World Cup 2019: Pakistan opener Sharjeel Khan slams Fakhar Zaman over his poor show

His brisk rise in international cricket had made many thinking about him as a probable star in this year’s World Cup in England and Wales. However, Pakistan southpaw Fakhar Zaman disappointed his fans in the tournament as he could not manage more than a fifty in nine games. Apart from the 62 that he scored against India and yet got criticised for throwing the wicket away, the opening batsman’s scores were of little significance.

He scored 44 against South Africa and 36 against England but his supporters had certainly sought more. Zaman, who is the fastest batsman to score 1,000 runs in ODIs and also the only Pakistan batter to score a double hundred in the format, earned a reputation ever since scoring the century against India in the final of the Champions Trophy in 2017. But his maiden World Cup did not get to see him fulfilling the promise and that left former opener like Sharjeel Khan upset.

Fakhar Zaman not playing natural game

Sharjeel, also a left-hand opener who had played his last game for Pakistan in January 2017 before Zaman cemented his place, expressed his disappointment with the latter in a tweet. He said Zaman was not playing his natural game and added that he failed to understand why he wasn’t doing so.

The 29-year-old Zaman scored only 186 runs in eight innings for Pakistan in the World Cup. The Pakistan batting as a whole did not do too well either barring a few blistering knocks from the likes of Babar Azam, their own centurion this edition, and Haris Sohail. Zaman fell for only 13 off 31 balls in Pakistan’s final game which was against Bangladesh at Lord’s on Friday.

Sharjeel, on the other hand, has played in one Test, 25 ODIs and 15 T20Is for his country scoring 1,200 runs with one international hundred. He is currently serving a ban for his involvement in the PSL spot-fixing scandal.

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Pakistan’s mission eventually fizzled out without a climax even though their journey in this edition had a lot of semblance with that in 1992.