Lahore, Nov 3 (Agency) Wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Haris has been added to Pakistan’s T20 World Cup squad as the replacement for Fakhar Zaman, who has been ruled out of the remainder of the tournament after aggravating a pre-existing knee injury. Haris was already a part of Pakistan’s camp as one the traveling reserves alongside Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir. Zaman had injured his knee during the Asia Cup, and although he showed immense resilience and willpower to recover in time for the tournament. After such a short recovery period, the aggravated injury will prevent him from featuring again Down Under. The left-hander played only one match for Pakistan in this tournament and that was against Netherlands on October 30, where he scored 20 from 16 deliveries.
“We know that Fakhar had a knee injury in Asia Cup about seven weeks ago, he has been incredibly brave, resilient and has worked really hard to come back into the team. He had an extensive rehabilitation and after which he made his way back into the team,” ICC quoted Dr. Najeeb Soomro, Pakistan team’s doctor and PCB’s chief medical officer, as saying. “Obviously with any knee injury, it takes time for it to have 100 percent recovery. Fakhar and the team understood the risks coming into the tournament and we got him into the tournament. You saw how he performed in the last match. Unfortunately, he had a bit of twist which aggravated his injury. We have had scans on him which have shown no new injury. However, he doesn’t feel 100 percent,” he added. The 21-year-old Haris has played only four ODIs and a T20I for Pakistan and he will have the enormous task of filling the boots of Zaman, a player with an experience of 72 T20Is and more than 1000 runs to his name.