Rashid Latif: “Haider Ali was not an ordinary player, there is only one player like that in a year”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif believes big-hitting batsman Haider Ali “was not an ordinary player” and even described him as a once-in-a-year talent.
Latif noted that Haider should have been given the opportunity to make his Test debut in 2020 as he had done well in domestic cricket for a couple of seasons.
The 23-year-old, who was considered to be the next big thing in Pakistan cricket, has represented the men in green in two ODIs and 35 T20Is to date, but lost his spot in the team due to inconsistent performances.
“Haider Ali was not an ordinary player, there is only one player like that in a year, and in 2018, it was Haider Ali. He scored runs with an average of 50+ in his first first-class season, then again scored runs in the second season. Next year, he came to (Peshawar) Zalmi in PSL, he was an amazing player. He should’ve made [his] debut in Test cricket in 2020 when we went to England,” Latif told ProSports as quoted by PakPassion on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Haider was not part of Pakistan’s squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup, where they lost to the United States of America and India before rebounding to beat Canada and Ireland.
Even though they won their last two group stage games, the men in green failed to make it through to the Super Eights.
Pakistan Squad for 2024 T20 World Cup: Babar Azam (capt), Saim Ayub, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Azam Khan (wk), Usman Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Abbas Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed
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