The left handed batsman of the Pakistan Cricket team, Fawad Alam, has surprisingly not made it to the ODI squad for the One Day International matches against New Zealand.
Fawad averages over 75 this year for the Green shirts. He has played many crucial innings including the hundred in the final of the Asia Cup. Yes, in the games against Australia recently, Fawad had struggled against seam bowling, but, it’s not him alone, the whole Pakistani side had a hard time.
Yet it’s Fawad who has been made the scapegoat. According to the journalists and also some of the Ex-Pakistani cricketers, the batting all rounder has been a bit hard done by. He should have been persisted with for at least one more series.
The selectors might have thought that with Younis Khan and Misbah already there, Pakistan doesn’t need any more inning builders.
But, Fawad is not merely an inning builder. He is a bit of an improviser as well and if the need arises, he gets the ball over the ropes too. He has an unorthodox technique and he tends to hit the ball in strange areas which is hard to cover for the opposition captain. So, he is an ideal sort of player for limited-over cricket.
But, with World Cup approaching fast, the Pakistan bosses perhaps want to give more importance to experience. Younis has been picked on the basis of his test form and he would bat at 3 probably. He must make sure that he doesn’t get too slow batting at that position, something that he has often done in the past.
In the semi final of the World Cup 2011, Younis’ slow batting was one of the main reasons why Pakistan had lost to the arch rivals India.