AGHA vs SAUD: DILEMMA OF PLAYING XI

 

In ODIs, Pakistan has struggled in batting especially in their middle order line up. After the retirement of the greats like Inzamam ul Haq and Muhammad Yusuf middle order of Pakistan is in disarray. Although Babar Azam, Muhammad Rizwan and Iftikhar Ahmed have shown consistency in past few tournaments to stabilize the middle order bating of Pakistan but with intermittent collapse of Pakistani bating in important matches another middle order batsman is mandatory for Pakistan.

Salman Ali Agha has shown promising talent with continuous run scoring along with good hitting sense and has become a regular member of playing XI of Pakistan team. In addition to batting, he can also bowl which is a plus point as it gives depth to Pakistani bowling. Salman has played 18 ODIs and has scored 436 runs with an average of almost 40 and strike rate of 96. He has also scored three fifties in ODIs.

On the other hand, Saud Shakeel has shown good form in his warm up match against New Zealand and scored 75 runs off 53balls. Saud Shakeel rose to fame after his unbeaten century against New Zealand in test match at a very crucial time earlier this year. Keeping in view Saud’s current form, he was given chance against Netherlands in 1^st match of Pakistan in World Cup and he grabbed this opportunity with both hands. Saud played a match winning knock against the Dutch team and scored some important runs at a very crucial time. Pakistan was 38-3 when Saud arrived and he scored 68 off 52 balls with the help of ten boundaries (9*fours & 1*six) which gave Pakistan’s batting a real boost and Pakistan scored 286. Saud also managed to get Player of the match prize for his superb innings. Saud has played 7 ODIs and has scored 144 runs with an average of almost 29 and strike rate of 90. He has also scored two fifties in ODIs.

If we compare the stats, Agha Salman should be the first priority as he has scored more runs and has better average and strike rate than Saud. He also has played more matches and can bowl too. But after observing current performances of Saud it would be difficult to drop him from the playing XI especially after getting player of the match award in the first match of Pakistan in #ICCCricketWorldCup2023.

In my opinion, Saud Shakeel should be given preference over Salman and should be made permanent member of playing XI in ODIs as he is a classy player with consistency and aggressive approach.

 

Comparison of Salman & Saud in ODIs

	Salman Ali Agha	Saud Shakeel
Age	29 years	28 years
No. of ODIs	18	7
Runs	436	144
Highest Score	58	68
Fifties/Hundreds	3/Nil	2/Nil
Average	39.63	28.80
Strike Rate	96.46	90.56