Virender Sehwag: “I haven’t seen Babar Azam or (Mohammad) Rizwan bat at a strike-rate of over 200. The same combination has been repeated for the last three T20 World Cups and the result is also the same”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Legendary India opener Virender Sehwag has taken aim at the Pakistan batting duo of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, saying he has never seen them “bat at a strike-rate of over 200”.
Rizwan is one of Pakistan’s go-to openers in T20Is, while Azam has been floating between the opening role and batting at number three as of late.
Both batsmen have been criticised in the past for scoring too slow and putting a lot of pressure on the middle order to pick up the run rate after they get out.
Sehwag also hinted that it might be time for Pakistan to change their openers, pointing out that despite trying the same opening combination for the last three T20 World Cups, they have always fallen short of winning the tournament.
“I haven’t seen Babar Azam or (Mohammad) Rizwan bat at a strike-rate of over 200. The same combination has been repeated for the last three T20 World Cups and the result is also the same,” he was quoted as saying by Khel Shel on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In the 2024 T20 World Cup, Azam scored 122 runs in four matches at an average of 40.66 and a strike-rate of 101.66.
As for Rizwan, he finished with 110 runs in four games, which included a top score of 53 not out, at an average of 36.66 and a strike-rate of 90.90.
Pakistan lost to the United States of America and India in the T20 World Cup before rebounding to beat Canada and Ireland.
Even though they ended the group stage with a 2-2 record, they were unable to make it through to the Super Eights.
Pakistan Squad for 2024 T20 World Cup: Babar Azam (capt), Saim Ayub, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Azam Khan (wk), Usman Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Abbas Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed
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