Virender Sehwag: “What an innings by Fakhar Zaman, by far Pakistan’s best batter. Which brains kept him on the bench for the best part of the tournament, God knows”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Legendary India big-hitter Virender Sehwag has questioned who decided to keep Pakistan opening batsman Fakhar Zaman on the bench for a large portion of the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup.
Zaman was dropped from the playing XI after the opening game against the Netherlands due to his poor form.
After missing the next five matches, he returned to replace Imam-ul-Haq and put on a show as he smashed 81 and 126 not out against Bangladesh and New Zealand respectively.
Given how destructive the 33-year-old from Mardan can be, Sehwag wondered why Zaman was even dropped in the first place.
“What an innings by Fakhar Zaman, by far Pakistan’s best batter. Which brains kept him on the bench for the best part of the tournament, God knows,” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Pakistan started off with victories over the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before stumbling against India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Even though they fought back to take down Bangladesh and New Zealand, they failed to advance to the semi-finals.
The men in green concluded their campaign in disappointing fashion as England pummelled them by 93 runs.
Pakistan will now play a three-match Test series against Australia, but Zaman was not included in the 18-man squad.
The first Test between Pakistan and Australia will start 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
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