Pakistan will be up against Zimbabwe in the first match of the T20I tri-series. This article provides details about Pakistan’s Playing 11 vs Zimbabwe for the first match of the series.
Pakistan Playing XI vs Zimbabwe- Pakistan T20I Tri Series 2025, Match 1:
Openers: Fakhar Zaman, Saim Ayub
Pakistan would want to continue the winning run they are on in the ongoing home season, with series wins against South Africa and Sri Lanka, respectively, in the white ball format of the game.
For that to happen, the Men in Green would eye a winning start to the tri series involving Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka when they take on Zimbabwe in the opening match by making full use of the home conditions.
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One of the major concerns that the Salman Ali Agha-led side will have to address is the batting of various players, especially the openers.
Fakhar Zaman, who wasn’t a part of the team’s last T20I assignment against South Africa, is back in the squad for this particular series and, in all likelihood, will open the innings.
The Pakistani management will have their task cut out in deciding who opens the batting along with Fakhar between Saim Ayub and Sahibzada Farhan.
Having said that, there might be a scenario where both of them play because of the skills they provide in addition to their batting.
While Saim Ayub has developed himself into a proper all-rounder, Sahibzada Farhan can keep wickets. In such a case, Saim might open the batting with Sahibzada batting in the middle order.
Middle-order batsmen and all-rounders: Babar Azam, Sahibzada Farhan (wk), Salman Ali Agha (c), Usman Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf
As far as Pakistan’s middle order is concerned, it looks quite settled with former captain Babar Azam, who played a match-winning knock in the series decider against South Africa, batting at number three.
Babar will be followed by the present T20I captain, Salman Ali Agha, who is coming into the series on the back of a century against Sri Lanka, and would like to make full use of the good form that he is in.
The duo will be assisted by another wicketkeeper batter, Usman Khan, and a couple of all-rounders in the form of Faheem Ashraf and Mohammad Nawaz.
The presence of Faheem and Ashraf extends the batting till number eight, which gives the license to the top five batters to play with freedom, with ODI captain Shaheen Afridi, who is also capable of clearing the boundary, coming in to bat at number nine.
Bowlers: Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Usman Tariq
The former T20 World Cup winners would bank on their bowlers to have a good outing, considering the fact that the conditions are not expected to be conducive for bowling, especially for the spinners, with dew playing a major role.
The bowling combination might comprise a couple of all-rounders and three specialist fast bowlers.
The fast bowling department will be handled by Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, and Faheem Ashraf, while the spin bowling arsenal will consist of Mohammad Nawaz and Usman Tariq, with assistance from Salman Ali Agha and Saim Ayub.
