Fakhar Zaman aims to make the Pakistan side for the Champions Trophy as he gets set to play his first ODI since ’23.
Fakhar Zaman aims to be a part of the Pakistan squad for the upcoming Champions Trophy. He is “100% certain” he will play for Pakistan again and is gearing up for the 2025 Champions Trophy, which begins on February 19 and will be hosted in Pakistan and Dubai.
“A 100%, I will play for Pakistan (again),” Fakhar, 34, told the Vipers Voices podcast. “Actually, many people do not know about that, but after the T20 World Cup I got sick and because of the medical condition I was not fit, so I was not a part of the team.
“But now I [have] recovered 100%, and you will see me in the next white-ball series which Pakistan play.”
Once a key member of Pakistan’s white-ball team, Fakhar hasn’t participated in international cricket since Pakistan lost in the group stage of the 2024 T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies last June. He hopes to return for the Champions Trophy at home, having last participated in an ODI at the 2023 ODI World Cup.
Fakhar, incidentally, rose to fame in the 2017 Champions Trophy final at The Oval in London after defeating India by 114 to win the trophy.
“My plan has been around the Champions Trophy,” he said. “I did not play in the Australia tour or in the South Africa tour, so my whole plan was just to play in the Champions Trophy, to make myself available and to be fully fit for the tournament.
“That was in the back of my mind, and I am thankful. I’m lucky to be fit right now. I started from the Champions Trophy 2017 and that went really well for me and now I am very excited for the next edition also. I talked to the selectors, the head coach, and everyone wanted me to play in the Champions Trophy.”
The 22-year-old opener Saim Ayub, who has established himself as a consistent player for Pakistan in all forms, received great appreciation from Fakhar. With three hundreds and a fifty in nine innings, including hundreds in Australia and South Africa, Ayub has had an incredible start to his ODI career. However, his Champions Trophy campaign is now in doubt because to an ankle injury he suffered on the first morning of the second Test match against South Africa in Cape Town.
“I hope and I believe that he will recover quickly. I was thinking yesterday to call Saim just to talk to him about this injury,” Fakhar said. “Believe me, he is such a great player that if he continues to play for the next four to five years. He will be at the top and he will be amongst the top three players in the world.”
Fakhar is currently gearing up for his maiden ILT20 stint where he will feature for the 2023 runners-up Desert Vipers. “There are many players who have played for the Desert Vipers. Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Azam Khan and Mohammad Amir. They talk really highly about this team, the environment, the management, the way they play the cricket and the way their mindset is,” Fakhar said. “So when I got the offer, without any discussion with anyone. I said ‘yes, I would love to play for this team.'”