Mohammad Hafeez: “On one of the balls, he just opened his legs wide and slogged the ball for a six on the leg side. I was like, how could an opener play like this?”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez has voiced his anger towards batsman Haider Ali for slogging the ball.
Having been included in Pakistan’s squad for the ongoing T20 World Cup, the 22-year-old was expected to come in and inflict some damage as a middle order batsman.
However, he has fallen well short of the mark as he made two runs in the four-wicket loss to India and was dismissed for a golden duck in the team’s shocking one-run loss to Zimbabwe.
Hafeez recalled when the team were in New Zealand and Haider “slogged the ball for a six on the leg side”.
Since Haider was opening the batting, Hafeez was disappointed that he would play such rash shots instead of trying to get his eye in and play proper strokes.
“We were in New Zealand, and Haider was promoted as an opener in that series,” Hafeez was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
“On one of the balls, he just opened his legs wide and slogged the ball for a six on the leg side. I was like, how could an opener play like this?”
Pakistan remain winless in the T20 World Cup and will be aiming to keep their campaign alive when they take on the Netherlands on Sunday in Perth.
Pakistan’s 2022 T20 World Cup squad: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan Masood
Reserves: Mohammad Haris, Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir