Pakistani batter Fakhar Zaman has been ruled out of T20 World Cup 2022 after suffering an injury during the match against the Netherlands.
The batter had joined the squad for the third match against the Netherlands after coming back from an injury. The injury of the batter worsened following the match. PCB officials and the chief medical officer revealed that the management was aware of the risks of including him in the squad.
Fakhar Zaman will not be playing the remaining two matches against South Africa and Bangladesh. Team management now needs to find his replacement in the team. Team officials say that the player has suffered no new injury but he does not feel 100% fit.
Fakhar Zaman suffered a knee injury during the final against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup. He then missed the T20 series against England and the Tri-nation series in New Zealand. Meanwhile, Pakistan is on the early exit after losing crucial matches against India and Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Cricket Team is coming under intense criticism for poor performance in the T20 World Cup 2022. Skipper Babar Azam is facing some distasteful and harsh criticism from former cricketers.
Read more: Babar Azam accused of being selfish, insecure by former cricketers
In one of the videos, Wasim Akram lambasted Babar for not including Shoaib Malik on the team. He said that Babar being a captain should have a target of winning the world cup for Pakistan. Akram said that Babar should have refused to captain the team if he had not got the players he wanted in the team. He pressed on the inclusion of Shoaib Malik in the team. Regarding the inclusion of Shoaib Malik in the team, he said ‘Gadhay ko Bhi Baap Banana Paray to bana lo’ to win the world cup.
In another video, Wasim Akram was heard saying that being a captain Babar Azam will never sacrifice for his team. He is of the view that Babar should leave his opening number to accommodate other players in the team who are not performing on other numbers. Wasim added that Babar Azam turned down his request to play at number 3 in one of the seasons of PSL when he was coaching the Karachi Kings.
The PCB team doctor has agreed that it was risky to bring Fakhar Zaman to Australia for the #T20WorldCup, and that both the team management and Fakhar himself were aware of it. Strange decision then, shouldn't have been risked in a match like Netherlands then.
— Farid Khan (@_FaridKhan) November 2, 2022
The reason for Fakhar Zaman missing the match against South Africa is that he has aggravated the existing knee injury for which he has been undergoing rehabilitation during the tournament #T20WorldCup
— Saj Sadiq (@SajSadiqCricket) November 2, 2022
Interesting to see if Pakistan announce Fakhar Zaman's replacement, it all depends on the results over the next two days. Pakistan need to defeat South Africa and for other results to go their way. #T20WorldCup
— Farid Khan (@_FaridKhan) November 2, 2022
Waqar Younus present in the same sports show blamed the opening duo of Pakistan- Babar and Rizwan for the batting collapse of the team. “The easiest place to bat in T20s is the opening. You have not let anyone else open in the last two years. I have discussed this with Misbah before, so why don’t you try something new? You have tried it out with bowling, but with batting, we have tried all the experiments with the middle order. But the openers have remained the same and they have batted 14-15 overs together,” said Waqar Younus.