Azhar Ali is a good test batsman but he is certainly not suited for one-day matches. His strike-rate is really poor and it leads to a poor start to the innings with no momentum gained. He will consume a lot of dot-balls which will build pressure at the other end and eventually lead to poor run-rate and loss of wickets as well.

So the whole tactic of preserving wickets fails and results in a defeat of the team. This was evident in the first ODI played against Australia.

One really has to admit that Ian Chappell was right about his recent statement that Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) makes some strange decisions and appointing Azhar Ali as captain of the ODI side was indeed a strange and ridiculous decision. I mean how one can appoint a guy as captain of the team who in the first place doesn’t even deserve to be selected in the side. It’s beyond ridiculous. His captaincy is poor as well.

He brings a defensive mindset into the team just like Misbah and it is imperative that this negative approach needs to go if Pakistan team wants to compete with the top teams. Misbah was the cornerstone for the downfall of the One-day team and Azhar Ali has carried on that negative approach and the 90’s style ODI batting.

Conclusion

Hopefully in the near future, Azhar ali will be asked to resign as captain himself or get kicked out forcefully. But if no sense prevails from the PCB then I would suggest Azhar ali to not only resign himself as captain but also retire from ODIs as he is clearly inept for modern ODI style of batting.

But it will be of no use if the successor of Azhar ali carries on leading the team like it is currently. However, it will become easier to kick Azhar out of the team and replace him with an aggressive opener.