Ian Bishop advocates for two young batters to open for Pakistan in T20 cricket
Babar and Rizwan are the team’s current T20I openers
Renowned commentator Ian Bishop urged Pakistan to change their opening batters from the experienced Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam to someone like Saim Ayub and Mohammad Haris in the team’s future endeavours.
Pakistan has had Rizwan and Babar as the opening pair of the batting line-up for quite some time but, recently, Saim was brought in and opened with Rizwan in T20I matches.
Saim was also removed as the opener due to inconsistent performances with just 229 runs in 15 innings leading the management to decide to have Babar and Rizwan open in the recent four-match T20I series against England. The team also lost the series by 2-0 with two games being washed out due to rain.
Despite Saim’s lack of consistency and form, Ian Bishop believes that Saim and Haris can be potential openers for the road ahead.
"If you're asking me what I want versus what will happen to Pakistan, I will tell you that I need and hope that down the road, I don't know if it's immediate but down the road guys like Saim Ayub, I know Mohammad Harris is not in the reckoning right now, but he's another young man. They've left back at home that I think until for T20 cricket. But these guys are still very young and living the way," Bishop said talking to Star Sports.
Bishop also explained why it is important for Babar and Rizwan to be replaced with younger players, "So, the experience of Babar and Riwan, they probably will go back there. But again, that's a template that needs to change with those two players who I think from what we've seen T20 cricket going to even in a World Cup of challenging pitches, they need to shift another gear up in the way they approach their batting," Bishop added.
Pakistan will play their first T20 World Cup 2024 match against the first-timer hosts USA on June 6 at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Texas. Their next match is against India on June 9, after that they will play against Canada and Ireland on June 11 and June 16 respectively.
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