Babar Azam: “Hafeez and Malik were huge players and we’ll miss them a lot”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Pakistan captain Babar Azam said he is missing the influential duo of Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik.
Hafeez retired from international cricket at the beginning of the year, while Malik is still active on the domestic circuit, but has not played for his country since November 2021.
While the selectors have opted to have younger players replace them, Azam admitted that they were “huge players” who brought a lot of experience and talent to the team.
“Hafeez and Malik were huge players and we’ll miss them a lot,” Azam was quoted as saying by Cricwick.
Azam is now leading Pakistan in the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia.
In the four games he has played, he has mustered 14 runs at an average of 3.50 and a strike-rate of 46.66.
The men in green kept their campaign alive with a 33-run win over South Africa via the D/L method.
They will now take on Bangladesh on Sunday in Adelaide.
Pakistan’s 2022 T20 World Cup squad: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Asif Ali, Mohammad Haris, 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: Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir