Nintendo
International Captain
Why has imad not played an ODI in 3 years, fyi? I had a look at statsguru and he's played 50 of his 55 innings at 7 or lower, which explains the high number of NO's and the high average despite not many 50's, but the 5 times he actually batted at 6 he averaged 48 and struck at 150. His bowling average isn't amazing, but he has a sub 5 econ so he seems like a fine option as a 6th bowler holding spinner in the middle overs, which is all he really needs to be given that pak have plenty of quality quicks and a more attacking leggie in shadab. It's not like salman leapfrogged him either, given that his first odi came 2 years after imad's last.
I thought maybe imad's batting fell off so I checked his last 2 years of ODI cricket and he averaged 50 with the bat in that period (lot of NO's, mostly batting 7 or lower at that point tbf). I think maybe his bowling just went to ****, and it kinda did, started going at 5+ pretty much every game in his last 18 months and averaged 60 odd in that period, but it still feels weird that they didn't try moving him up the order to #6 and using him as a 6th bowler given how good his batting numbers where at 6 across his career and in last 2 years in general.
Edit: I had a better look, looks like iftikhar batted 6 in the last odi Imad played while imad was at 7/8 and batted 6 until mid 2022 just before salman came in, but iftikhar only ever took 8 wickets in his odi career, 5 of which came in 1 innings vs zimbabwe, and averaged mid 20's with the bat. Is this just a hindsight thing or did pakistan massively mismanage imad in ODI's. Salman's done too well to be replaced now, but I feel like imad should have had a run at 6 in that 18 month late 2020 - mid 2022 stretch :/.
I thought maybe imad's batting fell off so I checked his last 2 years of ODI cricket and he averaged 50 with the bat in that period (lot of NO's, mostly batting 7 or lower at that point tbf). I think maybe his bowling just went to ****, and it kinda did, started going at 5+ pretty much every game in his last 18 months and averaged 60 odd in that period, but it still feels weird that they didn't try moving him up the order to #6 and using him as a 6th bowler given how good his batting numbers where at 6 across his career and in last 2 years in general.
Edit: I had a better look, looks like iftikhar batted 6 in the last odi Imad played while imad was at 7/8 and batted 6 until mid 2022 just before salman came in, but iftikhar only ever took 8 wickets in his odi career, 5 of which came in 1 innings vs zimbabwe, and averaged mid 20's with the bat. Is this just a hindsight thing or did pakistan massively mismanage imad in ODI's. Salman's done too well to be replaced now, but I feel like imad should have had a run at 6 in that 18 month late 2020 - mid 2022 stretch :/.
Last edited:
