Former Indian wicket-keeper Deep Dasgupta recently praised the 24-year-old Pakistan top-order batsman Imam-ul-Haq and compared with the Indian limited-overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma.
Rohit Sharma is one of the greatest limited-overs opening batsmen. Since he was promoted to the opening batting position, Rohit has shown the incredible consistency in his batting. The Indian right-handed batsman likes to build up the innings and always ready to take the major batting responsibility for his team. The cricket world highly praises and respects the Indian opening batsman.
After playing 32 Tests, 224 ODIs and 108 T20Is, Rohit has scored 2141 runs (average 46.54), 9115 runs (average 49.27) and 2773 runs (average 32.62) respectively. He is the second most run-scorer in T20I history. At present, Rohit is the second-ranked ODI batsman, just behind the Indian captain Virat Kohli.
The way you build your innings is similar to Rohit Sharma: Deep Dasgupta told Imam-ul-Haq
Deep Dasgupta feels that Imam-ul-Haq reminds him Rohit’s batting when the Pakistan youngster builds up his innings. Deep also pointed out that his powerplay strike-rate might be slightly low than his middle-overs strike-rate, but he impressed with his quality to bat for a long time.
Deep told Imam during a recent interview for ESPNcricinfo, “The way you build your innings is similar to Rohit. Your strike-rate is slightly low in the powerplay compared to middle overs but you play long innings.”
After making his international debut in 2017, Imam has played 11 Tests, 37 ODIs and two T20Is where the left-handed batsman has scored 485 runs (average 25.52), 1723 runs (average 53.84) and 21 runs (average 10.50) respectively.
Apart from his incredible ODI batting average, Deep is also impressed with Imam’s five not out innings in his just 37 ODI matches.
Deep added, “If an opener has five not-outs in 37 innings, it tells that even though he starts slow, he plays long.”
At present, Pakistan are touring in England and Imam-ul-Haq is in this side. In this England tour, Pakistan will play the three-match Test series between 5th August and 25th August and three-match T20I series on 28th August, 30th August and 1st September respectively.