Star batter Fakhar Zaman was permitted to open the batting for Pakistan in their Champions Trophy 2025 encounter against New Zealand at the National Stadium in Karachi. This is a significant setback to the home team's chances. For those who are not familiar, Fakhar Zaman hurt himself while attempting to stop a ball from reaching the boundary, giving the Men in Green a shock on the second ball of the competition. In obvious distress, the opening batsman for Pakistan went out of the ground.
Why did Fakhar Zaman not open the batting?
Fakhar spent a lot of time away from the field, even though the Pakistani camp was greatly relieved to see him back on it. According to ICC regulations about players' departure from the field, he is therefore unlikely to be permitted to start batting for the Men in Green.
"The player shall not be permitted to bat in the match until his team’s batting innings has been in progress for the length of playing time that is equal to the unexpired Penalty time carried forward from the previous innings. However, once his side has lost five wickets in its batting innings, he may bat immediately. If any unexpired penalty time remains at the end of that batting innings, it is carried forward to the next and subsequent innings of the match," states Law 24.2.3.2 of ICC.
Saud Shakeel and Babar open the innings for Pakistan
Pakistan had a massive 321-run target in front of them as Will Young and Tom Latham's century powered New Zealand to a big score. Saud Shakeel and Babar Azam came out to open the inning for Pakistan as Fakhar Zaman was not permitted to take the field for the first 25 minutes of their innings.
However, this new opening duo failed badly as Saud Shakeel got out after scoring just 6 runs off 19 balls. Later, as 25 minutes time was not over, Mohammad Rizwan came out to bat at number 3. Pakistan are off to a slow start in this big chase as they could only score 21/1 in the first 9 overs. The bad part was that they were not able to utilise the powerplay. Matt Henry just gave away 9 runs in his first five overs.
Rizwan also got out in the 10th over as Glenn Phillips took a superman catch to send back the Pakistan captain. The hosts were reduced to 22/2 in the first 10 overs. Fakhar Zaman came out to bat at number 4.