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Babar Azam in action© AFP
Pakistan have had a poor start to the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia. The 2009 champions lost their tournament opener to India by 4 wickets before facing a disappointing one-run loss to Zimbabwe in the next game. In both the matches, Pakistan’s famous opening pair of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan failed to put any noticeable contribution and it played a crucial role in the side’s defeat in those matches. While in the first game Pakistan posted a fighting score of 159 for 8, the team failed to chase down a paltry target of 131 runs against Zimbabwe.
Ever since their second defeat in the T20 extravaganza, the Pakistan players have been receiving a lot of flak for their performance. Their opening pair has also been at the receiving end of the criticism.
Former Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir feels that both the batters are not ready to get out of their comfort zone.
“All of this started when Misbah (Misbah-ul-Haq) became the head coach and he made (Mohammad) Rizwan open and sacrificed a Fakhar (Zaman), who was Pakistan’s opener in T20 cricket at that time,” Amir said in Hindi on 24 News HD.
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“Good players can perform anywhere. In order to save your place in the team, you said you can’t bat at number 5, and because of that Fakhar was sacrificed. Both openers (Rizwan and Babar Azam) are limited, and are not ready to get out of their comfort zone,” he added.
In the match against India, the opening pair of Pakistan added only one run. Babar was dismissed for a golden duck, while Rizwan scored 4 off 12 balls. In the second game, the duo added 13 runs for the first wicket. Babar fell for a 4 off 9, while Rizwan was dismissed for a 16-ball 14.
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