Pakistan have been dealt a major blow as their star pace bowler Naseem Shah has been ruled out of the Asia Cup 2023 due to shoulder injury. They are in a do-or-die situation with a knockout match against Sri Lanka that will take place at R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on 14th September 2023.
Babar Azam and Co suffered a huge dent in their net run rate after 228 runs loss to arch-rivals India in their first Super 4 game that went into the reserve day. Naseem Shah looked threatening in the match against India with a new ball troubling Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill. He went wicketless and was hammered by KL Rahul and Virat Kohli in the death overs.
Naseem Shah went off the field due to an injury while Haris Rauf did not bowl due to some injury issue. They did not come to bat with Pakistan being bundled out for 128. If the match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka gets washed out then Sri Lanka would qualify for the finals due to a better net run rate than Pakistan.
This is a massive blow for Pakistan as the pace trio of Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, and Shaheen Shah Afridi created havoc in the Asia Cup 2023 tournament so far. Pakistan has included Zaman Khan as a replacement for Naseem Shah and will be interesting to see if he will be included in the playing XI for tomorrow’s match against Sri Lanka.
Zaman Khan has not featured in any One-day internationals for Pakistan. He took part in the recently concluded Hundred Men’s tournament and did a decent job for Manchester Originals as they finished runners-up.
Naseem Shah’s performance in Asia Cup 2023
Naseem Shah performed brilliantly in the 2023 Asia Cup tournament. He played a total of 4 matches including one against Nepal and one against India in the league stage. His performance continued with a superb bowling effort against Bangladesh in the first Super 4 match.
Despite not picking any wickets in the match against India, Naseem Shah bowled his hearts being unlucky. He grabbed a total of 7 wickets from 4 matches ( 4 innings) at an economy of 4.85 runs per over with best figures of 3 for 34 against Bangladesh.
It will be a huge blow for Pakistan as they need to register an outright victory over Sri Lanka to stay alive in the tournament.
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