Fakhar Zaman’s learning curve

As a captain you live and die by the choices you make. Zaman, made two big calls yesterday. One was holding back Shaheen Afridi when he was red hot, the other not bowling his premier spinner Sandeep Lamichhane his full quota of overs. In the event, Misbah ul Haq and Darren Sammy strolled past the low total Lahore posted. It was a lesson for the former Navy man in not letting off the pressure when the heat is on.

Peshawar was 12-4 inside 3 overs. Shaheen Afridi had picked up three wickets as the ball was seaming and swinging. Rahat Ali had the other one. With Pollard on the crease, Shaheen should have bowled another over. It not the 5^th, he could have bowled the 6^th as David Wiese got rid of the big West Indian. The trio of Haris Rauf, David Wiese and Rahat Ali did create problems for the batsmen, but just got 2 wickets between them. Shaheen had 3 wickets of his own. by the time, Shaheen came back in the 17^th over the match has now in favor of Zalmis, the swing and seam had disappeared.

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The case with Sandeep Lamichhane was even more peculiar. The leg spinner has been lethal so far in the tournament dumbfounding a number of players with his guile. Misbah and Sammy played him out in the 1^st over. But in the next over, using all his experience, attacked the Nepalese leggie and took 18 off him. This put Fakhar back into defensive mode. Despite Sammy’s average record against leg spinners, he turned to pace bowlers. It played right into the hand of the Zalmis who ambled home.

PSL is a great platform for youngster to learn. Zaman leading the side would have learned a great deal of captaincy yesterday. Once you have your opponent down, you have to ruthless in execution.