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Abdul Rehman Shahbaz Khan

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The T20i world cup is around the corner still there’s a debate about who should play in the Playing xi, Shan Masood or Fakhar Zaman? 

Shan Masood was recently slotted into the T20i Side following Fakhar’s Injury though he was knocking on the door of international cricket from the last year by scoring runs in all three formats at the domestic circuit – he played brilliantly in the County season.

Shan Makes his T20i Debut in the historic England Series in place of Fakhar who was injured in the Asia cup, Fakhar’s performance was not up to the mark and because of that fans were requesting to bring Shan Masood into the team but unfortunately or fortunately Fakhar got injured and went the UK for his Rehab that favors Shan to come directly into the playing xi.

Shan Masood vs Fakhar Zaman – Stats Blast

Till Now Shan has failed to show his game which he usually plays to the cricket world he has not been able to make his impact at No.3 & No.4. Shan Masood mostly plays as an opener but as everyone knows Pakistan’s opening pair is best in the world at the moment so he has to be at No.3 or No.4. 

However like with Fakhar Zaman, after Rizwan’s Brilliant Performances at the opening position Fakhar was forced to bat at No.3 & No.4 where he mostly fails to deliver his best as he loves to do at the opening position.

It’s not like Both (Shan & Fakhar) aren’t scoring runs at all, they are scoring but consistency is lacking, which is raising many questions in Fans mind that ‘Who is better Shan or Fakhar?” So, let’s go through the stats of both players

Overall T20I Stats

If we see overall stats Fakhar has more experience in T20i cricket and Shan has recently made his debut but if we see overall there’s not a big difference in both player’s averages and strike rate.

Stats at Opening Position

There’s not a comparison at Opening Position because Fakhar has played half of his career at opening position and Shan Masood is Yet to Play at the opening position, though on Monday 17^th October 2022 in a warm-up match against England Shan opened the innings for Pakistan and played a great knock.
in that Match Shan’s Score was;

Fakhar’s Stats at the opening position;

Stats at No.3 Position

No.3 Position is the main Debate nowadays and at this position, if we look Fakhar has better average and strike rate but if we look at the runs Fakhar has 438 runs in 22 innings and Shan has 148 Runs in just 8 innings.

Stats at No.4 Position

No.4 position both has played 2-3 innings and Fakhar has better Strike Rate and Shan has better Average but if we look at T20i we need someone at No.4 who can play with better strike Rate and for that Fakhar is the best option at 4 and Shan at No.3. Let’s Go into more detail!

Also read: Hope – The only selection criteria left in Pakistan Cricket?

Shan Masood vs Fakhar Zaman: Batting Breakdown

Fakhar’s Batting Breakdown

Shan’s Batting Breakdown

Pakistan’s Mostly Struggled in Batting first in recent times and if we see Shan’s stats, he failed to score batting first and Fakhar is much better in scoring batting first but the concern is that that’s all come when he used to open the innings.
Last 6 innings Scores

Views on this Situation Overall

If we see recent performance of our team our middle order is our main concern which is now mostly solved by Promoting Shadab Khan and Muhammad Nawaz up the order but No.3 is still questionable. So, if we see the recent performance of Both Shan Masood and Fakhar Zaman, we get to know that Shan as compared to Fakhar is in a good touch and answers the question of who should play at No.3 in the world cup. 

We should go with Shan because Fakhar’s form was not in the Asia Cup and then he got injured so he didn’t get more cricket in the last month as compared to Shan. Later in the tournament we can try Fakhar as well but in the start, we should go with Shan at No.3. and as Babar also informed us that Fakhar is not fully Fit and will not play the first match against India and Shan will play but if Fakhar recovers and management thinks that he fully fit to play future matches so in my opinion he should bat at No.5 because he plays Fast bowlers pretty good so he can attack them in death overs.

Playing XI for the World Cup:
Babar, Rizwan, Shan, Haider, Iftikhar/Fakhar, Shadab, Nawaz, Wasim, Sheheen, Haris, Naseem

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