Super Over line-up was decided after careful thought: Babar Azam

Limited-overs skipper Babar Azam on Tuesday explained the reason behind sending opener Fakhar Zaman, all-rounder Iftikhar Ahmed and debutant Khushdil Shah to bat in the Super Over of the third and final ODI against Zimbabwe. 

Speaking to media after Pakistan's loss, the 26-year-old said that the team management, "after careful thought", believed it was appropriate to send power-hitters, despite his 125-run knock and bowler Wahab Riaz's half-century. 

The unorthodox decision proved to be wrong as the guests were able to restrict the hosts to merely two runs, eventually winning the match.

"The three players we sent in the Super Over were sent after careful thought. All these players are power-hitters as you have seen in T20s. These players are finishers and that was the plan behind sending them to bat in the Super Over," he said.

"All these players, Fakhar, Khushdil, Iftikhar, are power-hitters and utilize the overs well. We sent in Khushdil and Iftikhar as we wanted a left-right combination - but unfortunately they couldn't finish the job."

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Despite winning the series, Azam said that there were some areas which needed improvement such as fielding and building partnerships in the top order. 

"We have won the series and the performances were good from our guys in the two games. Unfortunately we lost the match today but that is not the problem. We need to learn from our mistakes to see where we are lagging. We need to improve our fielding, catching and on our batting partnerships which didn't happen today, especially in the top order which is what we needed," he said. 

"We had a partnership between Wahab and myself but I am saddened by the fact that I could not finish the game."

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