Mohammad Rizwan: “It has been circulating that Fakhar Zaman isn’t in form, but if you see the early part of his last few innings, the ball is coming on to his bat nicely, but he’s been getting out in different ways”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Mohammad Rizwan, the Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman, has insisted that opening batsman Fakhar Zaman isn’t out of form and doesn’t have a technical fault.
His comments come after Zaman was dropped due to his bad run of form, which has persisted for a couple of months.
Zaman last featured in Pakistan’s World Cup opener against the Netherlands, where he made 12 runs.
Having decided that the 33-year-old is not working out, a change was made at the top of the order and the men in green decided to give Abdullah Shafique a shot.
Shafique has thrived since then, making scores of 113, 20, 64 and 58 against Sri Lanka, India, Australia and Afghanistan respectively.
Even though the 23-year-old from Sialkot is averaging 63.75 in the World Cup, Rizwan feels it would be a mistake for people to rule out a return for Zaman.
“It has been circulating that Fakhar Zaman isn’t in form, but if you see the early part of his last few innings, the ball is coming on to his bat nicely, but he’s been getting out in different ways. If he was getting out in the same pattern, then we could have concluded that there might be a [technical] fault,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Like Shafique, Rizwan has also been in good form in the World Cup as he has amassed 302 runs in five matches, which includes a century and a fifty, at an average of 75.50.
Pakistan won their matches against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before losing three in a row to India, Australia and Afghanistan.
They will be looking to turn their fortunes around when they take on South Africa on October 27 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
[TS_Poll id=”87″]