Will Young: “I think the game is never over when Iftikhar is at the crease”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Will Young, the New Zealand batsman, said no opposing team should consider the game to be over when Pakistan powerhouse Iftikhar Ahmed is still at the crease.
Young knows just how much of a destructive force the 32-year-old is as he witnessed it firsthand when Pakistan played New Zealand earlier in 2023.
Iftikhar walloped 129 runs in the five-match T20I series, which included a top score of 60, at an average of 43 and a strike-rate of 195.45.
The Peshawar-born batsman then hammered 122 runs in two ODIs, which included a top score of 94 not out, at an average of 122 and a strike-rate of 129.78.
“I think the game is never over when Iftikhar is at the crease,” Young was quoted as saying by A Sports.
Having not been selected for the two-Test series against Sri Lanka, which Pakistan won 2-0, Iftikhar continued his dominant run in the Global T20 Canada, where he smashed 183 runs in eight games for the Surrey Jaguars at an average of 45.75 and a strike-rate of 105.17.
He followed that up with 25 runs in four matches for the Colombo Strikers in the Lanka Premier League (LPL) at an average of 6.25 and a strike-rate of 53.19.
Most recently, he was back representing Pakistan and featured in the three-match ODI series against Afghanistan, in which he scored 47 runs in two games at an average of 23.50 and a strike-rate of 72.30.
Pakistan’s next assignment will be the Asia Cup, which will be jointly hosted by Pakistan and Sri Lanka from August 30 to September 17.
Pakistan Squad for 2023 Asia Cup: Babar Azam (capt), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Saud Shakeel (Afghanistan series only), Salman Ali Agha, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Tayyab Tahir, Mohammad Haris (wk), Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Wasim Jnr