Fakhar Zaman shows sportsmanship, helps ground staff during rain

• Pakistan and India faced off in a crucial Super Four match at the Asia Cup 2023.
• Rain interrupted the game when India was at 147-2 in 24.1 overs.
• Pakistan’s Fakhar Zaman joined the ground staff in covering the wicket and outfield to minimize the rain’s impact.

In the ongoing Asia Cup 2023, Pakistan faced India in a crucial Super Four encounter at Colombo’s R.Premadasa Stadium on Sunday. Unfortunately, rain interrupted the game when India was at 147-2 in 24.1 overs.

What stood out during this rain delay was the extraordinary effort made by Pakistan’s Fakhar Zaman. Instead of just watching, Zaman joined the ground staff in covering the wicket and outfield to minimize the rain’s impact. His sportsmanship and dedication to the game were widely praised on social media, particularly on X (formerly Twitter).

Earlier in the day, India got off to a flying start, thanks to the aggressive century partnership between Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma. They unleashed boundaries all around the stadium, determined to avoid a repeat of their previous encounter with Pakistan in the group stage.

Sharma was dismissed for a commendable 56 off 49 balls by Shadab Khan, while Gill fell victim to Shaheen Afridi after scoring a brisk 58 off 52, including ten boundaries. As rain halted play, Virat Kohli (8*) and KL Rahul (17*) were set to resume India’s innings when conditions improved.

In the pre-game proceedings, Pakistan won the toss and opted to field, sticking with an unchanged playing XI. Meanwhile, India made two changes, one of which was forced as Shreyas Iyer suffered a back spasm just moments before the toss, leading to his replacement by KL Rahul. Jasprit Bumrah also replaced Mohammad Shami in India’s lineup.

Lineups:

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

Pakistan: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf

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