Mohammad Hafeez set to retire from international cricket

By Chris On Jan 3, 2022

News

The 41-year old will continue to be available for franchise cricket

The 41-year-old top-order batter and offspinner, has signed up with Lahore Qalandars for the upcoming edition of the PSL and will continue to be available for franchise cricket around the world.

Hafeez played 55 Tests, 218 ODIs and 119 T20Is while amassing 12,780 runs across formats, and would up his career with 32 Player-of-the-Match awards, the fourth-highest among Pakistan players in all international cricket, with only Shahid Afridi (43), Wasim Akram (39) and Inzamam-ul-Haq (33) above him. In addition to that, Hafeez also earned nine Player-of-the-Series awards, joint-second with Imran Khan, Inzamam and Waqar Younis.

Although both Hafeez and Shoaib Malik, the longest-serving Pakistan cricketer in the current set-up, had initially decided to retire from international cricket upon the conclusion of last year’s T20 World Cup, Hafeez has delayed making the announcement, and is expected to make the news public soon.

While he had initially announced that the 2020 T20 World Cup would be his final assignment for Pakistan, the tournament was pushed to 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and Hafeez ended up extending his time with the Pakistan team as a result.

But after being dropped from the T20I side in 2018, Hafeez was recalled in 2020 for the home series against Bangladesh, and ended the year with a remarkable run; he was the leading run-getter in the format that year, and scored at an average of 83 and a strike rate of 152. He also ended the year as the overall sixth-highest run-scorer across all T20s, with the third-highest average and the third-best strike rate.

He is the only Pakistan player to have played in all but one T20 World Cup – the one Pakistan ended up winning in 2009 – and holds the Pakistan record for most T20 World Cup appearances. Hafeez also led Pakistan to the 2012 World T20 semi-final. He was also the captain when Pakistan crashed out in the group stage in the 2014 edition, the first time until then that they had failed to progress to the semi-finals of the tournament. His overall T20I record as captain stands at 18 wins – one via a one-over eliminator – and 11 losses from 29 matches.

Hafeez also bowled handy offspin for most part of his career, the effectiveness of which started to fade away after he remodelled his action on being reported multiple times.

More to follow…

Umar Farooq is ESPNcricinfo’s Pakistan correspondent

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