Careful, they’re heroes

The duo has been subjected to undue criticism, but most of it seems unreasonable

Imagine, you have a small furniture business. You have two key departments, one does everything from designing to cutting to carving. Then there is another department for final touches and packing.

There are two employees who complement each other perfectly and do an exceptional job with designing and crafting. While there are workers in the other department that are usually a letdown for you and your business.

Now, what will you do to help your business? Keep those two efficient craftsmen in that department and let them do what they do the best or split them to manage other business affairs? Most likely, you will look to fix the other department with probably new workers or fix their work ethic, rather than separating those two settled workers who have been your company’s most precious asset.

This is a kind of debate that has been going around since the start of the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia. With the openers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan being out of touch, critics have been calling them selfish, ignorant and whatnot.

There has been an obnoxious demand of splitting the pair or probably removing one or both of them from the opening spot.

There have been suggestions that Rizwan should bat down the order and Babar should open with Fakhar or Rizwan should open the batting with someone and the captain should bat at three. Or maybe move down both of them.

The whole debate is based on the argument that Pakistan’s middle-order is weak, so Babar should demote himself to rectify the problem. On the other hand, some argue that the wicketkeeper-batter should bat down the order as he struggles to score freely in the opening overs.

To me, there is no logic behind this argument as these two have been the premier match-winners for the side for at least good two years and they are best suited for the position.

A handful of poor performances cannot discredit them from the service they have done for the country and their slots should not be questioned.

Here is a counter-argument to the latest debate.

This too shall pass

The two players who have been winning you games consistently in the last couple of years cannot be written off due to a few poor games.

Babar and Rizwan are just having a bad phase as our captain said to Virat Kohli, ‘this too shall pass’, the cricket enthusiasts and pundits ought to be a bit patient as this bumpy time will eventually perish.

In the last two years, the two opening batters have been the key to the team’s success. Babar has averaged 41.11 in winning causes, while he has averaged only 27.12 when Pakistan lost.

On the other hand, Rizwan, who manages a career average of 49.62 in T20Is, scored at an average of 82.40 for Pakistan’s victories in the last two years. When the Men-in-Green lose, he averages merely 31.11.

This massive difference in the winning and losing cause determines that they hold the key for the Green Caps.

Though their middle-order has clicked twice in the World Cup, they lost a crucial contest against Zimbabwe while chasing merely 131 when both Babar and Rizwan failed.

If the two openers were on song, there was almost no chance that they would have lost this game. This one encounter changed the whole course of Pakistan’s journey in the event.

The World Cup has been terrible for the openers, who generally contribute over 50 runs in every inning together, averaging at just 8.5 runs.

It indicates that both of Pakistan’s star openers could not find their groove during the mega event and it was not the pair itself that caused the problem for the team, it is their rough patch that is causing the issue.

Anyone can have a rough patch. India’s Virat Kohli could not fire for three years straight, but it did not hurt the Men-in-Blue much as they had other capable players who took the charge.

Cricket is a team game. When the whole batting line was getting flopped, it was Babar and Rizwan who did the majority of the work. Similarly, now, when they are struggling, others should step up and fulfil their duty at their respective positions.

The replacement

Babar and Rizwan are asked to move down the order, mocking that the two middle-order batters are opening the innings while we have openers batting in the middle-order.

They have been often accused of playing too slow in the first six overs as they lack ‘intent’, the new favourite word in town. Then there is an allegation that their technique is not suitable for the wickets in Australia. Let’s address these allegations one by one.

There are about three openers in the side apart from Babar and Rizwan, Shan Masood, Haider Ali and Fakhar Zaman.

The left-handed batter is very similar to our current openers in the T20Is when it comes to the strike rate and intent.

Masood has a career average of 27.7 in all of the T20s (132) that he has played all around the world, where he has scored at a meagre strike rate of 125.62. Meanwhile, Babar has an average of 43.92 in 240 games at a slightly better scoring rate of 128.08.

On the other hand, Rizwan has played 208 20-over games and scored at an average of 42.80 with a strike rate of 125.66.

Meanwhile, Haider, who has not been a part of the playing XI due to his mindless batting approach, has scored at an average of 23.32 in 93 games at a strike rate of 135.54.

Zaman is also considered an opener, but he has been doing well at number three  with the two right-handers at the top. The left-handed batter has not clicked as well in the shortest format of the game as he has in ODIs, scoring at 27.66 in 197 matches at a decent strike rate of 133.9.

(The reason I have compared all T20s numbers is to give you a better idea of the batters’ capability with a bigger sample size.)

So, the question is who can replace Rizwan or Babar at the top? I believe none for any betterment. Shan is much like Babar and Rizwan, while Haider and Fakhar are not consistent.

Then there comes another important question. If Rizwan is moved down the order, where will he bat? The answer is, he is a limited batter who is not a natural stroke maker. Thus, most likely, he can effectively bat at the top of the order, or he needs to be dropped altogether. We cannot afford a player like Rizwan in the middle overs where you need quick runs despite five fielders out on the boundary.

Favourite word: intent

You open Twitter when Babar and Rizwan come out to bat, and after a couple of overs, your timeline will be flooded with tweets featuring the world ‘intent’.

In the first game against India, where Babar fell for a golden duck and Rizwan struggled with the ball moving outrageously, everyone blamed them for the lack of intent.

However, as the tournament progressed, it became clearer that it was the template where teams will struggle in the first six to 10 overs and score freely in the latter phase of the inning.

The average opening partnership has been 21.53 this World Cup with a run-rate of less than seven runs per overs (6.97 to be exact).

But we were quick to jump to the conclusion that our players lacked intent and played only for their ranking. The undue criticism must have affecte`d their approach and confidence.

The Green Caps have been successful with their tried and tested method of not throwing away early wickets and then scoring in the last 10.

When the method was fruitful and suited their style of play, why change it just because England or India are adopting a different approach?

Talking about sacrifice

Recently, former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram shared an incident from the dressing room of Karachi Kings, where the franchise management asked Babar to bat one down to accommodate Martin Guptill at the top and he refused to do so.

There was a lot of fuss around the incident and a population started calling Babar selfish.

However, contrary to this belief, I think teams are selected and played keeping their most reliable and consistent players in view.

Lahore Qalandars will not ask Shaheen Shah Afridi to take the older ball because they want another foreign seamer or any bowler to fit in. They should select the rest of four-five bowlers around Shaheen and not bother him.

Surely, during Akram’s era, there must have been a few good new ball bowlers who struggled bowling with the older ball but the management never asked the Sultan of Swing to take the older ball just because they wanted to try someone new.

In a nutshell, we need to respect our performers and their dedication. It was just distasteful and weird to see all cannons pointing at the two most consistent performers of the team for the side’s failure.

We, as a nation, can adore Kohli throughout his three-year-long lean patch and wish him luck to get his lost form back.

In contrast, we just want to get rid of our star players, change their positions, label them selfish, call them names and doubt their intent just because they failed in a handful of games after a ridiculously consistent run of about three years.

We admire our stars when they shine and curse them blatantly when they get a tad dimmer.