Shahid Afridi: “Fakhar Zaman is a match-winner. There are very few match-winners in Pakistan, and he’s one of them”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Legendary Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi wants to see Fakhar Zaman back in the national team as he believes the 34-year-old is one of the few match-winners in the country.
Zaman recently lost his central contract and was dropped for the limited overs series against Australia and Zimbabwe. Many attributed this to vocal tweet in support of Babar Azam after the star batsman was removed from the squad midway through the three-Test series against England.
It remains to be seen when Zaman will return to the Pakistan team, but Afridi hopes it is sooner rather than later as he knows how lethal the Mardan native can be when he gets going.
“Fakhar Zaman is a match-winner. There are very few match-winners in Pakistan, and he’s one of them,” he was quoted as saying by journalist Farid Khan on X, formerly known as Twitter.
During their limited overs series against Australia, Pakistan won the ODI leg 2-1 before being whitewashed 3-0 in the T20Is.
Next up for the men in green will be a white-ball tour of Zimbabwe, where they will play three ODIs and three T20Is from November 24 to December 5.
Pakistan Squad for Zimbabwe ODI Series: Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Ahmed Daniyal, Faisal Akram, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan (wicketkeeper), Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Rizwan (captain and wicketkeeper), Irfan Khan, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shahnawaz Dahani, Tayyab Tahir
Pakistan Squad for Zimbabwe T20I Series: Ahmed Daniyal, Arafat Minhas, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan (wicketkeeper), Jahandad Khan, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Hasnain, Irfan Khan, Omair bin Yousuf, Qasim Akram, Sahibzada Farhan, Salman Ali Agha, Sufiyan Muqeem, Tayyab Tahir, Usman Khan