Abdul Razzaq: “Players deserve support and confidence in international cricket. Batters like Fakhar shouldn’t be substituted”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq believes that good players like opening batsman Fakhar Zaman “shouldn’t be substituted.”
His comments come after Zaman was dropped from the playing XI after Pakistan’s opening match against the Netherlands in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup.
The 33-year-old missed the next five games before returning to replace Imam-ul-Haq, who was struggling to score runs consistently.
Zaman made the most of the second chance given to him as he hammered 81 and 126 not out against Bangladesh and New Zealand respectively.
Considering the profound impact he had in both matches, Razzaq pointed out that this is why the Mardan native shouldn’t have been dropped in the first place.
“Players deserve support and confidence in international cricket. Batters like Fakhar shouldn’t be substituted,” he told Geo News.
Pakistan began their campaign with consecutive wins over the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before stumbling against India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Despite ending their four-game losing streak with back-to-back victories over Bangladesh and New Zealand, the men in green failed to qualify for the semi-finals.
To add insult to injury, they lost their last group stage game against England by 93 runs.
Pakistan’s next assignment will be a three-match Test series against Australia, but Zaman was not included in the 18-man squad that was named.
The first Test between Pakistan and Australia will begin on December 14 in Perth.
Pakistan Squad for Australia Test Series: Shan Masood (captain), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Saud Shakeel and Shaheen Shah Afridi
[TS_Poll id=”65″]