Fawad Alam knocks selectors' doors with yet another century in QeA Trophy

KARACHI: Fawad Alam, one of Pakistan’s most deliberately ignored cricketers, has once again reminded the national selection committee of his existence with a century in the country’s premier first class tournament, Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.

On Tuesday, Fawad scored a splendid 105 off 157 deliveries at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium, where he was representing his department SSGC against Lahore Blues.

The same day, Pakistan’s batting collapsed in Dubai against Sri Lanka and the country lost its first home series in ten years.

Many hoped that Fawad Alam would be an automatic choice after retirement of Misbah ul Haq and Younis Khan, but it didn’t happen. Selectors ignored the mountain of runs piled by Alam and picked Haris Sohail instead, who hadn’t played first class cricket for three years along with Usman Salahuddin.

There’s no doubt over Haris Sohail’s talent, not at all. Haris proved his selection correct as well. But, if a Test player had to be picked without playing first class cricket in the season, then what’s the need to make players work hard in already distorted domestic cricket set up?

For chief selector Inzamam ul Haq, it seems, Fawad Alam isn’t a good batsman and that’s why Usman Salahuddin, Haris Sohail and his nephew Imam ul Haq were preferred.

One wonders, if someone who is scoring runs with an average of over 56 in first class cricket isn’t good enough, then who else is? May be Inzamam can answer this.

But to note some records, it is worth mentioning that Fawad Alam’s batting average 56.38 in 220 first class innings is third best among all the batsmen who have made their first class debuts in 2000s. Two players with better average than Fawad are India’s Pujara and Australia’s Smith.

In last three seasons, Alam scored 2070 runs at the average of 59.14.

Any player, with such amount of runs to his credit and yet not getting chances would surely have lost all hopes and hung his boots. But, Fawad is defiant, and says he will continue to fight for his place.

“Yeah, it is disappointing, but what can I do?” Fawad said in an exclusive chat with Geo.tv on Tuesday.

“My job is to score runs, I will continue doing that and will keep knocking selectors’ doors,” added the batsman who celebrated his 32nd birthday on Sunday.

Fawad is disappointed, but not demoralised. He is still hopeful for a chance. One can only hope that his performance in domestic cricket gets selectors’ attention soon.

Otherwise, the curious case of Fawad Alam’s omission will leave a huge question mark on Pakistan cricket’s selection policy.