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Babar Azam, the captain of Pakistan, may seem to say the same things all the time, but it’s also possible that he gets asked the same questions. Babar held a press conference prior to Pakistan’s final practice before the T20 World Cup in the US and the Caribbean, where he was asked the usual questions about Pakistan’s chances, their squad choices and of course, their starting order.
“What happened in the past is in the past,” Babar began, before recognising the question about his team’s trophy chances has been asked multiple times before, and returned to tread familiar ground. “Our aim was always to bring the trophy home, and we’re doubly confident and believe we can bring the trophy home. I’ll always believe in my players as captain, and we’ll give our best at the World Cup.”
The positioning of two players called Haris at the top and bottom of Pakistan’s lineup—more particularly, the presence of one and the absence of the other—was one of the conference’s most talked-about themes. In the past six months, Haris Rauf has faced public criticism from Wahab Riaz, the former chief selector, for “hurting Pakistan cricket” when he withdrew from Pakistan’s Australia tour and had his central contract revoked. However, he was later injured during the Pakistan Super League and had his central contract reinstated once more. He has returned to the Pakistani side after nursing himself back to health.
“Haris Rauf’s fitness is much improved; I wasn’t expecting him to recover so fast,” Babar said. “He’s positive about his involvement in the tournament and very driven to succeed. There’s pressure on him because there’s been a lot of talk about him, but I think he’ll come back strong. When you come back from a rest, mentally, physically, you can create quite an impact.”
Meanwhile, Mohammad Haris is still not allowed to participate. His most well-known accomplishments wearing an international shirt occurred during the most recent T20 World Cup, where he revitalised a flagging Pakistani World Cup campaign and played a major role in the country’s surprising run to the final. After being mysteriously dropped for Pakistan’s tour of New Zealand at the beginning of this year, he has faced greater challenges. He wasn’t helpful in the PSL and is currently not part of Pakistan’s plans.
Haris’s Peshawar Zalmi teammate Babar admitted that Haris might not have had the opportunity he would have anticipated after the World Cup.
“He didn’t get a full opportunity after that World Cup but he belongs in the top order. In the top order, we already have [Mohammad] Rizwan, Fakhar [Zaman], Saim [Ayub] and myself. He got an opportunity in the PSL, but the way he wanted to execute, he couldn’t. That doesn’t make him a bad player because it happens to every player at some point. We then discussed where we would play him. If we’d kept him in the side he’d have been forced to play in the lower-middle order. And then we went with the best possible collective combination.”