CHENNAI: The Pakistan cricket team’s opener, Fakhar Zaman, has been ruled of the Green Shirts’ fifth match of the ICC World Cup 2023 against Afghanistan at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on October 23.
Fakhar, 33, couldn’t completely recover from a knee injury and will not be available for selection for the match against Afghanistan, which is a must-win for the Men in Green because any outcome other than a victory would make things difficult for Babar Azam-led Pakistan.
The rehabilitation of Fakhar’s knee injury is going on and team management is confident that the left-handed opener will be available for the match against South Africa on October 27, sources close to the team said.
Sources further added that apart from Fakhar, all the players are completely fit and have no complaints about fever and flu and thus, will be available for selection.
Fakhar, even though is an important player in the team, was replaced by Abdullah Shafique in Pakistan's second World Cup game against Sri Lanka.
It is worth mentioning that Pakistan is currently having a tough time in the World Cup after suffering back-to-back defeats against arch-rivals India and Australia in Ahmedabad and Bengaluru.
The Green Shirts also have two victories to their name but they came against relatively weak sides of the Netherlands and Sri Lanka, with the latter missing a few key players.
Earlier, the Aussies managed to restrict the Green Shirts to 305 runs after posting a colossal 368-run target courtesy of a 259-run stand from David Warner and Mitchell Marsh.
Pakistan were off to a great start as their opening duo of Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shafique had a 134-run partnership — the first time a Pakistani opening pair had a century stand against Australia in a World Cup match.
The Green Shirts kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and were soon all out for 305 runs in 45.3 overs.
Batting first, Australia posted 367 runs on the scoreboard, recording the biggest total against Pakistan in the World Cup.
Faizan Lakhani Faizan Lakhani is Deputy Editor (Sports) at Geo News.- Fakhar Zaman
