Ramiz Raja: “Whenever he wills, he can accelerate and also take ones and twos”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Ramiz Raja, the former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, pointed out that opening batsman Fakhar Zaman is capable of accelerating and scoring fast runs in the blink of an eye.
He added that when Zaman starts to heat up, he also starts rotating the strike more often by taking singles and twos.
Zaman is one of Pakistan’s trusted opening batsmen in ODIs and also bats in the top order in T20Is.
“Whenever he wills, he can accelerate and also take ones and twos,” Ramiz said on his YouTube channel as quoted by Cricwick.
Zaman recently played for Pakistan in their five-match ODI series against New Zealand, where he amassed 363 runs in five ODIs against New Zealand, which included two hundreds, at an average of 90.75.
He then featured in the Global T20 Canada, where he scored 161 runs in six games for the Vancouver Knights, which included a top score of 73, at an average of 26.83 and a strike-rate of 119.25.
Most recently, he played for B-Love Kandy in the Lanka Premier League (LPL) and made 156 runs in seven matches at an average of 22.28 and a strike-rate of 113.86.
Zaman wasn’t included in the Pakistan team for their two-Test series against Sri Lanka, which the men in green won 2-0.
However, he has been picked for the ongoing three-match ODI series against Afghanistan, which is being held in Sri Lanka from August 22 to 26.
In the first ODI, which Pakistan won by 142 runs, he only managed to make two runs.
After the Afghanistan series, Zaman will take part in the Asia Cup, which will be hosted by Pakistan and Sri Lanka from August 30 to September 17.
Pakistan Squad for Afghanistan ODI Series and 2023 Asia Cup:Â Babar Azam (capt), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Saud Shakeel (Afghanistan series only), Salman Ali Agha, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Tayyab Tahir, Mohammad Haris (wk), Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Wasim Jnr