Pakistan are anticipated to go for a brand new opening pair within the T20 collection in New Zealand with Muhammad Rizwan to associate younger Saim Ayub as a substitute of Babar Azam. In accordance with experiences from Auckland, the crew administration had Rizwan and Saim batting within the nets towards the brand new ball bowlers whereas Babar and Fakhar Zaman had their knocks towards primarily spinners within the different nets. Babar and Rizwan have opened fairly efficiently for Pakistan within the T20 format since 2021 however apparently new captain Shaheen Shah Afridi, new excessive efficiency coach Yasir Arafat and the crew director Muhammad Hafeez are eager to check out one thing new towards New Zealand within the five-match collection starting on January 12.
Their 150-plus runs unbeaten partnership helped Pakistan beat India for the primary time in any World Cup recreation throughout the T20 WC in Dubai in 2021.
The 21-year Saim, who performed 8 T20 internationals final yr and made his Check debut in Sydney earlier this month, is understood for his onerous hitting fashion of batting and the crew administration believes he and Rizwan can provide the crew quicker begins.
Babar is now anticipated to bat at quantity three adopted by Fakhar Zaman (himself an opener and onerous hitting southpaw) , Azam Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed.
With Babar now not captain in any format, crew insiders mentioned the excessive profile batsmen had agreed to bat one down after Shaheen and Hafeez spoke to him.
Pakistan have usually completed nicely within the T20 format and performed within the 2022 World T20 Cup closing and in addition made the Asia Cup T20 format closing and World T20 Cup semi-finals in 2021.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
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