T20 World Cup’22: ICC confirms major changes in PAK team

“The Event Technical Committee of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 has approved Mohammad Haris as a replacement for Fakhar Zaman in the Pakistan squad. The replacement of a player requires the approval of the Event Technical Committee before the replacement player can be officially added to the squad,”

ICC said in a statement.

After receiving approval from the ICC technical committee, Mohammad Haris was selected to take the place of the injured Fakhar Zaman in Pakistan’s T20 World Cup squad.

A right knee injury to the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) kept Zaman out of the World Cup. Due to the same injury, the left-hander had missed Pakistan’s first two Super 12 matches against India and Zimbabwe. Both of those games were won by the team led by Babar Azam. In Pakistan’s straightforward victory over the Netherlands, Zaman returned to the team and scored 20 runs off 16 balls. But his injury got worse, and he was out of the tournament.

“The Event Technical Committee of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 has approved Mohammad Haris as a replacement for Fakhar Zaman in the Pakistan squad. The replacement of a player requires the approval of the Event Technical Committee before the replacement player can be officially added to the squad,”

ICC said in a statement.

Haris, 21, has only played in one T20 international before, in September in Lahore against England. Together with captain Babar Azam, he opened the batting and scored seven runs. He also kept wicket as England won by eight wickets in 15 overs.

Due to issues with his knee, middle-order batsman Zaman was not originally selected for Pakistan’s 15-man T20 World Cup squad. Instead, he was brought in as a risky late replacement for leg-spinner Usman Qadir.

Before returning against the Netherlands on Sunday in Perth, Fakhar made 20 off 16 balls but aggravated his knee injury. He missed the defeats against India and Zimbabwe.

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Haris has played for Pakistan in four one-day internationals, scoring a career-high six runs against the West Indies in Multan in June of this year. Pakistan must win Thursday night’s match against South Africa at the Sydney Cricket Ground if they hope to advance to the semi finals.