Pakistan opening batter Fakhar Zaman suffered a knee injury while fielding in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 opener against New Zealand at the National Stadium on Wednesday. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) confirmed that Zaman is being assessed for a muscular sprain.
"Fakhar Zaman is being assessed and examined for a muscular sprain and further updates will be provided in due course," PCB said in a statement as quoted by IANS.
The injury occurred on the second ball of the match when Zaman chased a shot from Will Young towards extra cover. He appeared to hurt his knee or side while sprinting and was seen in discomfort near the sidelines before leaving the field. Kamran Ghulam replaced him for the rest of the game.
Zaman had recently returned to the ODI setup as a replacement for the injured Saim Ayub, who was ruled out of the tournament due to an ankle fracture.
Pakistan, the defending champions, won the toss and opted to bowl first in the match. "We will bowl first. Seen the last couple of matches dew comes in later, so want to maximise on that. We are the defending champions so will be in a bit more pressure, but we will treat it like the previous tri-series. Playing in Pakistan will be great as well. Haris Rauf is fit again so he's back in," Rizwan said.
Pakistan playing XI: Zaman, Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan (c/wk), Salman Agha, Tayyab Tahir, Khushdil Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, and Abrar Ahmed.