Pakistan big-hitter Mohammad Hafeez: “I started practicing power-hitting a lot. And, it has helped me a lot to improve my performance”
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
Pakistan big-hitter Mohammad Hafeez said his power-hitting skills come from a lot of practice.
Hafeez said he looked at how the West Indian players were able to hit the ball hard and long, and noticed that it stemmed from practice rather than their muscles.
The 40-year-old ended 2020 as the highest run-scorer in T20 Internationals with 415 runs in 10 games, which includes four fifties, at an average of 83 and a strike-rate of 152.57.
Most recently, Hafeez was the sixth-highest run-scorer in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) with 181 runs in four matches for the Lahore Qalandars, which included two fifties, at an average of 90.50 and a strike-rate of 175.72.
“I have been asked a lot about my power-hitting and people said it came from playing golf but I think golf was not the only thing I did to make myself strong in power-hitting,” he told ARY News show Sports Room.
“After World Cup 2019, I decided to play different leagues around the world. When I went to play Caribbean Premier League, I tried watching some of the West Indian players while practicing hard-hitting. From there, I realised that they were not good at it due to their muscles but their sheer practice for it.
“I started practicing power-hitting a lot. And, it has helped me a lot to improve my performance.”
Hafeez has been included in Pakistan’s T20 squad for the upcoming tour of South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Pakistan will play three ODIs and four T20 Internationals against South Africa before heading to Zimbabwe for two Tests and three T20 Internationals.
Pakistan will depart for South Africa on March 26 and the tour will commence on April 2 and conclude on April 16. The ODI series will be played first.
The men in green will then head to Zimbabwe on April 17, but the dates for the matches have yet to be confirmed.
However, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) noted that the national team will travel back to Lahore from Bulawayo on May 12.
Pakistan’s T20 Squad: Babar Azam (capt), Shadab Khan, Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Haider Ali, Danish Aziz, Asif Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Usman Qadir, Hasan Ali, Arshad Iqbal.