Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan to continue as openers as Pakistan announce XI for 2nd SA T20I

On Friday, December 13, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced the playing XI for the second T20I of the three-match series against the South Africa National Cricket Team.

The second T20I between Pakistan and South Africa is all set to be played at the SuperSport Park in Centurion on Friday.

Also Read: Marnus Labuschagne launches brutal attack on David Warner for criticizing him following Adelaide heroics

Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan to continue to open in T20I

The skipper Mohammad Rizwan will continue as an opener along with the former captain Babar Azam despite the underwhelming performances of the duo in the format for a very long period of time.

In the first match in Durban, Babar bagged a 4-ball duck while Mohammad Rizwan hit an awful half-century. His fifty was bashed by many as it came off 50 balls.

Rizwan played a lot of dot balls and just couldn't get going during the run-chase of 184. He finished his innings with a score of 74 runs off 62 balls.

Following Rizwan and Babar Azam in the batting order will be explosive batter Saim Ayub who will bat at No.3. Usman Khan, Tayyab Tahir, and Irfan Khan will be handling the duties in the middle order.

Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, and Abbas Afridi will be the three front-line seamers along with Abrar Ahmed as the sole spin-bowling option. Notably, Jahandad Khan has replaced Sufiyan Muqim in the playing XI for the second match.

Pakistan (Playing XI): Mohammad Rizwan(w/c), Babar Azam, Saim Ayub, Usman Khan, Tayyab Tahir, Irfan Khan, Abbas Afridi, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Jahandad Khan, Abrar Ahmed

One change to Pakistan's playing XI for the second T20I today 🏏#SAvPAK | #BackTheBoysInGreen pic.twitter.com/kKEuCE2DfW

— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) December 13, 2024

There are a lot of positives - Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan

Speaking after the 11-run defeat of the Pakistan National Cricket Team in the first match, the skipper Mohammad Rizwan had stated that they will take a lot of positives from the game and look to improve in the next match. He said:

"Lot of positives. The innings from Miller and Linde took the momentum away from us. The counterattack from Miller took the momentum as we had started well by picking early wickets.

"The spinners bowled very well, they used the pitch and conditions well. There are a lot of positives and hopefully we do well in the next match."

Close but not good enough - Ahmed Shehzad

The out-of-favour Pakistan National Cricket Team batter Ahmed Shehzad was quite disappointed after his team lost the first T20I against the Proteas.

He said that the Pakistan cricket team haven't been able to learn from past mistakes and the intent with the bat has been very poor. He had written on X:

"Close but not good enough. Pakistan cricket team not learning from thre past mistakes. Firstly letting South Africa to 180+from where they were in the game was unbelievable & then how we went to chase about this target was bizarre from beginning.

"Too many dot balls & lack of intent in the chase cost us what could have been a victory for Pakistan. Seniors should be leading from the front, not hiding behind youngsters. Saim,Shaheen & Abrar were the positives."

Close but not good enough👎
Pakistan cricket team not learning from thre past mistakes.
Firstly letting South Africa to 180+from where they were in the game was unbelievable & then how we went to chase about this target was bizarre from beginning.
Too many dot balls & lack of…

— Ahmad Shahzad 🇵🇰 (@iamAhmadshahzad) December 10, 2024