Azhar.

However he toke too much time to get going and had a SR of low 70s after facing around 70 deliveries with only 2 boundaries to his name. This was his 4th match against a minnow team like Zimbabwe and the word minnow doesn't even do justice to how bad this Zimbabwe side. If you aren't going to feast against Zimbabwe and try to get out of your shell then when are going to do it.

I would persist with him and see how he does against stronger opponents. We aren't spoilt for choices.

Need to test Farhan in T20Is first before thinking of him replacing Imam.

Wow. Someone has changed his tune.
 
Imam has played very well in his short career so far and has made most of his opportunities count. While it is great that he is playing long innings and scoring hundreds, he still needs a lot of improvement to achieve long term success at international level. The main thing he needs to work on is his strike rotation. While some people have mentioned his slow strike rate in the early part of his innings, I am ok with him being a slow starter. Maybe the new ball is difficult to cope with in such cold conditions and instead of throwing his wicket away, Imam is giving himself a chance by being watchful. The problem I noticed was that even after having scored a half century and playing so many balls, Imam had to resort to slogging/blind hitting to score boundaries. It didn't seem like he was playing his natural shots to get boundaries. I fear that against top teams, if the opposing captain sets attacking fields with five or six men in the circle, Imam will get bogged down and instead of playing proper shots in the gaps to score boundaries, he may resort to power hitting. This is a risky approach and more often than not results in the set batsman throwing his wicket away. Once set, a batsman should be taking a single every ball without taking any risks. This allows the batsman to play risk free cricket and bat deep into the ODI innings. This is one part of his game that Imam would need to improve on.
 
Yeah let's not kid ourselves.

Let me see how he does against a bowling attack better than a 2nd XI county attack.
 
He’s not ready but unfortunately the best place for him to develop is playing international cricket for Pakistan.

He’s the perfect Test opener for us and a more than capable replacement for Azhar Ali.

ODI’s? Not too sure.

Lacks the power game, accelerating ability, is raw; basically another Shan Masood. He has the ability to get big scores once set but is a liability despite being an excellent prospect for a coach.

Hopefully, in the next three to four years, he builds his game and takes it to another level.
 
Imam cannot accelerate against this club level bowling attack so expecting him to perform against quality sides is foolishness. He is not a modern day ODI batsman and we are wasting our time with him just as we did with Farhat, Shehzad, Shafiq and Hafeez.

This series was a perfect opportunity to select young players who have shown potential at domestic level such as Farhan and Talat. Asif was tried in this series on the basis of potential instead of stats and he performed. Even Agha Salman is a better prospect than Imam in LOIs.

Yes the series was a perfect waste of time - apart from Fakhar's 200- and result of poor management. We should have Sent younger players to test out instead of the likes of Hafeez and Malik.
 
Wow. Someone has changed his tune.

I haven't change tunes. I believe in constructive criticism and scrutiny. The other day I felt like the kid was being bullied and people were bandwagoning so I stood up for him.
 
Not impressive. I know he is new but if you cannot accelerate even against Zimbabwe, it is pretty useless.

He will end up playing many match-losing knocks because of that. Pakistan should not go back in that LOI era again.
 
Very unfortunate comments to read on this thread. The young lad is doing his best and comes back to the hut with a hundred every now and then. When Fakhar falls early here and there, you may need a player like Imam to try and bat through the innings and keep one end together. He can be very useful. I agree that he isn’t as flashy as the likes of Dhawan and Warner but the lad has scored 3 hundreds already in his first year as an international.

Patience people, believe in the guy he’s not playing to lose games for Pakistan
 
On a flat batting track against minnow 2nd XI, if you are struggling to play at a SR of 100 throughout then that should tell you something.

He is a slightly better version of Sami aslam thus far, nothing more.

Let's see how he fares against better opposition.
 
Imam is just like tharanga in his early days while tharanga has build his power game. Let see how it goes with imam.
I think he is trying to hit sixes.
Good thing is he is 22
 
It's understandable why Mickey wants to persist with him. He wants to build an all-format team so players don't go out of practice and he can continue to monitor them throughout the year.

He'll do his best to open up his range. Personally, from the little I have seen of him, he can play textbook shots but there are too many balls wasted in between. I'm not sure whether that's due to physical limitation or just the way he was brought up.

His drive to play long innings is impressive which bodes well for the test format.
 
I don't understand why people are after him so much. He plays slow compared to Fakhar but plays at a healthy enough strike rate to atleast be tried at the top. Power game is severely lacking though.
 
I feel sorry for this guy, hasn't even played 10 games yet and he's being treated like Hafeez. If someone told you a year ago that Pakistan would have a batsman that would have 3 ODI centuries to his name in 8 games at a SR of 85 (rounded), I think it'd be safe to say that there would be excitement. I know he has the SR issue but I can't help but feel for him. Still, the real test will come in September and perhaps onward.
 
Some very harsh comments here.. tbh I was not happy with his selection as there are players with much better stats in domestic scene , but 3 tons in his first 8 games is phenomenal regardless of opposition ,prefer him to selfie & professor , deserves a run in the side.
 
He is not that bad as we think. I think he is still better than Azhar or Shehzad. He just need to rotate strike and get rid of dot balls as many as possible. We need a consistency in opening. Imam also needs to build muscle and improve his fitness in order to play power shots.
 
It's understandable why Mickey wants to persist with him. He wants to build an all-format team so players don't go out of practice and he can continue to monitor them throughout the year.

He'll do his best to open up his range. Personally, from the little I have seen of him, he can play textbook shots but there are too many balls wasted in between. I'm not sure whether that's due to physical limitation or just the way he was brought up.

His drive to play long innings is impressive which bodes well for the test format.

Not a good idea to play same 15 players in all formats. Then we will have Azhar, Shafiq, Yasir and Imam will play in T20 as well.
 
I think sami aslam is the superior player and should be given a chance as well, 4 innings just isnt enough for a talented youg odi player. Aside from that since that doesnt seem possible we should try opening with either babar and harry at 3 or open with asif and harry at 4. Imams slow approach will not hold up against the top sides, but lets persist until he thoroughly fails
 
He''s been excellent. He can play long innings. Unlike other players doesn't start huffing and puffing at 40..hardworking too.
 
Back
Top