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Would Inzamam-ul-Haq make it into the current day Pakistan side? (any format)

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stevewittry

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Well, this might be a surprise to Inzi for hard fans. But the game has moved on from what it was in the 90s. Pure play batting talent can only get you so far. Teams are now looking at players who could provide the added dimension in terms of fielding capabilities - a skill which was catching up in the 90s inspired by the Saffers.

Inzi though no doubt has been talented with the bat but must admit has also lost Pak a few matches through comical run outs and lacklustre fielding. All of these take away from the runs he scored with the bat.

Even a team like Pakistan who have traditionally been a weak fielding side are now setting precedence by dropping players who fail the fitness test irrespective of their stature and reputation. Umar Akmal a batting talent as good if not better than Inzi has been shown the door on the basis of his fitness or the lack of it. So if Inzi were to play today the same standard of fitness were to apply on him.

The irony is that Inzi himself is heading the selection panel. So the question is does Inzi find a place in modern day team ? So will Inzi the selector pick up Inzi the batsman ? Your thoughts?
 
The 90s ODI team would take to the modern ODI cricket like a duck to water. Every single one of them was attacking in nature and today's cricket would never have been a problem for them - except for fielding of course.

Saeed Anwar, Amir Sohail, Ijaz Ahmed, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Abdul Razzaq, Moin Khan, Wasim Akram.

Do you think these guys would've had a problem scoring at 100 SR??
 
The question here is the amount of runs Inzi would concede in terms of midfields, dropped catches, run outs (self). Opposition teams these days are smart enough to pick the weakest fielders in the opposition camp and target their areas for runs. So one cannot hide an fielder.

With this, it can be safely assumed that Inzi will end up converting 15 to 20 runs per match owing to above mentioned fielding deficiencies. Thus with his career average of 40, and taking away those crucial 15 - 20 runs from his average, his value will effectively be a 20-25 average batsman, may be with 100 strike rate.

The question therefore is will you take a 20-25 batsman with a 100 strike rate in the current squad, who has no secondary skill set ?
 
He would walk into any side these days, apart from maybe England. Modern day fitness tests would have forced him to maintain atleast Sharjeel level fitness so that is not an issue.
 
Considering Pakistan's horrible current day batsmen, he would walk into the side with his eyes closed. What you say regarding fitness would probably be applicable for better teams though.
 
Inzamam was a lazy fielder- not a pathetic one. His catching was pretty safe and was a pretty reliable slip fielder for all of his career. Had an absolute rocket arm from the deep. And if his fielding was so much of a problem, he would be simply hided at short-fine leg. His value as a batsman far exceeds whatever he would cost the team in the field. It's very rare for one man to win an entire match on his own through his fielding alone but it's very common for one man to win an entire match alone through his bowling and batting. Inzi would win you matches on his own with his batting. Would you leave out Malinga from the ODI setup altogether simply because he's a pathetic fielder?
 
Is this even a question.... man to man, Inzi will replace each and every batsman from current team...
 
He’ll walk in the team and probably play better in his sleep than the current bunch. One of the best batsman to come out of Pakistan.
 
Pakistan today would be happy to play with 10 fielders instead of 11 (let inzi rest in dressing room) if Inzi is available as a batsman.
 
Name a better slip catcher in the present ODI side than Inzi and i think you'll find your answer. As an add on, name a player in the ODI setup with a better arm for a bullet throw from the deep. Put Inzi in this team and the recent Asia cup mauling at the hands of India and Bangladesh might actually not have been so.

Inzi the selector has a deep appreciation for talent over statistics so i'm inclined to believe he would have picked Inzi the player purely on his batting ability, but he wasn't as bad a fielder as he was a runner between the wickets.
 
Fitness in cricket is overrated. It helps getting to the next level but its not everything otherwise. Its the runs that count. Nobody cares if someone weights 120 kg as long as he's scoring the runs at the required rate. Its not that fitness meant nothing the 90s. Inzi made it to his side on merit. In terms of fitness he wouldn't even have made it to 90s team.

I find this thread disrespectful to Pakistan's 2nd/3rd greatest batsman ever arguably.
 
Of course he would. He would be the best batsmen in Pakistan but he would have to improve his fitness.

But can't believe this is even a question.
 
stevewittry said:
Umar Akmal a batting talent as good if not better than Inzi has been shown the door on the basis of his fitness or the lack of it.
Click to expand...

Nearly missed this gem🤣

Inzi was not the worst in terms of fitness or fielding. He had safe hands when at slips and patrolled the boundary effectively. You had to think twice before taking on his throw.

I don’t want to divert this thread but I imagine the same question could be asked of past greats from every country.
 
I mean if his talentless gully mohallah level bhateeja can make it then I'm sure Inzi would be the first name on the teamsheet. Heck even at the age of 50 Inzi would still walk into this side and be it's best batsman.
 
Nope middle order of Hafeez & Malik is too strong, only Bradman/Richards/Pollock could dislodge them 2...
 
Inzi would walk into this Pakistani side and indeed any Pakistani side in history. I'm sure in today's world he would have been a little fitter, but its also not right to suggest he was some Danish Kaneria-esq fielder. His super fast hand-eye coordination meant he was one of the best slip catchers Pakistan has ever had. So his fielding certainly wouldn't be holding him back.
 
He'll make the team in both formats with his eyes closed.
 
Yes of course, since he is the chief selector, it would be easy for him to select himself :rp :ssmith
 
Lol what a question. Inzy would be the first name on the sheet Did OP watch inzy in his prime?
 
He will make the team with one leg injured. He is several miles better than any current Pakistani batsmen.
 
stevewittry said:
Well, this might be a surprise to Inzi for hard fans. But the game has moved on from what it was in the 90s. Pure play batting talent can only get you so far. Teams are now looking at players who could provide the added dimension in terms of fielding capabilities - a skill which was catching up in the 90s inspired by the Saffers.

Inzi though no doubt has been talented with the bat but must admit has also lost Pak a few matches through comical run outs and lacklustre fielding. All of these take away from the runs he scored with the bat.

Even a team like Pakistan who have traditionally been a weak fielding side are now setting precedence by dropping players who fail the fitness test irrespective of their stature and reputation. Umar Akmal a batting talent as good if not better than Inzi has been shown the door on the basis of his fitness or the lack of it. So if Inzi were to play today the same standard of fitness were to apply on him.

The irony is that Inzi himself is heading the selection panel. So the question is does Inzi find a place in modern day team ? So will Inzi the selector pick up Inzi the batsman ? Your thoughts?
Click to expand...

I think the exclusion of Akmal was largely due to his persistent failure to perform with the bat. If he was producing Inzi-level numbers with the bat, he would be one of the first names on the team sheet despite his current fitness, which is poor, but sadly not a huge deal in Pakistan cricket. :sarf
 
I would kill to have a batsman like Inzamam in this team. God gifted talent, master of pacing the innings, rotating strike and hitting out at the end. Most importantly the guy handled the pressure of being the main batsman in the side for so many years. He probably has one of the highest Motm awards and all his big knocks resulting in Pakistan winning.

I strongly believe he should take over as batting coach from Grant Flower. He is the best guy our batsmen can learn from having played the modern game. He is being wasted as CS.
 
Not only would he make the Pakistan test and odi team he’d probably make the XIs of most other test nations too.
 
Inzy as a test batsman walks into ANY test side on the planet. I think the same goes for the ODI format.

T20s maybe not so.
 
Savak said:
I would kill to have a batsman like Inzamam in this team. God gifted talent, master of pacing the innings, rotating strike and hitting out at the end. Most importantly the guy handled the pressure of being the main batsman in the side for so many years. He probably has one of the highest Motm awards and all his big knocks resulting in Pakistan winning.

I strongly believe he should take over as batting coach from Grant Flower. He is the best guy our batsmen can learn from having played the modern game. He is being wasted as CS.
Click to expand...

Inzamam was magnificent in a run chase. He knew exactly which bowlers to target, when to defend and to attack, and how to protect the tail.

His hundred against India in Karachi in a 350 chase in 2004, when chasing 350 was unheard of, was a classic example and set things up perfectly only for our lower order to choke.

Could you imagine this lot chasing 350 ? They would soil their pants at the thought.
 
Inzi was the master of playing with the tail. He would have helped the the team definitely. Would walk into both formats.
 
Looks extremely obese even when you take into account his usual girth back in the day. Needs to shed 40 pounds and he will be good to go in next year's WC :).
 
Would've been interesting if original post was would Inzamam select an Inzamam into the national side?

I've watched him since he was picked against Sri Lanka in 1991.

His selection was due to Imran and in the aftermath a selector resigned protesting Imran's decision.

He has had a dubious career for his antics outside of cricket field. He was involved in player power pressure against PCB executive Majid Khan to protect Mushtaq Ahmed from being dropped in 1994/95.

Post 2003 he got enormous power and irreplaceable captian due to his game, he continued with certain favorites till 2007 and blocked many youngsters from the side. Hafeez used to open and probably the only opener with a 18.5 average and still selected in the team. Alongwith Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Malik. Many players were sidelined like Misbah and one players career was intentionally finished [Asim Kamal].

Inzamam always promoted defense of seniors in the team no matter how they performed. Inzamam was also part of the 2009 revolt against successful captain Younis Khan, to protect Yousuf, Salman Butt, Afridi, Malik and Akmals.

Since his tenure as chief selector no consistent opener or middle order player has played in the Pakistan XI. He has selected amongst his few favorites [Ahmed Shehzad, Imam Haq] ignoring the rest of domestic performers like Fawad Alam, Hussain Tallat and many others. Without any pressure on him to select a domestic performer minus PSL he has used his power to support seniors in the team.
 
The current lot of Pakistani batsmen aren't fit to clean the boots of Inzi.

I had the pleasure of watching him at close quarters in the nets at Leicester during his prime. He was playing pace bowlers bowling at 85 to 90mph as if they were spinners.

Incredible hand/eye co-ordination.

Nerves of steel, a batsman who could and did win matches on his own.
 
He will walk into current Pakistani team despite his shortcomings. I saw his entire career.
 
Inzi is better than any current Pak batsman and would easily walk into any format, no doubt about that whatsoever.
 
OP desperate enough to show Inzi you were not good enough player to make in current side
 
stevewittry said:
The question here is the amount of runs Inzi would concede in terms of midfields, dropped catches, run outs (self). Opposition teams these days are smart enough to pick the weakest fielders in the opposition camp and target their areas for runs. So one cannot hide an fielder.

With this, it can be safely assumed that Inzi will end up converting 15 to 20 runs per match owing to above mentioned fielding deficiencies. Thus with his career average of 40, and taking away those crucial 15 - 20 runs from his average, his value will effectively be a 20-25 average batsman, may be with 100 strike rate.

The question therefore is will you take a 20-25 batsman with a 100 strike rate in the current squad, who has no secondary skill set ?
Click to expand...

Cricket does not work like that. Even the worst fielder in the world does not cost 15-20 runs per game. Besides, Inzamam was not a bad fielder by any means. Yes he was slow and unathletic, but he was an excellent catcher and had a very strong arm.

As far as his fitness is concerned, it is true that it hampered him from fulfilling his potential especially in ODIs. He should have ended with a lot more tons but was usually out of breath after 70-80 deliveries. Every single was a burden on his heavy frame.

His 83 fifties but only 10 hundreds tell a story. With better fitness, he would have had scored 25+ hundreds.

Even in Tests, he underachieved. He was much better than what his rubbish record against Australia and South Africa show.

He would be the first name on the team sheet today in all formats because no contemporary Pakistani batsman is anywhere close to him, and not only Pakistan but he would make into most playing XIs.

Of all the Asian batsmen, in terms of all-round ability and versatility, he is only behind Kohli and Tendulkar in my view, and on par with the likes of Aravinda. However, performance wise, he was outclassed by a quite a few less gifted batsmen.

Imran though has often overrated him by comparing him with Tendulkar and Viv, but it is largely down to the fact that he owes him the World Cup. Imran had played a terrible, match-losing innings in the semifinal (it was as bad as Misbah’s Mohali), but Inzamam’s once in a lifetime innings changed the course of the game.

That Herculean effort gave Imran the chance to make amends in the final where he played a splendid knock.

Nonetheless, one of the top three batsmen produced by Pakistan would comfortably get into one of the worst lineups in history of Pakistan.
 
Mamoon said:
Cricket does not work like that. Even the worst fielder in the world does not cost 15-20 runs per game. Besides, Inzamam was not a bad fielder by any means. Yes he was slow and unathletic, but he was an excellent catcher and had a very strong arm.

As far as his fitness is concerned, it is true that it hampered him from fulfilling his potential especially in ODIs. He should have ended with a lot more tons but was usually out of breath after 70-80 deliveries. Every single was a burden on his heavy frame.

His 83 fifties but only 10 hundreds tell a story. With better fitness, he would have had scored 25+ hundreds.

Even in Tests, he underachieved. He was much better than what his rubbish record against Australia and South Africa show.

He would be the first name on the team sheet today in all formats because no contemporary Pakistani batsman is anywhere close to him, and not only Pakistan but he would make into most playing XIs.

Of all the Asian batsmen, in terms of all-round ability and versatility, he is only behind Kohli and Tendulkar in my view, and on par with the likes of Aravinda. However, performance wise, he was outclassed by a quite a few less gifted batsmen.

Imran though has often overrated him by comparing him with Tendulkar and Viv, but it is largely down to the fact that he owes him the World Cup. Imran had played a terrible, match-losing innings in the semifinal (it was as bad as Misbah’s Mohali), but Inzamam’s once in a lifetime innings changed the course of the game.

That Herculean effort gave Imran the chance to make amends in the final where he played a splendid knock.

Nonetheless, one of the top three batsmen produced by Pakistan would comfortably get into one of the worst lineups in history of Pakistan.
Click to expand...

Good points. In my opinion, he is the best Pakistani batsman ever. I rate him higher than Miandad and Zaheer Abbas.
 
Inzamam would hop into all three of our teams on one leg, probably as captain and definitely as the best batsman. He would field in the slips where he he would be our best catcher too.

A very strange thread.
 
Very easily. Will be hailed as the greatest thing since slice bread if a talent like him plays for us now.
 
Lol weird thread. Pakistan batting is very lackluster at the moment if it was any good one could understand this question but in current team he would walk in even at his present state.
 
This is what happens when you pass judgement over players whom you never watched play during their time and form your judgement by reading second hand accounts of their performances. Such armchair "experts" end up beliving that the present day players were better than the past players.
 
He will do better than most Pakistani batsmen even if he is made to bat left handed
 
One more thing to add that if he and his superstar mates would have been caught in this era, then the minimum punishment would have been 5 years atleast so lucky escape for the 90s superstars. :)
 
Inzamam was not a liability in the field. An excellent reliable slip catcher. A bullet like throw from the outfield. Not the fastest mover, not a diver but really the worst either. His running between the wickets from a speed point of view wasn't that bad, it was his comical understanding and lack of communication with his partner, heck Yousaf has had more run outs than him.
 
Shoaib Akhtar said that Inzamam was the only batsman he never ever dismissed in the nets. It was extremely demoralizing for him to race in and bowl as fast as he could during his peak only for Inzi to play him with so much ease. To him he was the best Pakistani batsman he ever came across by a country mile.
 
stevewittry said:
Well, this might be a surprise to Inzi for hard fans. But the game has moved on from what it was in the 90s. Pure play batting talent can only get you so far. Teams are now looking at players who could provide the added dimension in terms of fielding capabilities - a skill which was catching up in the 90s inspired by the Saffers.

Inzi though no doubt has been talented with the bat but must admit has also lost Pak a few matches through comical run outs and lacklustre fielding. All of these take away from the runs he scored with the bat.

Even a team like Pakistan who have traditionally been a weak fielding side are now setting precedence by dropping players who fail the fitness test irrespective of their stature and reputation. Umar Akmal a batting talent as good if not better than Inzi has been shown the door on the basis of his fitness or the lack of it. So if Inzi were to play today the same standard of fitness were to apply on him.

The irony is that Inzi himself is heading the selection panel. So the question is does Inzi find a place in modern day team ? So will Inzi the selector pick up Inzi the batsman ? Your thoughts?
Click to expand...

I think the answer is obvious.

Of course he would, if his uncle was Chief Selector.
 
On the next episode of this thread: Would Viv Richards get into the current West Indian side?
 
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