Mohammad Hafeez: “Personally, I wanted to give him more matches”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan team director and interim head coach Mohammad Hafeez has confirmed that he had planned to give wicketkeeper-batsman Azam Khan more chances to prove himself.
Azam has featured in 10 T20Is to date, but failed to really impress in any of them as he has been limited to 59 runs at an average of 8.42 and a strike-rate of 134.09.
The 25-year-old has been a solid performer in domestic cricket and earned a recall for the five-match T20I series against New Zealand in January 2024, where he once again fell well short of expectations after making 22 runs in three games at an average of 7.33 and a strike-rate of 115.78.
Despite this, Hafeez wanted to keep backing the big-hitting batsman in order to ensure he was given more than enough opportunities to show what he could do at the international level.
“Personally, I wanted to give him more matches,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Azam was supposed to play in Pakistan’s five-match T20I series against New Zealand in April 2024, but missed out after suffering a grade one tear in his right calf muscle.
He is now taking part in the three-match T20I series against Ireland and has made scores of 0 and 30 not out.
Following this series, Pakistan will play four T20Is against England from May 22 to May 30.
Pakistan Squad for Ireland and England T20I Series: Babar Azam (capt), Abrar Ahmed, Azam Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Khan
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