You look at Pakistan squad in every series, and every time you are bound to find a player not worth a place in the side, and still he makes it to the squad. It’s not that he didn’t earn his place in the squad, but Pakistan domestic structure is just not good enough to spot a better talent.
Fawad Alam is one of those rare players who have warmed the benches many a times, been water-boys more than being on the middle of the pitch, and not got full chance to explore themselves. It’s been 9 years since making his debut for Pakistan. Fawad, 30, has featured in 38 ODIs, 3 Tests and 24 T20Is for Pakistan. Only Pakistani in all time 20 great batsmen of first class cricket with an average touching 57. Fawad must be sitting on a chair wondering what else he has to prove to find a permanent place in the side! In his only 3 Tests, he scored his maiden century (168) in his debut test vs Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka but accumulated only 82 runs in other 5 innings. In T20Is, well you all know he has never been a T20 player, but still was in the World T20 squads of 2007 and 2009. His T20 stats also prove this format of the game is not made for him.
Fawad has played ODI cricket in two phases, 2007-2010 and 2014-2015. In the second phase, his stats are a bit better than the first phase. In the first phase, he played 27 ODIs with an impressive average of 37.68, accumulating 603 runs at a strike rate of 73.80. His strike rate has always been an issue with his incapability of hitting boundaries at will, but his strike rotating ability was never really an issue. In the second phase, on his comeback in the 2014 Asia Cup, he played a match-winning more than run-a-ball innings of 74 vs Bangladesh overshadowed by Shahid Afridi’s blistering knock of 59 off 25 balls in Pakistan’s highest ever run-chase in ODIs. In the very next game, he scored his maiden century (114* off 134) at a time when Pakistan were struggling vs Sri Lanka in the final. He took Pakistan to a respectable total which ended in a losing cause.
In the second phase, Fawad played 11 ODIs averaging a fantastic 45.37 at an improved strike rate of 75.62, scoring 363 runs in 11 innings. He played vs Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup, and then played in Sri Lanka for a bilateral ODI series, and played a match-winning knock of 62 in a successful chase of 275 in 45 overs in a rain affected game. He powered Pakistan to victory alongside another mysterious of the players, who haven’t fully achieved their potential despite getting several shots in international cricket, Sohaib Maqsood who scored 89*. They put on a partnership of 147 at a time when Pakistan were struggling at 106/5, making his third consecutive 50 plus score. He scored a combined 68 in the next two games, which Pakistan lost.
After this series, Pakistan played Australia in UAE some months before the World CUP 2015. Pakistan lost 3-0 with Fawad scoring only 27 runs in 3 games. He got dropped for the NZ series a couple of months before the World Cup and subsequently didn’t find himself in the World Cup, where Pakistan reached the quarter final just on the back of Misbah and the fast bowlers.
Following the loss in the World Cup, Fawad Alam found himself in the revamped ODI team which toured Bangladesh under new captain Azhar Ali. Pakistan performed terribly poor, and lost 3-0 to a team which had never beaten them in any formats of the game since 1999 (and we all know that 1999 loss!). Fawad Alam scored just 18 in three games, but became the scapegoat following the series defeat, as he was the only batsman to be dropped from the squad, while all batsmen struggled in Ban, only Fawad Alam got kicked out from the squad. Despite a few failures, he still had a cool average in excess of 45 in the second phase of his career, but is not in the squad for almost a year now.
Where Pakistan batting is known for collapses, we often find a scapegoat for the blame to be put on, one of the characters be Fawad Alam. He really must be wondering what else he has to do to find a permanent place in the team!
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