Mohammad Hafeez is no longer a good all-rounder. His bowling is no longer beneficial for the team, while his bat has seldom him make respectable scores. To cap it all up, his fielding no longer shows a youth’s energy — he has turned 38 now.
If all which is stated is fact, then why did chief selector Inzamal ul Haq opted for him in the first place? Why didn’t our coach Mickey Arthur and captain Sarfaraz Ahmed object to his selection?
They should give an explanation for such questions. If the selection was made after all due attention, then we do not expect to see the insulting treatment administered to a senior player like Hafeez.A player who has played 50 Tests, 200 ODIs and 83 T20Is, and a player who has led the team as a captain for a long period of time deserved much better than what he is being subjected to in Zimbabwe.
He has been virtually kept out of the ground since Arthur prefers young cricketers.
On the other side, Shoaib Malik has already announced that he would retire from ODI cricket after the 2019 World Cup.He is, after all, a man who goes with the flow.
Similarly, Hafeez is also being subjected to an atmosphere of distrust by the board which may force him to announce his retirement as soon as he returns from the tour.
A player who had been representing the country in international cricket for the past 15 years should have been given at least five matches to establish his place in the team. Had he not performed throughout the series, he would have been left with no choice but to consider stepping down.
However, the board chose to drop him from the ODI series after his poor performance in the earlier T20I Tri-Series.
Throughout the past few years, Hafeez has undergone a disturbing, military-level, scrutiny of his bowling action. After finally getting the clearance, he was allowed to join the team only to see that the management had a different plan for him.
Hafeez did get a couple of chances to prove his mettle in T20Is. However, his performances were not up to the mark as he was disappointingly knocked out for just seven as the opener in the first T20I.
During the same match, he, however, managed to bag two wickets within just five balls while given the tail-end balling spell of the match.
We also saw that the whole batting line-up of Pakistan was unsuccessful against Australia.
However, it was only Hafeez that had to be dropped. He was not even allowed to ball in the first match. In the matches that proceeded, we saw that a junior like Haris Sohail was made as the opener, while Hafeez remained out of the squad.
