Pakistan’s hard-hitting batter Fakhar Zaman is likely to be ruled out of the remainder of the ICC T20 World Cup after aggravating his knee injury during Pakistan’s win against the Netherlands.
Fakhar, who played no part in the T20 Series against England, the subsequent warmup matches and the opening two games of the tournament, was added to the team in place of Haider Ali due to his repeated failures despite not being 100% fit.
The batter was undergoing treatment in England with Shaheen Afridi, who has also not looked fully fit upon his return either and was only added to the squad from the reserves list closer to the tournament.
Fakhar Zaman seemed to tweak his knee once again during the only game he has played in the T20 World Cup against the Netherlands while attempting a run and received treatment on the field for several minutes.
He scored 20 runs off 16 balls.
Pakistan’s team doctor Najeebullah Soomro, while talking on the issue said both Fakahar and the team knew of the risks before okaying his place in the playing XI.
“Obviously with any knee injury, it takes time to have 100% recovery. Fakhar and the team understood the risks of coming into the tournament and we got him in. You saw how he performed with batting in the last match, unfortunately in the last match, he had a bit of a twist which aggravated his injury.
Fakhar’s absence is a huge headache for team selection ahead of the team’s must-win game against South Africa as no middle-order batter has come close to taking the responsibility of scoring runs.
Asif Ali and Haider Ali have failed with the bat thus far while Khusdil Shah has not seen the field for some time and may not be able to deal with the bouncy wickets in Australia.
