PAK vs NED: Really Nice To Give Abdullah Shafique More Opportunities As Opener - Grant Bradburn

Pakistan head coach Grant Bradburn has said that it is really nice to give more opportunities to Abdullah Shafique as an opener. Abdullah Shafique opened the innings for Pakistan in the warm-up match against New Zealand.

Abdullah Shafique could only score 14 runs in the match. Notably, Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq are the current openers for Pakistan in ODIs. However, while Imam-ul-Haq has scored a few good knocks in recent times, Zaman has failed to come up with good knocks in the last two months. He also struggled to score runs in the Asia Cup 2023 last month.

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Really Nice To Giving More Opportunities to Abdullah Shafique: Grant Bradburn

During an interview with Cricbuzz, Pakistan head coach Grant Bradburn was asked whether Pakistan has backup plans for partners for opener Imam-ul-Haq and Shaheen Afridi in the ICC World Cup 2023.

Pakistan pacer Naseem Shah has been ruled out of ICC World Cup 2023. He used to open the pace attack with Shaheen Afridi for Pakistan. Responding to the question, Grant Bradburn said that Abdullah Shafique can be a probable opener in future. He also said that the team needs to develop contenders for the new ball.

“We certainly have clarity in our minds but we want to keep building contenders for those positions. As we saw with Naseem [Shah], anything can happen. With bowlers, we are keen to develop new-ball options, and with our openers it’s really nice to be giving Abdullah [Shafique] some more opportunity”.

“We feel he’s a fantastic player who could easily become an all-format player for us in the near future. He’s young in his career but he’s a wonderful player”, Grant Bradburn said.

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Grant Bradburn, who is also a former New Zealand player, noted that the Pakistan team needs their top four to play well in the ICC World Cup 2023.

“It is good to have some contenders for those positions but we’re clear on what we want from our powerplay, and we haven’t been getting that necessarily. But we’re also well aware of what we need from our top four to go through in our innings. We will rebuild that in good time”, Grant Bradburn further said.

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Notably, Pakistan openers Imam-ul-Haq and Fakhar Zaman have struggled to provide a good start to the team in recent times. Pakistan openers failed in both the recent warm-up matches against New Zealand and Australia. Pakistan also lost both games. The men-in-green will face the Netherlands in their opening game of ICC World Cup 2023 on October 6.