Sohaib Maqsood: “Get him ready for [the] Champions Trophy, we don’t have any chance without him”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Pakistan batsman Sohaib Maqsood has admitted that the men in green “don’t have any chance” of winning the 2025 Champions Trophy without power-hitter Fakhar Zaman.
He noted that Zaman must be in the squad for the tournament, even though he has missed Pakistan’s last few limited overs series against Australia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
The 34-year-old explained that he was recently not considered for selection due to the fact that he was suffering from hyperthyroidism.
However, he did end up taking part in the Champions T20 Cup and finished as 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.
“Get him ready for [the] Champions Trophy, we don’t have any chance without him,” Maqsood said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
During their tour of Australia, Pakistan won the ODI series 2-1 before getting crushed 3-0 in the T20Is.
After this, they embarked on a trip to Zimbabwe and came away with a 2-1 victory in both the ODI and T20I series.
The men in green then toured South Africa and lost the T20I series 2-0 before bouncing back to win the ODIs 3-0.
In the two-Test series that followed, Pakistan were whitewashed 2-0.
Pakistan are now taking on the West Indies in a two-Test series, which they lead 1-0 after winning the 1st Test in Multan by 127 runs.
The 2nd Test started on January 25 in Multan.
Pakistan Squad for West Indies Test Series: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Imam-ul-Haq, Kamran Ghulam, Kashif Ali, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Huraira, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Noman Ali, Rohail Nazir (wicketkeeper), Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha