Pakistan cricket team will have to look for a new opener in ICC Champions Trophy with Saim Ayub being ruled out for the tournament. The team is now mulling to either let Babar Azam or Saud Shakeel fill in the young opener’s shoes at the top of the order. With Fakhar Zaman making his return to the ODI side for the Tri-nation series and CT 2025, Pakistan are in dire need to find him a partner at the top.
Babar Azam to open for Pakistan in Champions Trophy
Asad Shafiq, a member of the Pakistan selection committee, stated that either Babar or Shakeel could be Fakhar’s opening partner. As per Cricket Pakistan, Shafiq said that it would depend on the conditions, opposition and match strategy. With Fakhar their only specialised opener, Pakistan have no options but to promote some other batter to the position of an opener.
“Fakhar’s opening partner could be either Babar Azam or Saud Shakeel, depending on various factors such as conditions, opposition, and match strategy,” Shafiq said in a PCB press release.
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Babar has only opened the innings for Pakistan in ODIs on 2 occasions and has managed to score just 26 runs. Meanwhile, Shakeel has zero experience of playing at the top-order. Both batters are predominantly middle-order batters and have excelled while batting below number 3. Hence, promoting either Babar or Shakeel as Pakistan’s opener will be a huge gamble for Pakistan to take.
Pakistan squad for Champions Trophy
Mohammad Rizwan (c), Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir, Faheem Ashraf, Khushdil Shah, Salman Ali Agha (vc), Usman Khan, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi
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