Wahab Riaz: “Going forward, you need to conduct experiments. Our job is to provide a team to the director and captain. Since Sahibzada Farhan is also an opener, we will have to see with which combination they take the team forward and whom they prefer”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Pakistan chief selector Wahab Riaz acknowledged that experiments need to be conducted to find the right openers for the national team in T20Is and subsequently hinted that domestic star Sahibzada Farhan could be one of them.
Previously, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan used to open the batting for the men in green in the shortest format, but they were heavily criticised for scoring too slowly.
In the ongoing five-match T20I series against New Zealand, Pakistan have switched things up, putting Saim Ayub at the top of the order with Rizwan, while Azam is now at number three and Fakhar Zaman comes in at four.
Given how well Farhan has been doing on the domestic circuit, there have been mounting calls to get him into the Pakistan team right away.
In the National T20 Cup, the 27-year-old from Charsadda was the highest run-scorer with 492 runs in 12 matches for Peshawar Region, which included a century and four fifties, at an average of 44.72 and a strike-rate of 178.90.
However, the problem for Wahab though is working out the right combination that allows Farhan to play regularly. But, he noted that all this depends on who team director Mohammad Hafeez and T20I captain Shaheen Shah Afridi prefer to have in the playing XI.
“Going forward, you need to conduct experiments. Our job is to provide a team to the director and captain. Since Sahibzada Farhan is also an opener, we will have to see with which combination they take the team forward and whom they prefer,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Pakistan are 2-0 down in their T20I series against New Zealand and will look to avoid a series defeat in the third T20I, which takes place on January 17 in Dunedin.
Pakistan Squad for New Zealand T20I Series: 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
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