All attention before the start of the Sri Lankan series was on a 30-plus batsman named Fawad Alam, but two matches into the series and 32-year old Abid Ali has become the talk of the town with his eye-catching performances in whites. It took Abid 12 years of first-class cricket to finally manage a first Test. Like with his ODI debut, Abid made a hundred on Test debut to leave a prominent mark.
Read | Fawad Alam and Pakistan have come a full circle…well, almost
Abid Ali isn’t the first or last Pakistan opener to make a Test hundred. But the opener is the first in the world to score a Test and ODI hundred on debut. One-off brilliance from the top of the order isn’t what Pakistan seek from their openers in Tests. Opening has been a major issue for the team in recent times.
Since 2017, the average of their openers is just 31.66, the seventh best in the world. The openers have managed only six hundreds (two of them by Abid and one by Shan Masood in this series against Sri Lanka) for Pakistan in this time frame when India, South Africa and Australia have 15, 11 and 9 respectively.
|
Team |
Runs |
Ave |
100s |
|
India |
4588 |
42.87 |
15 |
|
Australia |
4255 |
37.99 |
9 |
|
Sri Lanka |
3831 |
30.64 |
8 |
|
England |
3796 |
29.88 |
6 |
|
South Africa |
3715 |
35.04 |
11 |
|
New Zealand |
2610 |
40.78 |
7 |
|
Pakistan |
2438 |
31.66 |
6 |
|
West Indies |
2425 |
26.35 |
3 |
|
Bangladesh |
2212 |
26.02 |
1 |
|
Zimbabwe |
659 |
27.45 |
1 |
|
Afghanistan |
407 |
27.13 |
0 |
|
Ireland |
175 |
14.58 |
0 |
Abid Ali started his innings at Karachi with an assuredness that Pakistan openers have lacked in recent times. With Shan Masood for company, Abid went on to make the Lankan bowlers toil in the second innings. Even in the first innings collapse of 191, he shone with a good-looking 38. That the 32-year old has toiled his way through first-class cricket has been telling in his performances so far.
In his short Test career so far, the opener averages a whopping 160.5. It is too early to pass a judgement based on his two Tests, but the signs are promising.
|
Pakistan Test openers since 2017 |
|||||
|
Player |
Inns |
Runs |
Avg |
100s |
50s |
|
Shan Masood |
16 |
529 |
33.06 |
1 |
3 |
|
Imam-ul-Haq |
21 |
485 |
25.52 |
0 |
3 |
|
Azhar Ali |
16 |
460 |
28.75 |
2 |
2 |
|
Abid Ali |
3 |
321 |
160.5 |
2 |
0 |
|
Mohammad Hafeez |
9 |
200 |
22.22 |
1 |
0 |
|
Fakhar Zaman |
5 |
185 |
37 |
0 |
2 |
|
Ahmed Shehzad |
4 |
121 |
30.25 |
0 |
1 |
|
Sami Aslam |
4 |
93 |
23.25 |
0 |
1 |
|
Sharjeel Khan |
2 |
44 |
22 |
0 |
0 |
Since 2017, Pakistan’s openers have struggled in Test cricket. Even the usually assured Azhar Ali averages just 28.75 from the top. They have tried as many as nine openers in three years of Test cricket but the only one to make a good impression has been Abid.
For the record, Pakistan’s opening stands in this year in Tests read in this manner until Abid was introduced to the format – 9, 10, 6, 67, 75, 13, 3 and 2.
With a whopping 278-run partnership at Karachi, Abid and Masood offer hope for Pakistan in this World Test Championship.
Feature image courtesy: AFP / Asif Hassan
