Inzamam Ul Haq is simply amazing. He is a very beefy man and he does get a pasting for his size and weight but we all love him nevertheless. He is arguably Pakistan’s best batsman. On his mighty shoulders does Pakistan’s hopes of getting big scores rest. Without Inzi this already weak batting line-up of Pakistan would become even weaker. He has played many a great innings, most notibly against India in the first One Dayer at Karachi. However it was all for a lost cause.
Inzamam has a very healthy average in ODI cricket touching 40 and has an awesome average in tests touching the 50 mark. His runs are scored at a very good rate in ODI cricket, hos strike rate of 73 proves the point. Inzamam is unfortunate because when it comes to batting, Pakistan are a two man show, Youhana and Inzi. If both of them don’t get in the runs, there is no one who can carry the burden. India and Australia have many batsmen who can take over when the main men aren’t doing the job, take for instance Andrew Symonds, Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif.
Inzamam has the ability to bide his time, and he has the ability to up the tempo whenever required. Nowadays, Razzaq is the man responsible for accelerating the scoring, but Inzi does still do it occasionally. Inzi can play crafty shots and he can play the big shots. His 6s are massive, they’re huge and they provide great entertainment for the crowds.
Inzamam has now been given an even bigger responsibility of leading a very young and raw Pakistani side. It is a huge job, and for critics to say he done a bad job is totally unfair. As a Pakistani die hard fan, I have to say I expected a close contest in the one dayers but I also knew that we would lose to India in the tests, just not with the margin they did. Inzamam did a pretty good job, he will learn. I have no doubt he will answer those critics, and when Pakistan next play India, Pakistan will make a real close match of it.
I don’t think Inzi will carry on into the next world cup. Inzi has to groom the youngsters to take up the responsibility, he has to groom the likes of Yasir Hameed and Asim Kamal into leading the Pakistani batting line up.
Inzamam the great!