RAWALPINDI: Pakistan head coach Azhar Mahmood has hinted at a change in the team’s batting order following their defeat in the third T20I against New Zealand on Sunday.
In the post-match press conference, Mahmud was asked about the top three in Pakistan’s batting order.
“I have said before, your top three are set, but after that you have to look at the match and decide accordingly. But moving forward, we will be flexible in terms of batting positions as there is no set number for a particular player,” said Mahmood in response to the aforementioned question.
Saim Ayub, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan were Pakistan’s top three in the batting order in the second and third T20Is.
Mahmood also admitted that Pakistan were 15-20 short in the third T20I.
“We were 15-20 short in the draw. We started really well in the first six overs and scored around 54. Shadab played very well until the end. But I think we lost our momentum in the middle overs as the ball was a bit tight,” he said.
New Zealand made a stunning comeback in the five-match T20I series courtesy of Mark Chapman as the visitors won by seven wickets in the third match at the Pindi Cricket Stadium.
The series is level at 1-1 with two matches remaining in Lahore.
New Zealand scored 179 with Tim Robinson (28) and Tim Seifert (21) scoring 42 for the first wicket.
Back-to-back dismissals by hosts Naseem Shah and Abbas Afridi were coming back, but Chapman, paired with Dean Foxcroft, had a plan.
The left-hander was aggressive with 117 runs, with Foxcroft giving him excellent support. Chapman reached his fifty-eighth in this format and finished with an unbeaten 87. He hit nine fours and four sixes in his 42-wicket haul.
Foxcroft made 29 for 31 as the chase ended in 19 overs.
Before that, the host got off to a good start with Saim Ayub dominating the visitors. The opening pair of Saim and Babar won 54-0. Saim was caught by James Nesham off the bowling of Ish Sodhi after scoring 32 off 22 balls at 145.45.
Meanwhile, in a 62-run partnership with Irfan Khan, Shadab scored 41 off 20 balls with the help of six boundaries. Irfan scored three fours and a six in his 20-run innings.
