Pakistan need solid opening partnership

Joy Chakravarty 10:24 14/11/2015
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  • Promoted to open: Babar Azam.

    It was an all-too-familiar Pakistan batting collapse that led to England pulling level in the one day international series as the halfway stage was reached on Friday. Chasing a target of 284 runs, Pakistan were never really in the picture when they lost the two heroes from the first match – Babar Azam and Mohammad Hafeez – inside the first five and for just 10 runs on the board.

    They were quickly down to 50 for five, and it was only some late resistance that ensured they did not lose the match by an embarrassing margin.

    That collapse led to some Pakistan fans making passionate pleas to Misbah-ul-Haq to reconsider his retirement from the shorter formats.

    A comeback by the Pakistan Test captain will surely shore up the brittle batting, but that would be a step in the wrong direction. Let’s not forget that Misbah is 41 years old and he cannot stretch his career infinitely.

    What is really hurting Pakistan is that they do not have a settled opening pair.

    Azam going out on Friday with captain Azhar Ali was their 11th different combination at the top in the last 12 months. They have resulted in only three partnerships worth 100 runs or more.

    And the inability of the openers to see off the new ball resulted in a disastrous World Cup, and it is the same old story when the opposition bowlers get a bit of swing going, which was the case in Abu Dhabi with David Willey and Reece Topley.

    A look at this last year clearly shows that Pakistan’s best opening option is either captain Azhar Ali and Mohammad Hafeez, or the latter with Ahmed Shehzad.

    It was understandable that Pakistan needed to change their team following the retirement announcement of Younis Khan, but what prompted the management to promote Azam to open alongside Azhar will remain a mystery.

    Captain Azhar said it was done because Azam has prior experience of opening the batting in domestic cricket, while Mohammad Rizwan made for a better No. 6.

    Really, with Shehzad back in the side after the injury scare during the Test series and the subsequent trip back to Pakistan for a death in the family, the best selection yesterday would have been Shehzad coming in for Younis and getting back to opener’s place, with Bilal Asif getting another chance, perhaps at No. 5 after Hafeez and Shoaib Malik.

    Azhar, Hafeez and Shehzad will have to be one, two and three in the batting line-up and they need to be persisted with for some time.

    The chopping and changing is not going to help Pakistan much and they need to have full trust in the decision they make. Asif is a good example, dropped after three matches, in which he did have one score of 38.

    Right now, all eyes are on the T20 World Cup in India early next year, so the good news is that Pakistan do not have any major one day tournament in near future and they can build up the team. 

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