Danish Kaneria: “He is fearless and will ask you a few questions. He brings the X-factor”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan spinner Danish Kaneria said power-hitter Fakhar Zaman “is fearless” and “brings the X-factor”.
Zaman recently made his international comeback in Pakistan’s ODI tri-series against New Zealand and South Africa, where he amassed 135 runs in three matches, which included a top score of 84, at an average of 45 and a strike-rate of 120.53.
He then featured in the 2025 Champions Trophy and struck 24 runs in the opening game against New Zealand before being ruled out for the remainder of the tournament with an oblique injury.
Zaman subsequently missed Pakistan’s limited overs tour of New Zealand, where the men in green lost the T20I series 4-1 and the ODIs 3-0.
Despite this, Kaneria is well aware of Zaman’s big-hitting abilities and knows the 35-year-old can change the outcome of a match by himself.
“He is fearless and will ask you a few questions. He brings the X-factor,” he told ANI as quoted by NDTV.
Zaman returned to play in the 2025 Pakistan Super League (PSL) and scored 309 runs in nine matches for the Lahore Qalandars, which included three fifties, at an average of 34.33 and a strike-rate of 152.97 before the tournament was indefinitely suspended.
Lahore Qalandars Squad for PSL 10:
- Platinum: Daryl Mitchell, Fakhar Zaman, Shaheen Shah Afridi (captain)
- Diamond: Haris Rauf, Kusal Perera, Sikandar Raza
- Gold: Abdullah Shafique, Jahandad Khan, Zaman Khan
- Silver: Asif Afridi, Asif Ali, David Wiese, Muhammad Akhlaq, Rishad Hossain
- Emerging: Mohammad Azab, Momin Qamar
- Supplementary: Muhammad Naeem, Sam Billings, Salman Ali Mirza, Tom Curran