Fakhar Zaman terms PSL a 'game changer'
July 09, 2018
KARACHI: Last year he was no way near Pakistan cricket, now Fakhar Zaman has become an integral part of the team, single-handedly winning games for the green shirts.
The 28-year-old batsman who came into the limelight during the second edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), termed the tournament as a "game changer" for him.
Speaking exclusively to Geo.tv, Fakhar said PSL played an important part in growing him as a player.
“Before playing for Pakistan, PSL is a great platform for youngsters to come and enhance their skills. They share the dressing room with top players and play against them as well," the batsman said.
"The coaching and competition standard in PSL is very high and it changes your game rapidly,” the flamboyant batsman added.
However, PSL cannot be credited as the sole reason in making Fakhar into a match-winning player.
“Learning from failure and working hard are important factors for me,” he said, adding that he received help and guidance from senior player Shoaib Malik.
“Every time I made a mistake, Shoaib bhai and other senior players helped me to improve and overcome it," the batsman said.
"The key is hard work and practice," he added.
The batsman who scored a match-winning 91 to help Pakistan complete a record chase win against Australia in the final of tri-series T20I in Zimbabwe, added that he did not regret missing out on the century in the final as he was looking to finish the match early.
“Cricket is a game in which one becomes thankless. If you score 200, you will feel, you should have scored 250 but I don’t have such regrets,” he said.
“I wanted to finish the game in 18 overs and I know I could have scored the century but I wanted to finish the game early. I am happy that we won the final of the tournament,” he added.
The batsman also revealed that his approach in big matches such as tournament finals are a bit different than regular games.
“I usually play aggressively from the beginning in regular matches, but in games like tournament final, I try to spend time on the wicket and get settled down before showing my natural game,” he said.
Fakhar who achieved the feat of completing 500 runs in the calendar year during his innings of 91 in the final said he isn't eying to break any records and is instead focused on scoring more runs for the team.
“T20 is such a difficult format that you can’t make big claims of doing this or doing that,” Fakhar said.
“I just want to score in every game I play and help the team to win matches. If I keep on doing this, then all records will be made automatically,” he added.
