The statistics don't lie and I read that in 54 T20 matches over the past year, he only averages 17. It isn't good enough for a top order batter and certainly not for a player who is regarded as one of Pakistan's great young batting hopes.
At 23 he is young enough and has sufficient talent to turn this around. Yet while all of us will think back to his time with Derbyshire last year and recall some powerful blows, equally memorable are the times when he got out through simply not seeming to concentrate. Playing around a straight one first ball, going for the big shot straight away and walking out of his crease when the ball was on the ground in front of the wicket keeper were all things that saw him dismissed in frustrating fashion. His early innings footwork could be lazy and word seemed to go around that one pitched well up might see him try to flick through square leg, with the only contact his left pad. Playing straight would surely have brought greater dividends?
The talent is obvious. His innings at Queens Park against Yorkshire was superb, his cover driving as good as you could wish to see, his running between the wickets excellent, his technique impressive. Likewise, in the T20 at Headingley, when he played a fine innings, yet by the end of his stay it was hard not to consider him a talent unfulfilled. Albeit not sided by an ill-fated attempt to turn him into an opener, which he has never been.
I read an interview that said his problem - and I tend to agree - is that many of his shots are premeditated. Before the ball has been released, he has decided where it is going to go and what shot he is going to play. A good eye can get you away with that to some extent, but against good bowlers and on pitches that offered greater help to bowlers than his homeland, it is not a recipe for success.
I hope that he can turn it around, because when he is in full flow it makes for captivating viewing. But not being selected by any side for a format that most would say was his strength will be a shock.
There is work for him to do.
Finally today, I have had a chance to look at the festive draw and the first named pulled out by my wife were , in order, Mark Allen, Carl Peters, Paul Fitzpatrick and Brian Birtles.
Mark has chosen the Ray Illingworth book, if Carl could let me know his choice from the others by email and both can let me know the delivery address, I can then let Paul know the ones left to choose from.
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