The Pakistan team management has entrusted their former skipper Babar Azam with opening the batting alongside Fakhar Zaman in the absence of the injured Saim Ayub, but his failure in three innings of the tri-series has invited criticism from former players. However, team's interim head coach Aaqib Javed continues to back the decision.
“Our rationale behind the change was that if you look at the away series against South Africa, Babar Azam had to bat in the first over in all games. Then Saim got injured, and he had to open in Tests too. These pitches are not troubling the batters at the start, (so) we wanted our best batter to make good use of the powerplay, that suits us more,” Aaqib explained after the tri-series final on Sunday.
