Injured Pakistan batter Fakhar Zaman has condemned retirement rumors, saying he wants to keep playing all three formats and will be back fit for Pakistan in a month. Zaman injured himself during Pakistan’s opening match in Champions Trophy against New Zealand in Karachi, ultimately ruling him out of the marquee tournament because of an old knee injury. He was replaced in the squad by Imam-ul-Haq. Following that injury, social media was rife with rumors regarding the retirement plans of the 34-year-old top-order batter. “Well, I have also heard a lot about it, and my friends have also sent messages. There is no truth in this. One-day is, of course, my favorite format, and yes, because of this issue with my thyroid, I was thinking of taking some time off cricket.
“But retirement never crossed my mind. I want to play One-day, T20, and I also want to play Test cricket,” Zaman said in a video posted on ‘X’ by Pakistan Cricket Board.
Zaman has played 86 ODIs and averages a little over 46. He suffered a muscle strain while fielding in the New Zealand innings, forcing him to stay away from the field for most of the match in the Champions Trophy opener.
The injury happened while he was chasing a ball destined for the boundary in the first over of the contest. Zaman’s exit was a blow for the team as he had been in reasonably good form. Pakistan eventually lost their next match to arch-rival India in Dubai by six wickets, which meant an early exit for them from the eight-team tournament.
Zaman stated he would return to match fitness in a month.
“As far as my comeback is concerned, I hopefully will be back to competitive cricket in a month. I had a hunch, after the injury, that my Champions Trophy campaign was over,” he said. “Had I got to open against New Zealand chasing 320 runs, things could have been different.”
He could not open the innings in the second innings, and so Saud Shakeel had to take the stance as a stop-gap opener. Zaman batted at number 4, scoring 24 runs off 41 balls, but you could see he was struggling throughout his innings during the match that Pakistan lost by 60 runs.
“Had I opened, there are chances of it being different because then, when you have a big target, an opener has a big role to play.” Zaman said he has felt a marked improvement in his injury during the past week.
“Such has been the improvement over the last week that the doctor has said that I can start training after three weeks, so I should be back in a month.” Zaman said, despite loving the one-day format, he wishes to play the five-day game too.
“I still want to play Tests, but as you know, the coaches and captain have their own planning, and I do think there are better Test players in Pakistan,” he said, adding, “I would like to open on comeback, but it depends on what the selectors have in store for me.”