Mohammad Amir: “I won’t even keep Babar and Rizwan as openers because in T20, six overs of batting and six overs of bowling are extremely important”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Pakistan left-arm fast bowler Mohammad Amir has blasted the batting duo of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, saying they don’t deserve to open the batting in T20Is.
Instead of retaining them at the top of the order, Amir wants Pakistan to make a change in order to get off to fast starts.
This is due to the fact that Azam and Rizwan have been criticised for their low strike-rates, which puts a lot of pressure on the middle order to pick up the slack.
Two of the names Amir suggested to replace Azam and Rizwan are Fakhar Zaman and Saim Ayub.
“I won’t even keep Babar and Rizwan as openers because in T20, six overs of batting and six overs of bowling are extremely important,” the 31-year-old was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Azam and Rizwan recently played for Pakistan in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, with the former captain making 320 runs in nine matches, which included four fifties, at an average of 40.
As for Rizwan, he finished with 395 runs in nine games, which included a century and a fifty, at an average of 65.83.
Both of them are now involved in Pakistan’s three-match Test series against Australia, where the men in green are 1-0 down after losing the first Test in Perth by 360 runs.
The second Test will start on December 26 in Melbourne.
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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