Pakistan’s left-handed opener, Imam-ul-Haq has had a string of poor performances ever since his twin centuries in the first Test match at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium against Australia.
Imam has scored 20, 1, and 11 in his previous three innings and has been the most disappointing batter from Pakistan’s perspective in the past few innings. While other batters have scored heavily, Imam has been the weak link at the top of the order and his early wickets have piled on unnecessary pressure on the rest of the batting unit.
Prior to the start of the Test series, Imam was touted to be the backup opener to an in-form Shan Masood who had scored heavily in the recently concluded Pakistan Super League (PSL) and the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. It was expected that Shan would get the nod as Abdullah Shafique’s opening partner due to his superior numbers, experience, and form compared to Imam.
However, Imam silenced his critics as he scored 157 and 111 on a flat pitch as the two teams played out a dull draw. It looked like Imam had nailed down his Test spot and established himself as an integral part of the side. However, question marks have been raised once again as Imam has struggled on relatively flat tracks in Karachi and Lahore.
The cricketing fraternity believes that the Men in Green should have opted to play Shan Masood in this series as he would have fared better than Imam. The fans took to Twitter to express their opinion on the Pakistani openers.
Let’s have a look at some of the reactions:
Shan Masood is far better than Imam ul haq. Period#PAKvAUS
— Zubair Ali Khan (@ZubairAlikhanUN) March 22, 2022
https://twitter.com/NewbornEngineer/status/1506218209581617155
https://twitter.com/zchishtii/status/1506224748719747076
https://twitter.com/haniafsc/status/1506219491386044424
Imam Ul Haq has been playing since a long time but still Abdullah Shafiq has played better than him in this series. That tells how unfit he is to this test side. Babar Azam needs to play Shan Masood. Those two hundreds on road will hurt us.
— Aqeel (@i4qeel) March 22, 2022
Shan Masood or Imam-ul-Haq, who should be Pakistan’s Test opener? Write down your suggestions below!
