Fakhar could make comeback for tour of South Africa

Pakistan's big-hitting batter Fakhar Zaman, who was recently ignored for Australia and Zimbabwe tours, is working hard on his fitness at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Lahore.

“Yes, Fakhar is working on his fitness at the NCA in Lahore and hopefully will be part of the Pakistan squad for the South Africa tour,” a source very close to Fakhar told Nukta.

“He has started his rehab after his previous fitness test. He has been staying in Lahore at the behest of the Pakistan Cricket Board,” the source added.

Fakhar is a destructive batter and has been playing a pivotal role in Pakistan’s white-ball cricket for a long time.

Zaman made the headlines with a recent post on X, formerly Twitter, reacting to Pakistan's decision to rest former captain Babar Azam for the remaining two Tests against England. The move came after Pakistan suffered a crushing innings-and-47-run defeat to England in the first Test at Multan earlier this month.

Babar was rested by the newly-appointed selection committee which is basically being anchored by former medium pacer Aqib Javed. The new selection committee not only dropped Babar but also rested pace-duo of Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah and went on to prepare spin tracks for the remaining two Tests which Pakistan won convincingly to wrap-up the series 2-1 thanks to brilliance from spin duo of Sajid Khan and Noman Ali who mostly got the wickets.

The PCB also served Fakhar with show cause notice for his tweet and the batter has already replied to the authorities regarding his post in which he had backed Babar, who is going through a lean patch.

The PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi, while announcing the appointment of new captain Mohammad Rizwan and vice-captain Salman Ali Agha at the press conference at Lahore, had said that Fakhar was mainly ignored for Australia and Zimbabwe tours due to his fitness issues. However, he was quick to add that nobody would be given such freedom to criticize decisions of the selection committee while referring to Fakhar’s social media post.

Just days after this Fakhar severed ties with his agent Saya Corporation. The ties were severed on the advice of Fakhar’s brother.

Fakhar’s brother, according to sources, believed that his agent should have been careful about issuing such a post despite knowing that it could invite the PCB’s wrath.

These issues put Fakhar in deep trouble as he was also excluded from the central contract. But it cost Pakistan a lot as Green Shirts were deprived of such a fine batter who could have left a big impact on the Australia tour.

Pakistan, the other day, failed to grab the opportunity to defeat Australia on their home soil as the hosts were able to prevail with a hard-earned two-wicket win in the first ODI of the three-match series in Melbourne thanks to skipper Pat Cummins’ fine unbeaten 32 at a stage when his side was on the brink of defeat.

However, there are chances that after Fakhar will regain fitness after which he will be drafted into the squad which will tour South Africa in December.

On the tour, Pakistan will play three ODIs, the same number of T20I and two Tests.

The next few months white-ball cricket is too important for Pakistan to settle a solid combination for the ICC Champions Trophy which Pakistan will host from February 19 to March 9.