Awais Zia: “Fakhar Zaman is the only player who plays for the team and not for himself, it makes no sense to drop him from the team”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Pakistan opener Awais Zia has slammed the decision to overlook big-hitting batsman Fakhar Zaman, saying “it makes no sense to drop him from the team”.
Zaman has not been selected for Pakistan’s last few limited overs series against Australia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Limited overs head coach Aaqib Javed attributed this to his fitness, while Zaman himself said he had been suffering from hyperthyroidism.
Despite not being picked in the national team, the 34-year-old has been active at the domestic level and recently took part in the Champions T20 Cup, where he was the third-highest run-scorer with 303 runs in 10 matches for the Markhors, which included two fifties, at an average of 30.30 and a strike-rate of 132.31.
Having provided many match-winning knocks for Pakistan in the past, Awais wants to see the Mardan native recalled to the side.
“Fakhar Zaman is the only player who plays for the team and not for himself, it makes no sense to drop him from the team,” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
During their tour of Australia, Pakistan won the ODI series 2-1 before being pummelled 3-0 in the T20Is.
They then travelled to Zimbabwe and came away with a 2-1 win in both the ODI and T20I series.
The men in green just finished taking on South Africa and lost the T20I series 2-0 before rebounding to claim a 3-0 win in the ODIs.
As for the two-Test series, Pakistan ended up being whitewashed 2-0.
Pakistan Squad for South Africa T20I Series: Mohammad Rizwan (captain and wicketkeeper), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Haris Rauf, Jahandad Khan, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Hasnain, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Omair Bin Yousuf, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem, Tayyab Tahir and Usman Khan (wicketkeeper)
Pakistan Squad for South Africa ODI Series: Mohammad Rizwan (captain and wicketkeeper), Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Haris Rauf, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hasnain, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem, Tayyab Tahir and Usman Khan (wicketkeeper)
Pakistan Squad for South Africa Test Series: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam, Haseebullah Khan (wicketkeeper), Kamran Ghulam, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Naseem Shah, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub and Salman Ali Agha