T20 World Cup 2022: Pakistan face injury setback, marquee player ruled out of South Africa match

A World Cup of setbacks, surprises, and injuries, this is how we can summarize the ongoing tournament that is being played in Australia. With all the teams missing out on their major players, it has become a daunting task for team managements to replace players and get them ready ahead of their important clashes. In what happens to be a very strange kind of a world cup, things have been pretty tough for the teams as it heads towards the business end of the tournament.

Babar Azam's Pakistan is on a life support system as of now, they are gasping for breath. As of now, when things look bleak for the boys in green, they have faced a massive injury issue. Their left-handed batter Fakhar Zaman has aggravated his knee injury and will now miss out on their all-important match against South Africa. Zaman, who was a very late addition to Pakistan's 15-member squad has only played one match in the ongoing World Cup so far. Surprisingly, Babar Azam's Pakistan have



only won one match in the World Cup so far, and that too when Zaman took the field for them. Zaman scored 20 off 16 runs against the Netherlands and looked completely far from his best.

To include him in the final playing XI, the Pakistan team management demoted Shan Masood to the number 4 spot. Masood has been Pakistan's most reliable batsman in the ongoing tournament and Babar Azam was criticized heavily for changing his number so abruptly. With Fakhar sustaining the injury, Asif Ali might just work his way into the final playing XI that will play against South Africa. Following the opening game against India, Ali was left out as Pakistan opted for an extra bowling option. Other batting options for Pakistan include Haider Ali and Khushdil Shah. In the lead-up to the tournament, Pakistan have been plagued with injury issues, Shaheen Afridi certainly doesn't look 100 percent and now with Fakhar being ruled out, his fate in the World Cup remains uncertain.