Sarfraz says Fakhar Zaman's ‘presence scares’ the bowlers

Pakistan cricket captain has stressed on his batting line to put runs on the board, especially emphasizing on the role of Fakhar Zaman, as Pakistan it aims to beat South Africa in the upcoming One Day Internationals (ODIs).

Talking about the role of opening batsman Fakhar Zaman, the captain said that they expect the aggressive batsman to play his ‘natural game’ citing the examples of Australian and Indian opening batsmen.

"Fakhar Zaman is a very important player for us and his target is to play his natural game," Sarfraz commented, "which is quite similar to how David Warner plays or how Virender Sehwag or Shahid Afridi played in the past. I have told him that he needs to stay at the wicket more because his presence scares the bowlers."

After suffering a 3-0 bashing at the hand of Proteas in the recently concluded Test series, skipper Sarfraz is eager to prove that they are a much better limited overs side.

"It is necessary to get runs while batting in the first innings. If a touring team is able to do that, they win matches," Sarfraz said, while talking to media. "Four of our five matches are day/night encounters. The teams prefer to bat first here, like India did [last year], as, it gets difficult to bat under lights," he added.

Talking about arch rivals India and their recent feats, captain Sarfraz said that the neighboring is a much senior side. “I think the Indian team is much senior than ours, featuring the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shekhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni, but we also have a couple of senior players as well,” said Sarfraz.

Pakistan and South Africa are set to collide in a five-match one-day international series, the first of which will be played in Port Elizabeth on Saturday (today), 19 January.