Mohammad Hafeez: “He wasn’t even in the team management’s plans for ODIs two months ago. I have spent time with him in the dressing room and I know the passion he has for the game and how he wants to prove people wrong”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez has revealed that middle order batsman Saud Shakeel wasn’t even in the “team management’s plans” for the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup two months before the tournament started.
Shakeel had been doing well in Test cricket in the lead-up to the World Cup and was subsequently given an opportunity to prove his worth.
Hafeez noted that he has spoken to the 28-year-old and knows how fired up he is to “prove people wrong” and show that he belongs in the ODI team going forward.
“He wasn’t even in the team management’s plans for ODIs two months ago. I have spent time with him in the dressing room and I know the passion he has for the game and how he wants to prove people wrong,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
In the World Cup, Shakeel has scored 212 runs in eight matches, which includes two fifties, at an average of 35.33.
Pakistan triumphed in their first two games against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before falling to India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
They stopped their four-game skid and kept their semi-final hopes alive with victories over Bangladesh and New Zealand.
Pakistan will now take on England on November 11 in Kolkata.
Pakistan Squad for 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan, Usama Mir, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Hasan Ali