Fawad Alam where have you been?

Fawad Alam

One really has to wonder where Fawad Alam was all this while when the likes of Imran Farhat, Umar Amin, Asad Shafiq kept getting chance after chance for Pakistan.

It requires no genius to know that Fawad Alam continued to pile on the runs in the domestic circuit, while mediocre batsmen continued to fail for Pakistan for the past 3 years.

It was never really explained as to why Fawad Alam was dropped from the team in 2010.

His last ODI series was against South Africa in 2010 where he notched up a 48 and an unbeaten 59 in two of the five ODIs he played. The knock of 48 came in that famous Abdul Razzaq game in Abu Dhabi.

When Fawad was dropped from the ODI team he had played 27 ODIs and was averaging 37.68. That is definitely not the type of player you drop from the team.

He was not only unfairly treated in ODIs, but in Tests as well!

In his first Test, he played as an opener, a position he had never batted in in any form of the game at any level. You remember how he responded? With a debut Test ton! Fawad scored 168 in his first Test becoming the first batsman for Pakistan to score a debut century outside of Pakistan.

He played only two more Tests after that.

Fawad Alam averages 55.87 in first class cricket and 47.05 in List A cricket. Those averages are higher than all batsmen currently playing Tests and ODIs for Pakistan. Those averages are even higher than those of Pakistan legends like Javed Miandad, Inzamam Ul Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan, and Saeed Anwar.

I think those averages are higher than anyone who has played international cricket for Pakistan. (I haven’t checked but I’m quite sure these are the highest numbers, if not one of).

How can anyone ignore a player with those numbers?

It is not like Fawad has not replicated the same kind of form at international level. He has.

We at Well Pitched have always been a big supporter of Fawad Alam. We used to vouch for him back in 2008-09 before he became a regular for Pakistan back then. And we have continued to wonder why he has been ignored for so long.

Just browse through the following voices we raised for Fawad Alam: Here, Here, Here, Here and Here.

With the unfair treatment meted out to him by the incompetent baboons sitting in the PCB (read Ijaz Butt and Mohammad Ilyas), Fawad’s last two innings in the Asia Cup are solid slaps across those faces. The two innings are a solid reminder of the type of player Pakistan has so needed in the middle order but have been denied due to politics and nepotism.

Fawad notched up his highest ODI score of 74 in Pakistan’s Asia Cup encounter against Bangladesh and was involved in two match winning partnerships with Ahmed Shehzad and Shahid Afridi in a record breaking chase.

If that wasn’t enough to prove his critics wrong, Fawad went various notches better and scored an unbeaten 114 in the final of the Asia Cup against Sri Lanka.

Fawad could not have chosen a better moment to score his maiden ODI hundred.

When he walked out to bat, Pakistan was reeling at 18-3 in 4.3 overs with both the in from Shehzad and Hafeez back in the hut.

Fawad batted beautifully for the next 45.3 overs and was involved in two century partnerships – with Misbah and Umar Akmal – to help Pakistan to a competitive score of 260, which looked highly unlikely with the way the innings started.

Fawad has probably played a match winning knock in a final of a tournament. Not many batsmen have done that for Pakistan.

You really got to wonder where this boy has been for so long.

And you really got to wonder whether a few slaps are enough for the people who kept him out.