Harsha Bhogle: “I actually believe they’ve stumbled onto their best opening combination”
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Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle believes that Pakistan should stick with Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shafique as their openers going forward.
He noted that they have brought some stability to the top order, which was not there when Fakhar Zaman opened the batting with Imam.
In the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, Pakistan made some tweaks to their opening pair, starting off with Imam and Zaman before replacing the latter with Shafique.
Later on in the tournament, they dropped Imam and brought Zaman back.
However, Bhogle believes this may be a bad move as Imam and Shafique seemed to be doing well.
“I actually believe they’ve stumbled onto their best opening combination,” he told Cricbuzz as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
After being dumped out of the World Cup in the group stage, Pakistan played a three-match Test series against Australia, which they lost 3-0.
They will now face New Zealand in a five-match T20I series, which begins on January 12 in Auckland.
Pakistan Squad for New Zealand T20I Series:Â Shaheen Shah Afridi (captain), Aamer Jamal, Abbas Afridi, Azam Khan (wicketkeeper), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan (wicketkeeper), Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Usama Mir and Zaman Khan