Just hours before their crunch contest against South Africa, Pakistan were been dealt a big blow as star batter Fakhar Zaman was ruled out of the ongoing 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia. The left-handed swashbuckling batter suffered a painful knee injury, thus drawing curtains to his campaign in the multi-national tournament. Mohammad Haris, who was named as one of the traveling reserve, has now been included in Pakistan's T20 World Cup squad as Zaman's replacement.
Pakistan team doctor and PCB’s chief medical officer Dr Najeeb Soomro on November 02 (Wednesday) told the media in Sydney that the player and management were aware of the risks of including him in the world cup squad.
“We know that Fakhar had a knee injury in Asia Cup about 7 weeks ago, he has been incredibly brave, resilient and has worked really hard to come back into the team, he had extensive rehabilitation and after which he made his way back into the team,” Dr Najeeb said.
“Obviously with any knee injury, it takes time for it to recover 100%. Fakhar and the team understood the risks coming into the tournament and we got him into the tournament. You saw how he performed in the last match. Unfortunately, he had a bit of a twist which aggravated his injury. We have had scans on him which have shown no new injury. However, he doesn’t feel 100%,” he added.
When asked if Fakhar was rushed ahead of schedule for the tournament, the PCB’s chief medical officer said that the medical panel was monitoring the batter closely and he was doing well in all the tests.
“We knew the risks for his return. Obviously, he is an important player for the team, the medical staff, the player and team management were aware of that and we decided to bring him back, in any sport you take risks, sometimes the risks pay off, and sometimes they don’t. He was extremely brave and we worked hard to bring him back in, it is unfortunate that sometimes you have a bit of a reaction to something,” he said.
