Shoaib Akhtar: “Fakhar Zaman, I have told this a million times before, give him those six overs”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Legendary Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar wants Fakhar Zaman opening the batting in T20Is and going big in the first six overs.
The Rawalpindi Express pointed out that he has said this a million times, but it has constantly fallen on deaf ears.
Pakistan captain Babar Azam and wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan currently open the batting in the shortest format. While they have scored runs consistently and played many match-winning knocks, they have been criticised for their low strike-rate.
Since they take a lot of time to score their runs, this puts the middle order batsmen under a lot of pressure to score quick runs at the end of the innings.
In order to solve the problem, Akhtar thinks that Zaman has to take Azam or Rizwan’s opening spot and start firing from ball one in the powerplay.
“Fakhar Zaman, I have told this a million times before, give him those six overs,” he said on his YouTube channel as quoted by Cricwick.
READ MORE: Moin Khan wants Fakhar Zaman promoted and Babar Azam demoted in T20Is
Zaman is now set to represent Pakistan in their three-match ODI series against New Zealand, which gets underway on Monday in Karachi.
The ODIs comes after the two-Test series finished as a 0-0 draw.
Pakistan Squad for New Zealand ODI series: Babar Azam (capt), Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Haris Sohail, Imam-ul-Haq, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim, Naseem Shah, Agha Salman, Shahnawaz Dahani, Shan Masood, Tayyab Tahir, Usama Mir
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