Shaheen Shah Afridi: “Babar and Rizwan will always be the best opening pair for Pakistan”

Shaheen Shah Afridi: “Babar and Rizwan will always be the best opening pair for Pakistan”

Shaheen Shah Afridi: “Babar and Rizwan will always be the best opening pair for Pakistan”

Pakistan T20I captain Shaheen Shah Afridi said he knows Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan “will always be the best opening pair” in the shortest format.

His comments come after Rizwan opened the batting with Saim Ayub during the recent five-match T20I series against New Zealand, while Azam batted at number three.

Explaining the reason behind this, Afridi noted that he wants a few different combinations to be tried out in the lead-up to the 2024 T20 World Cup in June.

“Babar and Rizwan will always be the best opening pair for Pakistan. I think we have 17 matches before the World Cup, and we should try different combinations and try to figure out which player fits in which position and we will try to play them [in that position],” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.

“There might be some changes, or maybe not. But the effort will be to have the team combination ready before [the] England tour. In the four T20s against England before T20 World Cup, we should know our best playing XI.”

Afridi will now captain the Lahore Qalandars in the 2024 Pakistan Super League (PSL), while Azam and Rizwan will lead the Peshawar Zalmi and Multan Sultans respectively.

PSL 9 will take place from February 17 to March 18 in four cities – Lahore, Multan, Karachi and Rawalpindi.

Lahore Qalandars Squad for PSL 9: Shaheen Shah Afridi (captain), Haris Rauf, David Wiese, Sikandar Raza, Abdullah Shafique, Zaman Khan, Mirza Tahir Baig, Rashid Khan (reserved), Fakhar Zaman, Rassie van der Dussen, Sahibzada Farhan, Muhammad Imran Jnr., Ahsan Hafeez Bhatti, Dan Lawrence (partially available), Jahandad Khan, Syed Faridoun Mahmood, Shai Hope, Kamran Ghulam, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Tayyab Abbas

Peshawar Zalmi Squad for PSL 9: Babar Azam (captain), Rovman Powell, Saim Ayub, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Mohammad Haris, Aamer Jamal, Khurram Shahzad (partially available), Arshad Iqbal, Haseebullah, Gus Atkinson (partially available), Asif Ali, Naveen-ul-Haq (reserved), Salman Irshad, Arif Yaqoob, Umair Afridi, Dan Mousley, Mohammad Zeeshan, Waqar Salamkheil, Mehran Mumtaz, Luke Wood, Sufyan Muqeem, Shamar Joseph

Multan Sultans Squad for PSL 9: Mohammad Rizwan (captain), Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Usama Mir, Abbas Afridi, Ihsanullah, Faisal Akram, David Willey, Dawid Malan, Reece Topley, Reeza Hendricks, Tayyab Tahir, Shahnawaz Dahani, Mohammad Ali, Usman Khan, Yasir Khan, Chris Jordan, Aftab Ibrahim, Johnson Charles, Mohammad SHAHZAD.

JKNEWS NATION