Younis Khan: “Fakhar Zaman had sacrificed his position for the sake of the team, he’s a leader and a captain should be someone who can sacrifice himself for the team”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Legendary Pakistan batsman Younis Khan has come to the defence of big-hitter Fakhar Zaman, saying he has “sacrificed his position for the sake of the team”.
Zaman is a natural opener, but has regularly batted at number three or four at the international level.
Lately, though, the 34-year-old has been in trouble with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) after he slammed the decision to drop Babar Azam midway through the three-Test series against England.
Shortly after this, Zaman was not given a central contract for the 2024/25 season and also didn’t get selected for the white-ball series against Australia and Zimbabwe.
Younis is disappointed with the way the Mardan native has been treated, noting he has done so much for Pakistan and has shown his leadership skills as well.
“Fakhar Zaman had sacrificed his position for the sake of the team, he’s a leader and a captain should be someone who can sacrifice himself for the team. Our system has issues and that’s why players don’t take rest, even I struggled for comeback in 2004,” he was quoted as saying by journalist Ahmad Haseeb on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In their series against Australia, Pakistan won the ODIs 2-1 but were thrashed 3-0 in the T20Is.
Next up for them will be a limited overs 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