Fawad Alam is one of the many players whose career I have followed closely.

In my previous post about Fawad, I talked about his rise at the U19 and domestic level that led to his inclusion in the Pakistan side and described his prolific domestic run scoring.

In that post I also mentioned how he was one of the most under rated cricketers in Pakistan.

Fawad's recent performances for the Pakistan Academy on its tours to Zimbabwe and Kenya in August and September were exceptional as he ended both the tours as the leading run scorer on either side.

He continued his good run of form in the recently concluded RBS National 20-20 Cup, and has shown glimpses of that in the ongoing T20 Quadrangular in Canada.

I called him the finisher in my previous post and he proved just that against Sri Lanka two nights ago as he smashed an unbeaten 23 off a mere 9 balls to lead Pakistan to a nail biting victory.

On the Academy tours, however, he showed that he can also be the anchor and the team's primary batsman. Fawad batted at number 3 or 4 for the Academy team and with every match looked a better batsman.

He started the Zimabwe tour with scores of 55 and 5* in the Academy's 202 run victory in the first 4-day match and followed that up with a 101 and 9 in the next match, which the Academy also won (by 6 wickets).

In the 3 ODIs that followed, Fawad knocked 4, 68, and an unbeaten 100 in comprehensive victories for the Academy side. By the end of the tour Fawad had piled up 342 runs at an average of 68.40 in 7 innings.

The tour of Kenya started with a 4-day game, in which Steve Tikolo's 170 and 94 had set the Pakistan Academy an unlikely target of 364 with 3 and a half sessions to play.

Fawad was in his element again maintaining his outstanding form while stroking an unbeaten 108 on the last day of the match to lead the Pakistan Academy to a 4 wicket victory on the final evening of the match.

Having hit 3 centuries in his last 5 matches against Zimbabwe and Kenya, Fawad was looking in supreme touch going into the second 4-day match against Kenya.

What one witnessed in that match was a repeat of what two 16 year olds by the name of Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli had done almost 2 decades ago.

Kenya had been bowled out for 209 very close to the end of days play on day 1.

Pakistan's reply began in unconvincing fashion as Khurram Manzoor walked back to the pavilion at the end of the 1st over.

That brought Fawad Alam to the crease in only the 2nd over of the innings.

A day and a half later, as the Pakistan Academy declared on 665-2, Fawad Alam and Raheel Majeed had added 612 runs for an unbroken 3rd wicket partnership, with Fawad on a career best 302 and Raheel on 318.

The Pakistan Academy also ended the Kenya tour unbeaten sweeping the ODI series 3-0.

With scores of 83,14, and 25 in the 3 ODIs, Fawad ended the tour with 554 runs in 6 innings at a remarkable average of 138.50.

In the ongoing T20 Quadrangular in Canada, Fawad did not play the 1st match against Canada. He played the next against Sri Lanka but came to bat at number 9. And in the next against Zimbabwe he just walked out to bat to hit the winning runs.

Though he won the match for Pakistan at number 9 agaist Sri Lanka, I think that is too low for a batsman of Fawad's quality.

There is no doubt in my mind that he needs to bat in the top 6. Not only in 20-20 cricket but in ODIs and test cricket as well.

This is the best time to put Fawad at the deep end.

He has a very impressive first class record and he is at the top of his game at the moment.

The question though remains - how does Fawad fit into the top 6 of a Pakistan line up?