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Former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag believes that Pakistan batter Mohammad Haris might force skipper Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan to bat lower down the order. Pakistan's opening pair of Babar Azam and Md. Rizwan is struggling big time in ongoing T20 World Cup and facing lot of flak from all quarters for their consistent poor performances.
Meanwhile, Haris played a fine knock of 28 runs in just 11 balls with the help of two fours and three sixes after Pakistan opted to bat first in their must-win T20 World Cup game against South Africa. In his latest interaction, Indian cricketer hailed the Pakistan batter for playing a superb knock against South Africa and predicted that Haris might have a bright future.
"The way he batted; his future is bright. He took on South Africa on Australian pitches. He might have scored 28, but they are no less than a 60. He could play slowly and could have scored his own runs, but the way he batted was incredible. If he continues playing like this, he might force Rizwan and Babar to come down the order,” Sehwag was quoted as saying to Cricbuzz.
Notably, Haris has so far scored 469 runs from 24 T20Is at an average of 22.23 and a strike rate of 137.94 with two half-centuries and a top score of an unbeaten 79. Speaking of the match against South Africa, Haris' knock against South Africa rescued Pakistan after early tremors and set the right foundation until Iftikhar Ahmed (51 off 35), Mohammad Nawaz (28 off 22) and Shadab Khan (52 off 22) propelled Pakistan to 185/9 in the 1st innings. Pakistan went on to secure a much-needed 33-run victory (DLS Method) and kept alive their chances of advancing to the semi-final.
Pakistan will be up against Bangladesh on November 6 (Sunday) in their final Super-12 stage match at Sydney Cricket Ground. Men in Green will seek to register a comprehensive win against Bangladesh and will still depend on South Africa vs Netherlands match to secure their qualification chances. However, if South Africa beats Netherlands and India loses to Zimbabwe with the Men in Green taking a comfortable victory over Bangladesh, the Babar Azam-led side can get through to the semi-finals with a better runrate.