Fakhar Zaman has played at No.5 and 7 in two games of the ongoing tri-series with Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, after opening in the Asia Cup. But why is he batting in the middle order?
Fakhar Zaman shifted down to middle order for T20I tri-series
Fakhar wasn’t originally picked in the Pakistan T20I squad for the tri-series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. He only found a place as a replacement for Hasan Nawaz, who, following a poor run of form, was released from the white-ball squads and asked to play first-class cricket instead. This decision, coupled with Abdul Samad’s injury, opened up a spot in the middle order and Fakhar was readily slotted in.
Originally slated to play at No.6 in Pakistan’s opening game of the tri-series, against Zimbabwe, he found himself marking guard at 30-3 in the sixth over in a chase of 148. Notwithstanding the change in batting position, the southpaw scored a patient 32-ball 44 to calm the nerves and leave his side in a much better position than when he arrived.
His batting wasn’t needed as Pakistan’s top order made light work of the 129-run target against Sri Lanka in their next game. Fakhar was then dropped even further to No.7 in the 69-run win over Zimbabwe on November 23 - his first time batting this low in T20Is. Walking in during the 19th over, he didn’t disappoint, pulling Pakistan’s total to 195 with a 10-ball 27.
Match 4, Pakistan vs Zimbabwe
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Fakhar Zaman's chaotic last few months
Pakistan have experimented heavily under Mike Hesson, and Fakhar has been on the receiving end of some of those decisions. In Hesson’s first game in charge, Fakhar played the first match of a three-T20I series against Bangladesh, but was dropped for the remaining games.
Again, on Pakistan’s tour of Bangladesh, he was the team’s top scorer in the first T20I, but couldn’t score big in the second game and was dropped for the third. Fakhar was then slotted at No.3 for Pakistan’s West Indies tour, where he played the first two games before being benched for the third.
Fakhar took the same spot for the entirety of the UAE T20I tri-series, involving Afghanistan, but was shifted to No.4 for the opening Asia Cup game against Oman. He held the spot against India as well, but was promoted to one down against the UAE and then due to Saim Ayub’s repeated failures, he took the opening slot for the rest of the tournament.
Even with constant shuffling, the southpaw finished as the tournament’s fifth-highest run-getter. But as South Africa arrived in Pakistan, he was not picked in the T20I side, with Hesson claiming that Fakhar wanted to return to the one-day setup and was thus asked to play first-class cricket as a break from the T20 format.
The veteran batter joined Abbottabad for the Quaid-e-Azam trophy, where he hit four half-centuries in six innings but couldn’t replicate that form in the SA ODI series. He found his touch against Sri Lanka, however, with scores of 32, 78 and 55 in the three ODIs respectively from the opening slot.
Immediately after, in the T20I tri-series, he is now being used in the middle order again, with Saim Ayub and Sahibzada Farhan handling the opening role, and Babar Azam batting at No.3 in the lead up to the T20 World Cup next year.
Fakhar Zaman's T20I numbers at each batting position
| Position | Matches | Runs | Highest score | Strike-rate | 50s |
| 1st | 28 | 700 | 91 | 138.33 | 3 |
| 2nd | 15 | 256 | 61 | 116.89 | 1 |
| 3rd | 34 | 775 | 77 not out | 121.85 | 6 |
| 4th | 20 | 496 | 78 | 153.56 | 3 |
| 5th | 4 | 81 | 44 | 119.11 | 0 |
| 6th | 1 | 21 | 21 | 100 | 0 |
| 7th | 1 | 27 | 27 not out | 270 | 0 |
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