It’s been confirmed, Fakhar Zaman has been ruled out of the ICC Champions Trophy. The opener injured his back while fielding in the tournament opener and left the ground for the entire first innings. He returned to bat but was clearly hampered and lasted just 41 balls.
Fakhar Zaman out of ICC Champions Trophy
“Fakhar Zaman has been deemed unfit for the rest of Pakistan’s Champions Trophy campaign. He sustained a knee injury during last night’s match. The scans following his injury aren’t promising, and he has been ruled out,” the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said in a release.
Imam-ul-Haq added to Pakistan’s squad
The PCB has also confirmed that Imam-ul-Haq will replace Zaman in Pakistan’s squad for the ICC Champions Trophy. For the uninformed, Pakistan has now lost two openers to injury. Saim Ayub was ruled out a few days before the tournament, having failed to recover from an ankle injury sustained in early January in Cape Town.
One can say that instead of making Babar Azam an opener, PCB should have brought in Imam. He averaged 53 in the Champions One-Day Cup 2024, Pakistan’s List A tournament, and also scored 98 runs in 94 balls against South Africa for Pakistan Shaheens in the ICC Champions Trophy warm-up match.
Imam has a solid ODI record, with a healthy average of 48.27, albeit a low strike rate (82.55). The issue for Pakistan now would be their run rate. Imam isn’t an explosive batter like Fakhar and on the other end, you will have Babar, who isn’t exactly a quick scorer either.
Pakistan’s squad for ICC Champions Trophy
Mohammad Rizwan (c & wk), Babar Azam, Imam-ul-Haq (for 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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