Robin Uthappa: “You have Babar or Rizwan come in at No. 3 so that there is a little more depth and someone can play the sheet anchor role for them and hold one end up while the others revolve around these guys”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
India batsman Robin Uthappa said Pakistan captain Babar Azam or Mohammad Rizwan must bat at number three in T20 Internationals.
Currently, they open the batting for the men in green and have done a great job as both have been in solid form and scored runs consistently.
But, given the ongoing problems Pakistan have had with their middle order, Uthappa pointed out that one of them has to slide down in order to make the batting line-up more solid.
“You have Babar or Rizwan come in at No. 3 so that there is a little more depth and someone can play the sheet anchor role for them and hold one end up while the others revolve around these guys,” he said on ESPNcricinfo’s T20 Time Out programme.
In the T20 World Cup, Azam has amassed eight runs in three matches at an average of 2.66 and a strike-rate of 53.33.
Rizwan, meanwhile, has accumulated 67 runs in three games at an average of 22.33 and a strike-rate of 100.
The men in green are teetering on the brink of elimination as they have lost two games – against India and Zimbabwe – and won one – against the Netherlands.
They will now face South Africa on Thursday in Sydney.
Pakistan’s 2022 T20 World Cup squad: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan Masood
Reserves: Mohammad Haris, Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir