'They simply made Fakhar the scapegoat' - Mohammad Amir slams Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan for Pakistan's struggles in ongoing T20 carnival

Pakistan registered their first win of the T20 World Cup 2022 tournament after beating Netherlands by six wickets on Sunday (October 30). It was not a convincing win as Pakistan's struggles were on display while chasing a 92-run target but a win was needed for them to keep their semi-finals' hopes alive.

Pakistan find themselves in the fifth position with two points from the opening three matches with a positive net run rate. Star openers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan are yet to make a big impact with good opening partnerships in this tournament, which has led the fans and former cricketers to criticize the management.

Former Pakistan bowler Mohammad Amir is the latest one to point out Pakistan's struggles in the mega tournament in Australia. Amir believes that Pakistan's opening struggles started during the reign of former Head Coach Misbah-ul-Haq, who replaced Fakhar Zaman with Rizwan.

“Yeh openers wala start huya tha jab Misbah bhai the, Rizwan ko uthake open karwa di thi aur Fakhar jaisa banda, jo iss time pe Pakistan ka best T20 opener hai, uspe churi pheri. (All this started when Misbah made Rizwan open the innings and a guy like Fakhar Zaman, who’s the best T20 opener at the moment, got sidelined)," Amir told 24 News on Sunday.

Babar and Rizwan are not ready to come out of their comfort zones: Mohammed Amir

Experts are stating that the management should draft a fit-again Fakhar back to the opening position and bring Babar to the struggling middle order. Amir gave the example of other cricketers like Aiden Markram and Liam Livingstone, who are natural openers but play in the middle-order in international cricket. Amir also added that both Babar and Rizwan are not ready to come out of their comfort zones and play in the middle order.

“You see, Livingstone has been an opener in domestic cricket but the English team wanted him at the middle-order. He managed because he is a good player and now see, how long he smashed the ball. The same was the case with Markram who was an opener but performing so well at No. 4.

“A good player performs in every situation. They simply made Fakhar the scapegoat. Both openers (Babar & Rizwan) are limited to the top order and are not ready to come out of their comfort zones,” Amir added.

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