Will Babar Azam, Haris Sohail and Sarfaraz Ahmad ever be as good as Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq?

[Hawkeye]

When Babar, Haris and Sarfraz weren't in the team, we used to think they are the solution to our batting woes.

Now they are in the team. And we're losing Tests.

I honestly do believe that Babar and Haris can be great bats for Pak.

But, will they become as good as Misbah and YK in Tests? Especially on home/UAE soil?

Can they match the clutch knocks played the veterans? Or will they have the ability to pull the team out of crisis?

Both Misbah and YK thrived under crisis, pressure situations.

All our batsmen failed in difficult bowling condition overseas, so let's not go over there. These two were not exceptions.

But in crisis situation, these two were the best.

It's hard for me to see how Babar, Sarf and Haris can match that clutch gene. The ability to play crucial knocks.

 

[AAli98]

Musbah & YK wernt greats but by pak batting standards they were very good.. baba & co are what they are, you cannot mould 20+ age players to something theyr not.

 

[PerfectionPersonified]

simple answer NO

 

[shariqnoor]

More than skills, its the mental aspect of the game that both Babar and Haris lack - in fact all of our current players, barring Imam, lack. That steely mental toughness that is required to be a success at the Test level is missing from Pakistan cricket.

The best part is after losing like this in the 4th innings for the umpteenth time, Sarfraz at the presentation ceremony has the gall to say "we will try not to repeat the mistakes made here". Lip service that has been regurgitated a gazillion times. Like we wouldn't panic if we needed 40 with 5 wickets in hand next time?

So until our players become mentally tough, these two-three batsmen will never achieve the heights of Younis and Misbah.

 

[Hawkeye]

Musbah & YK wernt greats but by pak batting standards they were very good.. baba & co are what they are, you cannot mould 20+ age players to something theyr not.

Sarf is 33

Haris is close to 30

Babar is mid 20s

These are not teenagers.

And are expected to hold the batting lineup together, at least in the UAE, against the spinners.

 

[Barragan]

Haris can match Misbah, but none of them will be as good against spin as those two.

Sarfraz is very good against spin and hoping he will only get better because the younger generation seems to be hopeless against spin and that includes Haris, Babar, Rizwan, Imam, Asif Ali, Maqsood, Akmal, Shehzad etc and I don't know about Saud or Saad, but I'm willing to bet they are going to be just as bad.

 

[Khan12]

Both haris and Babar are easily better bats then misbah. It's only a matter of time before they start delivering.

 

[Fahdi]

Haris's development period was skipped. He should have been in the team by 2013, that period was instead invested in Asad and Azhar. Right now I don't think Haris can be a 45+ averaging batsman. He'll be a 40-45 averaging batsman now who can serve us for about 4 years.

Babar is already averaging 50 this year. He was easily our best batsman in the match. He should go on to become a 45+ averaging batsman and has the makings of a 50+ averaging batsman, but that's up to him. His biggest enemy for a while has been runouts though

 

[Navdeep Srivastava]

Sarfaraz is in the same sentence as YK and Misbah? Lol

 

[ads101]

Azhar and Asad are what should have been substitutes for YK and Misbah, the ones invested time in. And they haven't met expectations.

Azhar could have been a great opener for us, but isn't good enough in the middle order to be as good as YK and Misbah. We saw that today, he's just too flawed. We made a mistake leaving him at 3 all these years, when he should have opened for all that time.

Asad's been a disappointment, not consistent enough, sadly probably wasn't worth the investment.

Haris's lack of fitness/injury layoff I don't think he's going to be a great bat. He has the talent to, but looks like he won't get there, he doesn't make anyone work for his wicket, he'll give it away. Why it took him so long to get his debut century. I think he'll be a 40 or so average bat. He's honestly just like Asad version 2 yet a bit better talented, worse fitness. Gives no command on the crease.

Babar I think will be great even in tests, as in LOIs he scores big and usually doesn't give his wicket away easily. He has an awful lot of soft dismissals in tests, but hopefully that will change.

It's kind of telling that we don't even have bats that average 50 in domestic these days. Saad and Usman average mid 40s and Usman's arguably been boosted played in worse divisions. Saud averages just 43 and upped it more recently.

Fact is there is very few domestic batsman who have been pilling up the runs at 50+ averages for consecutive domestic seasons. Not just a one off great season. Even Haris doesn't count, sure when he was younger pre injury he was doing it but as soon as he healed he was pretty much rushed back, he's probably not in the same mindset of churning out big scores in domestic day in day out anymore.

 

[the Great Khan]

When Babar, Haris and Sarfraz weren't in the team, we used to think they are the solution to our batting woes.

Now they are in the team. And we're losing Tests.

I honestly do believe that Babar and Haris can be great bats for Pak.

But, will they become as good as Misbah and YK in Tests? Especially on home/UAE soil?

Can they match the clutch knocks played the veterans? Or will they have the ability to pull the team out of crisis?

Both Misbah and YK thrived under crisis, pressure situations.

All our batsmen failed in difficult bowling condition overseas, so let's not go over there. These two were not exceptions.

But in crisis situation, these two were the best.

It's hard for me to see how Babar, Sarf and Haris can match that clutch gene. The ability to play crucial knocks.

yes they are already as good if not better at this stage...but the biggest downside is not playing on flatter batting pitches and away from home all the time. YK and co had the chance to bat in India where the pitches are roads and at home where the pitches were very similar..nowadays its harder..I wager that Babar willbecome a better player than most pakistani batsman we have seen in the last 20 odd years..

this team is facing massive diversity but are resiliant..you have to give them todays loss..they will have more but as long as we keep supporting them and understand the limitations we will prevail..and if we dont well we'll still support them

 

[cricket_cfa]

Babar can become like that
Haris i can not say
Sarfaraz is somewhat mentally tough but batting ability is probably limited

 

[MMHS]

Sarfraz is already there - better captain that Misbah (at per with YK & Khan, because those guys also won an ICC event, that's the way you measure Captain), and not a bad batsman either, definitely at per with Misbah at least. Misbah's average of 47 was built at a cowardly 45 SR; Sarfraz's could have easily averaged 47+, had he scarified his aggression - SR from 71 to say 60. A possible 48/58 stats actually makes him better than Ken Williamson or even may be YK.

Haris doesn't have the time anymore, but he could have been better than Misbah for sure had he been made regular 4-5 years back. Babar is already better than Misbah and YK in ODI, he has time to improve his Test stats, but that might be too much for him in this era.

 

[Hawkeye]

Sarfraz is already there - better captain that Misbah (at per with YK & Khan, because those guys also won an ICC event, that's the way you measure Captain), and not a bad batsman either, definitely at per with Misbah at least. Misbah's average of 47 was built at a cowardly 45 SR; Sarfraz's could have easily averaged 47+, had he scarified his aggression - SR from 71 to say 60. A possible 48/58 stats actually makes him better than Ken Williamson or even may be YK.

I see what you did there.

 

[MMHS]

I see what you did there.

Not a single word here is mine - I have been educated cricket here in PP; just picked few punch words to put an argument.

 

[Hawkeye]

Azhar and Asad are what should have been substitutes for YK and Misbah, the ones invested time in. And they haven't met expectations.

Azhar could have been a great opener for us, but isn't good enough in the middle order to be as good as YK and Misbah. We saw that today, he's just too flawed. We made a mistake leaving him at 3 all these years, when he should have opened for all that time.

Asad's been a disappointment, not consistent enough, sadly probably wasn't worth the investment.

Haris's lack of fitness/injury layoff I don't think he's going to be a great bat. He has the talent to, but looks like he won't get there, he doesn't make anyone work for his wicket, he'll give it away. Why it took him so long to get his debut century. I think he'll be a 40 or so average bat. He's honestly just like Asad version 2 yet a bit better talented, worse fitness. Gives no command on the crease.

Babar I think will be great even in tests, as in LOIs he scores big and usually doesn't give his wicket away easily. He has an awful lot of soft dismissals in tests, but hopefully that will change.

It's kind of telling that we don't even have bats that average 50 in domestic these days. Saad and Usman average mid 40s and Usman's arguably been boosted played in worse divisions. Saud averages just 43 and upped it more recently.

Fact is there is very few domestic batsman who have been pilling up the runs at 50+ averages for consecutive domestic seasons. Not just a one off great season. Even Haris doesn't count, sure when he was younger pre injury he was doing it but as soon as he healed he was pretty much rushed back, he's probably not in the same mindset of churning out big scores in domestic day in day out anymore.

Very good post and good points by [MENTION=133920]Fahdi[/MENTION] as well.

I've lost all my faith in Azhar and Shafiq - they're the worst investments we made. So, not going to compare them.

I think Babar and Haris still have a chance to become better, in Tests.

But, I don't see that confidence, the dominancy that you used to see from Misbah and YK. Their wickets were the most prized.

It was one hell of a task to take their wicket. They made the bowling side work extremely hard. And when the chips were down, they always came on top.

These batsmen are failing us in an easy chase like today's.