Pakistan’s top-order woes
Pakistan haven’t had too much cause for celebration on their tour of Australia, but one of their few gains has been the emergence of a quality opener. Salman Butt did enough in the three Tests against a star-studded bowling attack to suggest that Pakistan might have found a possible replacement for Saeed Anwar at last. Butt scored 225 runs in the three Tests, including a fluent 108 in the final match, at Sydney.
Over the last six years, Pakistan’s batting has generally been their Achilles heel, and the problems have started right at the top of the order, with the openers being changed at the blink of an eyelid: in the last 54 Tests, Pakistan have tried out a shocking 27 different opening partnerships – that’s exactly two matches per pair. As the table below shows, Pakistan’s opening pair has been by far the least stable of all the Test-playing nations’: even Zimbabwe and Bangladesh have given their openers a marginally longer run, as have India, despite their struggles at the top of the order in the last few years.
On the other hand, Australia, Sri Lanka, South Africa and England have all had fairly settled first-wicket pairs, and the numbers show why: each of these four teams average more than 40 per opening partnership, with Australia leading the way with 50.29.
Opening stats
since 1999------Tests----Different pairs -----Average p’ship—Matches per pair
Australia -------74-------------- 6--------------- 50.29------------------12.33
England -------75-----------------11---------------43.89--------------------6.82
Sri Lanka------60-----------------9-----------------41.19-----------------6.67
South Africa—68 -----------------13-----------------49.91-----------------5.23
West Indies—69-----------------17-----------------36.12-----------------4.06
New Zealand–54-----------------18-----------------35.30-----------------3.00
India------------62----------------- 20-----------------37.06-----------------2.82
Bangladesh—36-----------------13-----------------21.42-----------------2.77
Zimbabwe-----44-----------------16-----------------21.75-----------------2.75
Pakistan--------54-----------------27-----------------38.77-----------------2.00
Pakistan have generally struggled to find a successful combination, but there was one pair which lasted a relatively long time, and achieved a fair degree of success – Imran Farhat and Taufeeq Umar played together 15 times and ran up 754 runs at an impressive average of 50.27 per innings. Their golden run came in the home series against South Africa in 2003-04, when they put together three consecutive hundred-plus stands. However, Pakistan’s selectors then showed the kind of impatience that has prevented the side from acquiring a settled feel – Umar had a lean series against India, and instead of looking at it as a brief slump and persisting with him, he was promptly dumped. Umar wasn’t the first to be given short shrift after a brief sparkle – Mohammad Hafeez, Wajahatullah Wasti, Naved Latif and Imran Nazir have all been dubbed the next big hope for Pakistan’s top order, only to be discarded within a year. Will Salman Butt buck the trend?
I Dont Know Watsupp With Management Y Isnt Taufeeq Getting Any Chance...........? And If A Player Is Not Good Enough Or He Only Gonna Get One Or 2chances Y Send Them With Team...?
What disturbs me even more is that Pakistan has played only more tests then Zimbabwe and Bangladesh....Even a side like Sri Lanka has managed more tests than Pakistan. This is pathetic to say the least. It speaks volume on the lack of character and competence on the part of our cricket administrators.
I’d stick with incompetence. Not sure how character is involved in this.
Anyway, one good thing in the table (first post) is that Pak openers have a healthier first wicket average than:
West Indies
New Zealand
India
Bangladesh
Zimbabwe
And within 5 runs of Sri Lanka and England.
Anyway, definitely we need to stabilize on an opening pair. There are high hopes from Salman Butt… though as I said in his praise thread, lets wait and give the lad a chance to mature… and not be too quick in comparing him to Saeed Anwar. His current performance in VB shows he definitely has some weaknesses and its now up to him, and the coaches to polish him into a world class opener.
I don’t have a problem with having two separate opening pairs for tests and ODI’s. If Taufeeq Umer is good, he should be recalled for tests and stuck with, for a reasonable period of time.
I don’t think Kamran Akmal will work out as an opener in ODI on a long term basis. If Salman Butt is a fluent stoke player, we need some one to put down the anchor and guard the innings. Maybe try Younis Khan or someone who is not in a rush to score 50 in 15 balls.
Taufeeq Umer and Salman Butt are the answer of all the opening worries. Be persistant with these two for six months to come and then see the shadows of Anwar/Sohail duo. They both have the same fearlessness and confidence.
kon fail nahi hota, idiots dropped taufeeq for Farhat, what a joke! taufeeq has a class. he needs selectors' confidence.
I would go with Yasir & Salman. I have a feeling that duo will do great things. Also I will bring in Asim in the middle order. He can bat fast and slow depending upon the conditions. In 4 months, he should be as good as Inzimam.
The idea of having separate ODI and test teams does not work for a team like paksitan, since Pak does not play enough tests in the first place. Having specialist test players only work for teams that play tests all year round and as such those players are constantly sharpening their skills and exposed to the rigours of the test arena through out the year. In pakistan’s case we only play ODI in any meaningful numbers and a consistent all year round format, in the token tests that we do play, we expect the test match specialists to step in from their pathetic domestic level right into the test arena once or twice a year and dominate, or at least perform at a par level. I think we are expecting too much out of them. Thats why a talent like Asim Kamal is being wasted because we only ask him to show up twice a year at most and expect him to score centuries from the word go, while others who do play international cricket all year, albeit mostly ODIs continue to struggle. Its a testimont to Asim’s temperment and skills that he still manages to perform. Unless we play tests all year round or at least in as much quantity as the second tier test countries then this luxury of having specialists for each version of the game ought to be used, otherwise its a monumental waste of time.
thas the time played aganst AUSI and beat them
just look and figure it out by urself how many of the players have opened for PAKI in recent years..... yup 7 of players playing in this team have opened for PAKi and if u include KAMRAN AKMAL its eight........ not saying its bad thing but just not that professional from our management . and i see that it might be one of reason that our team is not consistance.
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