PAK vs NZ: Babar Azam And Mohammad Rizwan Rightly Are A Number One Combination: Matthew Hayden

Although Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan didn’t quite give the team the encouraging start expected of them, Pakistan coach Matthew Hayden insisted he would play the same opening combination against New Zealand in the ICC T20 World Cup semifinal on Wednesday at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

While Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan are Pakistan’s top opening pair, their lacklustre performance here has led experts to ask the team management to move the captain down the batting order.

Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan Rightly Are A Number One Combination: Matthew Hayden

However, Hayden said Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan are the best candidates to open the innings because of their experience with handling pressure in important matches.

“Babar and Rizwan rightly are a number one combination. If I can take your minds way back to a different World Cup, that was the 2007 World Cup and Adam Gilchrist had a lean World Cup healed of that undefeated campaign for Australia,” said Hayden.

“If you remember that last match against Sri Lanka, he went on to score an incredible hundred and realised his potential in that tournament and awakened the world once again to the fact that he was such a premium batsman in that format of the game.

“It’s always nice to have two players that have felt the pressure, and we all feel the pressure at any given times in our career. No different for the number one combination, no different for the number four ranked T20 player in Babar Azam,” added Hayden.

Hayden, a renowned Australian opener who expressed confidence in the hitting prowess of the two top-order batsmen, remarked “special players don’t often stay down for long”. “And don’t be surprised whatsoever if you don’t see some fireworks because very special players,” he said.

It’s Been A Roller Coaster Ride: Matthew Hayden

In describing his team’s wild ride into the semifinals, Hayden said it was an amazing experience, adding that Pakistan’s match over Bangladesh gave his squad a “uplifting tempo” after South Africa’s shocking loss to the Netherlands right before that match.

“Shadab (Khan) actually said something very significant in the dugout the other day when we were playing our last match (against Bangladesh), and he said, ‘Welcome to Pakistan cricket’. Meaning that on any given day, anything can happen.

And on that particular day, when Netherlands beat South Africa, it was a significant moment for us in the tournament and a very, very significant moment for the team in general around the potential in reaching that potential.

“Lots of prayers as Pakistan woke up to see that result (Netherlands beating South Africa). 232 million people can’t be wrong. And as a result of that, I feel that there was very much an uplifting tempo in our group, which made that match against Bangladesh almost a certainty for Pakistan.

“Incredible experience, as you say rightly, it’s been a roller coaster ride, but a ride that I wouldn’t have it any other way because the last World Cup that we went into were undefeated and Australia pipped us in the semifinal. So, really significant for Pakistan,” he added.

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