Ganguly was an opener to begin with, he moved lower down the order to accomodate Sehwag. You cant really compare Sachim to anyone in the world. The guy is a batting genius, he can play at any position and would still score runs. A lot of good it did Laxman to open, India has tried him, Sehwag and Sachin, Sahwag and Gambhir. Plus Laxman was tried after he had already been given chances at his preffered middle order position. It would be unfair to ask Hasan Raza or Mazid Khan etc to just try themselves out as an openers and if they dont work our then they would be out for a long time since they already had their chance.
Armughal bhai, mentally strong he maybe, but technically correct he is not! That sort of statement is an insult to the followers of Pakistan cricket! I really do hope he can adjust to opening, but judging him on the basis of this dead wicket is way too premature.
I saw the match today and I have to say I was not impressed with what I saw from him. On a different pitch he would have long gone....His technique is not very solid.. Butt was way better than him..but then again give the guy a chance...I am sure he will improve with time and we have promised him that he will continue to open for the rest of this series which should put him at some ease.
I believe its too early to say, though in this outing as an opener he has done well (consistently) how ever I would like to see how will he do in a longer stint? will he be able to provide the cushion and flexibility as a 5/6 bowler, batting all-rounder who can bowl good off-spinner.
Lets throw him out, after all he only scored 39 runs, lets throw yousef out as well, he only scored 5 runs, and Hasan Raza, well his nationality should be revoked. lets bring back… wait a minute who? oh Yes Afridi and Afridi and Afirdi.
If these guys win the match you will all be going beserk and calling this outfit the best in the world. Lets keep things in perspective. One innings and the lynching mob is out.
I am not justifying the inclusion of Malik or exclsuion of Afridi but for God sake let’s see how the match unfold.
LM,You differed from my post by providing Sehwag’s and Anwar’s examples but then you yourself amitted that malik is no sehwag or Anwar.
Second, to say that Sehwag and Anwar succeeded because their respective boards were persistent about them is not true. They were a class act from day one possessing unbelievable hand-eye coordination. They are true exceptions.
Third, no matter how successful Sehwag is, one cannot start teaching young kids to emulate him.
Therefore, the statement that technical correctness is a story of the past based on one isolated example is a faulty statement and needs to be revised by taking into account several factors as well.
phienixdesi, I am not saying Malik ie Sehwag or Tendulkar I was just pointing out from your posts where you said having proper footwork is a must for openers and I gave you the example of two players who didnt have it yet things worked out fine for them.
I dont think I ever said Sehwag or anyone suceeded because of their boards'd presistence.
Why cant kids emulate Sehwag ? There is one right in the Indian team, Dhooni who has quite a similar style to Sehwag and he has arrivaed on the scene with a bang.
Bob Woolmer on his site also admitted that the old book of batting techniques needs to be reviewed again as it has been proved time and again that people without the so called proper technique can succeed at the International level. Maybe we can make that book a little more tolreant to people who dont want to follow it and realize that every player plays differently and we should let him play the way that works for him not necesarily whats works for the technique book.
Ehsan bhai no one is pointing fingers at him because of his performance in this innings. You never know Malik could be one of the top scorers in the series. But does that mean that he is the one capable of holding the opening position?
Most of us here are missing a point. They are arguing that why cant we give malik a chance when dozen other players got that chance in the last 14 months. And to back the arguement they are saying that malik can do it because he is dedicated and hardworking cricketer. The point is that all the other players who got the chance were atleast test specialist players (thats the totally other story that why they didn’t perform) where is malik we know is an ODI specialist. Secondly if other have missed an opportunity in the last 14 months than is it neccesary to start a new experiment with even less chance of success. Do we have the luxury and time to conduct such an experiment? You just cant justify malik position as an opener by saying that other got the chance as well so he should also get the chance. The differecne is that those others were capable of having a test spot while malik doesnt deserve any position in the test side (atleast now).
We all know that his technique is not correct which will give him more trouble overseas in Aistralia, england or South Africa.
Why cant they can do an experiment which will make more sense i.e. trying younis khan as an operner along with butt, followed by yousuf, inzi, hasan/kamal and afridi.
But thats not the end, on top of all this, there is icing on the cake. They also have dropped a player who was one the most successful player in the current year.
Captain bhai its not about his performance in this test match. The discussion on malik started way before the start of the match and surely will continue even after the series.
agree with fkhan, we need regular opener, I love Malik as a cricketer, true country man, but the point is that is he has no foot work, as an opener I don't think Malik is a right choice as a permanent opener. I have seen him playing yesterday, he wasn't moving his feet from crease. I don't think he would last longer on swinging and boucy wickets.
Guys please don't get emotional with your personal likening.
Zafar: every player (opener) we have tried so far has had some flaw in him so why not try Malik? give him a series and then we can look back to compare openers, if his performance is 'average' then we can give him few more series to see if he improves.... after all we gave Imran Farhat such a long run.
I agree, give him a run as opener in this series and see how he does. Its pointless to keep changing and upsetting the balance of the team by a few mere performances. He will either show potential in this position or fail, but we will never know until he has a proper chance.
Ofcourse captain, I definately agree with consistency, no point changing again and again. I have no doubt in Malik’s abilities, I hope Bob is watching him play closely and he can improve his technique, I love when Malik plays aggressively, he is devastating. I hope he does it well in second innings.
I hope failure of Hassan Raza in first inning don’t cost him another 3-4 years out. I hope they give him decent run.
When was the last time our opening partnership crossed 50 runs? It doesn't happen regularly for us anymore. I would persist with these two guys and let them handle it on their own. Give them at least 5 more test matches and see if they get anything done.
I think in these miserable days of openers problem where our best domestic openers have failed in last two and half years, let someone play for a series (even on dead tracks) who can build a century stand among the opener pair. Its far better than those regulars who can’t cross 16 runs most of the time. Atleast until we see another Saeed Anwar emerged from domestic, so far we have none.
