Pakistan will also respond Zimbabwe The first match of the T20I tri-series. This article details the first match of the series, Pakistan’s Playing XI vs. Zimbabwe.
Pakistan Playing XI vs Zimbabwe – Pakistan T20I Tri Series 2025, Match 1:
Opening match: Fakhar Zaman, Saim Ayub
Pakistan will be hoping to continue their winning streak in the ongoing home season with series wins over South Africa and Sri Lanka respectively in white-ball format matches.
To that end, the Men in Green will be looking to make the most of their home conditions and get off to a winning start by facing Zimbabwe in the opening game of the Zimbabwe-Sri Lanka tri-series.
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One of the big concerns that Salman Ali Agha’s team has to deal with is the batting of various players, especially the opening pitcher.
Fakhar Zaman, who did not take part in the team’s previous T20I assignment against South Africa, is back in the squad for this special series and will likely open the innings.
The Pakistan management will have the task of deciding between Saim Ayub and Sahibzada Farhan who will bat first alongside Fakhar.
However, in addition to batting, he also has skill, so there may be a scenario where both players play together.
While Saim Ayub has developed into a proper all-rounder, Sahibzada Farhan can keep wickets. In that case, Saim may lead the batting line-up with Sahibzada as a middle-order batsman.
Middle-order batsmen and all-rounders: Babar Azam, Sahibzada Farhan (wk), Salman Ali Agha (c), Usman Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf
As far as Pakistan’s middle-order batsmen are concerned, former captain Babar Azam, who played the winning knock in the series decider against South Africa, will be the No. 3 batsman and appears to be quite established.
Babar will be followed by current T20I captain Salman Ali Agha. He will be playing his first series in 100 years against Sri Lanka and will be looking to make the most of his good form.
The duo will be supported by another wicketkeeper-batsman, Usman Khan, and two all-rounders, Faheem Ashraf and Mohammad Nawaz.
The presence of Faheem and Ashraf extends the batting order to number eight, giving license to the top five batsmen to play freely, with ODI captain Shaheen Afridi, who also has the ability to clear boundaries, coming into bat at number nine.
Bowlers: Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Usman Tariq
The former T20 World Cup winners will be hoping their bowlers can put up a good game, given that the dew will be a big factor and conditions are expected to be unsuitable for bowling, especially for spinners.
The bowling combination may consist of two all-rounders and three specialist fast bowlers.
The fast bowling department will be handled by Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Faheem Ashraf, while the spin bowling department will be handled by Mohammad Nawaz and Usman Tariq with assistance from Salman Ali Agha and Saim Ayub.