He plays straight.
He keeps the ball down.
He knows where his off stump is.
He has the temperament to cope when the scoring rate is slow and pressure is building against him.
He plays within his limitations.
He can bat long periods of time.
He is difficult to get out.
He can battle for his runs.
He is a strong on side nudger.
Why Azhar Ali is ideally placed to lead Pakistan on a Test tour to England:
He can speak decent English.
He is free from controversies.
He has a good batting temperament and temperament towards the game as a whole.
He knows England well. He has played 12 Test Matches in England across four series, 10 ODIs in England and also 2 seasons of county cricket.
He is an experienced Test Cricketer. He has played 78 Tests – most capped player in the team.
He is a specialist Test Captain given he has quit ODI Cricket.
He is well known, liked and rated by the current coaching staff.
He is the only Pakistan batsman ever at number 1, 2 or 3 who has scored over 4100 Test runs batting at those positions and he has in fact scored over 5700 Test runs batting in those top order positions.
Feels great to have a Captain with such an impressive record as a top order performer in the longer form of the game. Nice to see a Pakistan Captain who is a top order player and a big player at that. Batting at the hardest position generally and an important position where he’ll be looking to set the tone for his team and really lead by example.
For me, he opens the batting in an all time Pakistan Test XI with Hanif.
He can play long innings without being fussed about his strike rate or scoring fluency unlike Anwar. He is one who’ll make the bowlers earn their wicket and rarely throw his wicket away with an over ambitious shot.He is prepared to be slow, boring, patient, defensive, watchful and disciplined which are valuable qualities to posses against the new ball when the pitch is fresh, bowlers are fresh, the ball is hard and fast bowlers are striving for early breakthroughs.
He may only average 30 from 12 Tests in England, but that is not disastrous for a top order batsman in these conditions. It is not a fair reflection of how good a technique and temperament he has or how important some of the innings he’s played in England have been.
He has four first class centuries in England and a List A Century. He’s also made a match winning 92* in a Test victory at the Oval in 2010.
When Pakistan whitewashed England 3-0 in 2012 in the United Arab Emirates, Azhar was the leading run scorer in the series. Overall Azhar has played 14 Tests against England across five different series. He has two centuries and 3 half centuries against them.
His form overseas in Test Cricket in Ireland and England 2018, South Africa in 2018-19 and in Australia 2019 has been very ordinary, but he has got a century and 3 30s in 8 Test innings since becoming full time Captain and has led Pakistan to back to back Test wins on home soil. He will be under pressure to produce the runs in this series, but for now he deserves a chance to build on some good work during Pakistan’s return of hosting Test Cricket over the winter.
Azhar Ali has more Test centuries than Saeed Anwar and Michael Slater. He has the same number of Test centuries as Michael Atherton and Maravan Atapattu. He is a serious player, a world class operator who has made the most of what he’s had with sheer determination, cricketing intelligence and an organised game structure to achieve what he’s done.
He doesn’t have an outstanding Test record in England, but has done well in ODIs in England with 5 half centuries in 10 ODI innings during the bilateral series in 2016 where he was Captain and then the following summer in the victorious Champions Trophy campaign for Pakistan.
At 35 now, this is the most important series of his career given he is captaining Pakistan on a Test tour to England (for Pakistan playing against England is like their equivalent of the Ashes in the absence of series against India and when it happens away it is even bigger). It will be Azhar’s 4th and last England Test tour. Can he finally score a winning Test century in SENA countries? His two centuries in SENA have come in losses in 2016 which must have been so frustrating for him from a personal point of view.
Azhar’s contributions to Pakistan Test wins in England:
2010 at Leeds vs Aus – Made his maiden Test 50 in a very nervy 4th innings chase.
2010 at Oval vs Eng – 92* in the first innings to provide Pakistan with a valuable lead.
2016 at Lord’s – Batted over 100 deliveries in the game for 7 and 23, but helped blunt the newish ball somewhat in what proved to be an entertaining low scoring Test Match.
2016 at Oval – 49 and 30* in a 10 wicket victory for the tourists to square the series.
2018 at Lord’s – A 50 in the first innings to help set the platform for a first innings lead in early season conditions.
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