Former Pakistan opening batsman Aamer Sohail believes the 28-year-old in-form batsman Fakhar Zaman will play an important role for Pakistan cricket team in the upcoming 2018 Asia Cup in United Arab Emirates (UAE), starting from September 15.
Making an international cricket debut in March 2017, Zaman has played 18 ODIs and 22 T20Is where he has scored 1,065 runs (average 76.07) and 646 runs (average 30.76) respectively. The left-handed opening batsman completed his 1,000 ODI runs in 18th ODI innings and becomes the fastest player (according to the number of innings) to score 1,000 ODI runs.
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Recently, he becomes the first Pakistan batsman to score a double-century in ODI cricket when he scored 210* against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo on July 20.
Despite having no earlier experiences as he made his ODI debut in 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, Zaman played a crucial role in Pakistan batting that helped the team to win their maiden ICC Champions Trophy. Zaman was the leading run-scorer for Pakistan in that tournament as he scored 252 runs in 4 innings with the average of 63.00 including one century and two half-centuries. In that tournament, Zaman scored a half-century (57) in the semi-final against the hosts England, while he also scored a match-winning century (114) against India in the final.
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Talking about Zaman’s brilliant batting form, Sohail has claimed that the new left-handed opening batsman bats positively.
Sohail said in a recent interview, “The reason behind Zaman’s success has to be his positive approach. No matter what the situation, he goes out and bats positively. He [Zaman] doesn’t allow any bulls to fight in his head, and knows that going out and playing positive cricket is what’s best for him. That has been the key to his success.”
Sohail also believes that Pakistan will have a huge advantage in the upcoming tournament due to playing in UAE, which they use now as their home venues.
The former Pakistan opener added, “Pakistan will definitely have an upper hand against all the teams as they have played in the UAE more than everybody else.”
The 51-year-old also admitted that India and Sri Lanka are also the tough teams in this competition and Pakistan need to be careful in the upcoming tournament.
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Sohail said, “India and Sri Lanka are tough teams and good competition is expected from them. So Pakistan must monitor carefully how the opposition is executing its plans.”
