Fakhar Zaman will be wasted lower down the order: Inzamam

Pakistan’s legendary former batsman Inzamamul Haq, in a Youtube video on Monday, stated that batsman Fakhar Zaman would be wasted in the lower order since he had played as an opener in the past.

The 51-year-old was adamant that sending Fakhar Zaman at number three instead of batsman Sohaib Maqsood would have made a world of difference in the second T20I against England.

“Talking about the batting, I think Pakistan made a major mistake at number three. When Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan were playing well, they sent Sohaib Maqsood instead of Fakhar Zaman when a wicket fell. Fakhar was an opener and if you push him to number five or six, where he has to face spinners, then he will be completely wasted. If they had sent him instead of Sohaib then it would have formed a right-hand and left-hand combination. Fakhar had made an eight-ball 25 in the last match as well. His confidence was high. He would have performed better up the order. We could have put a lot of pressure on England in this way,” Inzamam said.

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The former batsman also believed that Pakistan was showing fight which will bode well for the national side in the future.

“Pakistan couldn’t perform like they did in the first T20I. They played well; I am not saying that they did not. It was visible that they were fighting. I think that when Shadab Khan was playing, we knew that the score cannot be chased down but they showed fight because they were still trying to score. This is a good sign. The second thing which is good that the standard of fielding is progressing well. I was happy to see that,” he said.

“In T20s wickets are very important. One 18 or 20 run over could have changed the game. One over can change a match. Pakistan’s bowling, if we look at it, is not doing that well. They have given away more than 200 runs so we can’t say that they have been doing well. But talking about batting, we have been losing in T20s because our performances need to be better,” he concluded.