Cricket World Cup: Fakhar Zaman makes powerful comeback to end Pakan’s losing streak and eliminate Bangladesh | Cricket-world-cup News

When the cameras panned to his face after he perished 19 runs short of a century, one could see Fakhar Zaman grit his teeth in anger and look dejectedly at the turf. But once he got through the fleeting pain of missing the three-figure mark, a content smile spread on his face. The left-handed opener soaked in the appreciation directed at him and warmly shook hands with his teammates, who could finally smile, after ending a four-match winless streak.“In normal circumstances I would have gone for the hundred, but here we were looking to win the game in 28-30 overs,” Zaman would later say.
The thumping of Bangladesh could turn out to be inadequate, as Pakan’s fate hinges on the fortunes of other teams. All they could do now is keep accumulating points and improve their net run rate. The chase of 205 was completed in 32.3 overs, enough to put them fifth on the table, though their next two opponents, New Zealand and England, would be more arduous than Bangladesh, who are in dire need of a reset.
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But Pakan would rather be optims and hope they could muster the wins and fate would smile on them. “There are lots of ifs and buts, but we are doing whatever we can from this situation,” Zaman said.
A big reason they could afford to smile was Zaman himself, playing just his second game of the tournament. But he has the habit of popping up whenever his team needs him. Hark back to his hundred in the 2017 Champions Trophy final, the last ICC silverware Pakan has lifted. Or the hundred he compiled against England at the previous World Cup, or the back-to-back centuries in South Africa, or being the only double centurion in this format for his country.
Fakhar of Pakan plays a shot during the Pakan vs Bangladesh ICC world cup match at Eden Garden ,Kolkata on Tuesday, October ,31 ,2023.Express photo Partha Paul.
Yet, Zaman often goes unnoticed and unsung, still the first to fall in a churn, still the first to be overlooked and scapegoated. That his ODI career has not quite soared, that this is only his 80th 50-over international game, that he was shunned despite an average of 44 and having scored a hat-trick of centuries early this year against New Zealand, is a mystery.
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However, rather than wallowing over his non-inclusion, first due to a minor injury and then due to falling form, he sweated it out in the nets. “The more time you spend in a country, the better you get. Though I was not playing, I spent a lot of time batting in the nets and getting used to the conditions,” he said. And when opportunity beckoned, Zaman latched on to it with both hands and made a stirring comeback.
He himself has stopped counting the comebacks he has made in his career. “All I look to do is to make my chance count. I consider myself lucky to have played some games for my country,” he once told The Dawn. He had long burnt his dream of playing cricket when he joined the Navy in 2007as a 17-year-old. But little did he then know that his dream would only get closer. A chance meeting with Nazim Khan, the coach of Pakan Naval Cricket Academy, would change his life forever.
Hard work brings rewards
To get the nod of his superiors was not easy — and a complicated clause was inserted in Zaman’s contract that he would be retired as a sailor if he failed in cricket. He nursed little confusion, and put in the hard yards in the nets. He would linger on after practice, honing the shots he wanted to play. “My best friend was the bowling machine. I would face balls upto 95 miles an hour,” he once said. “It’s the only way I can develop because I am not very gifted.”
Zaman is in the Aamir Sohail-Ijaz Ahmed belligerent mould rather than the graceful block of Saeed Anwar and Babar Azam. But it is his power and personality that Pakan had missed in their winless run. Invariably, it was he who injected the impetus at the start, thus setting the chase rolling against Bangladesh. He took on the aggressor’s role. “I was talking to (opening partner) Abdullah (Shafique) that I’ll see off the first four overs and then hit sixes regardless of how the pitch will play because I know I can and I know my role,” he said.Most Read
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His start was sedate, as is his wont. The first 10 balls yielded only three runs. But Zaman didn’t panic; instead swung Taskin Ahmed for a massive six over square-leg that shut out the noise among the Bangladesh supporters. The stroke typified Zaman, all power and calculated aggression. His strokes are hit with such power that they fly flat off the blade. Whereas Shafique waited for the loose balls, Zaman fetched boundaries off good balls too. He premeditates but often achieves the desired results.

Fakhar Zaman slammed a quickfire 81 on his comeback to win the @aramco #POTM 🎉#CWC23 | #PAKvAFG pic.twitter.com/OK9HjflMI0
— ICC (@ICC) October 31, 2023
The arrival of spinners lit up his eyes, and in the wink of an eyelid, he was slog-sweeping and shimmying down the track to them. Off-spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz once beat him in the air, but Zaman still creamed him over mid-wicket in a display of pure power. Shoriful Islam bore the brunt of his fury — he scythed the left-armer through cover before in a rare act of sophry, he upper-cut him. With Bangladesh pacers unable to generate good pace, their spinners struggling for turn, Zaman ran amok. He would end the night with seven sixes.
In just this game, he has hit more sixes (7) than Babar Azam, Mohammed Rizwan, Saud Shakeel and Imam-ul-Haq (who incidentally has not hit one yet) combined. His preference for the legside is evident — 56 came through this area, of which 45 came in the arc between long-on and deep square-leg. The slog was his most profitable six-giving shot (three out of seven).
It’s his power-game that had made several former players wonder about his non-inclusion. Ravi Shastri would say on air: “It is surprising that Fakhar Zaman did not play in all the games. He is a match-winner and has a double-century in One-Day Internationals. Zaman can demoralise the rival team with his batting.” He did demoralise Bangladesh and reinforced his own virtues. Though he missed out on a hundred, he did put a smile on the face of his teammates.