“It takes time to form an opening pair”: Ramiz Raja slams disbanding Babar-Rizwan duo

Islamabad [Pakistan], January 18 (ANI): Slamming the move of breaking the worldwide famous opening pair of Babar Azam and Mohammed Rizwan following the team’s loss in the T20I series against New Zealand, Former Pakistan cricketer and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Ramiz Raja asked the selectors what benefit they gained out of it.

In the ongoing T20I series against Kiwis, Pakistan are trailing 3-0, with two games to go. In the series, Pakistan has been opening with new openers, Saim Ayub and Mohammed Rizwan, who have underperformed as a pair in this series so far.

On his Youtube Channel, Raja voiced out, “So much pressure was created to break the opening pair of Babar and Rizwan. After breaking the opening partnership, which was evaluated based on the strike rate. When you bring in new players, they may perform well in leagues, but international cricket is a different beast where there is pressure, and the focus of the entire world is on you. You broke the opening pair that was famous worldwide.”

“Either you have a workshop of trained openers behind you who are gradually being introduced, when you have no other options. It takes time to form an opening pair. It is not an easy task. So, if you have a pair, and they consistently kept you in the field during matches, what benefit did you get after breaking it?,” he added.

He also said that he backs every skipper, including the current T20I skipper Shaheen Shah Afridi.

“The accusation made against me was that I backed Babar Azam. I support every captain because their role is to lead not just on the field during the game, but also extends to off the field as well,” stated Raja.

Rizwan and Babar have the highest runs as a pair in T20I history, scoring 2,779 runs at an average of 48.75, with nine centuries and 11 fifty-run stands.

The fourth T20I between both the sides will take place on Friday at Christchurch.