KARACHI : Shoaib Akhtar put weight on Sharjeel Khan-Fakhar Zaman as openers in the next T20I against South Africa.

Speaking on his Youtube channel, Akhtar praised Mohammad Rizwan’s performance but expressed his wish to include Sharjeel as an opener with Fakhar in T20Is.

“Fakhar and Sharjeel together can destroy the opponent. Pakistan needs to think about playing ruthless cricket. Today’s cricket is not about 170 or 180s, you have to play for 200+ runs,” he said.

“Pakistan won but not convincingly, the team’s selection needs to get better. They could have beaten them one-sided,” he added.

Akhtar suggested batting order for the team. “For me, Fakhar and Sharjeel should open followed by Babar Azam on one down. Then, Hafeez followed by Rizwan and Haider. I also missed Asif Ali today as he could have been handy for the team as T20I cricket is all about power-hitting and he is good at it,” he shared.