Ramiz Raja: “He is an unorthodox hitter, but when someone like that gets out of form, it takes some time to find solutions on the drawing board. He’s a bottom-handed player, plays on the leg side, somehow he adjusts with that and scores”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Ramiz Raja, the former Pakistan captain, has admitted that it could take some time for opening batsman Fakhar Zaman to regain his form.
Describing the 33-year-old as an “unorthodox hitter”, Ramiz conceded that it will likely require some time before certain solutions are found on how to get Zaman back scoring runs.
Should this be the case, the men in green will need a new opener in ODIs and seem to be backing Abdullah Shafique for the role thus far.
“He is an unorthodox hitter, but when someone like that gets out of form, it takes some time to find solutions on the drawing board. He’s a bottom-handed player, plays on the leg side, somehow he adjusts with that and scores,” Ramiz said on his YouTube channel as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
Zaman played in Pakistan’s World Cup opener against the Netherlands, but failed to post a big score as he was dismissed for 12 runs.
Deciding to change things up, Shafique replaced him at the top of the order and has done extremely well as he struck a career-best 113 against Sri Lanka before following it up with 20 and 64 against India and Australia respectively.
Pakistan won their first two games against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before suffering consecutive losses to India and Australia.
With their campaign having taken two big hits, the men in green will be hoping to get things back on track when they face Afghanistan on October 23 in Chennai.
Pakistan Squad for 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan, Usama Mir, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Hasan Ali
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