Sahibzada Farhan: “I was offered the opportunity to play professional cricket for another country but my belief was to wear the star and represent [the] Pakistan cricket team”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Pakistan batsman Sahibzada Farhan has revealed that he was offered the chance to represent another country, but turned it down.
Farhan, who has become one of the biggest stars in Pakistan’s T20I team, didn’t name the country but stressed that he was always committed to playing for the men in green.
To date, the 30-year-old has featured in 46 T20Is and scored 1,305 runs, which includes two centuries and 10 fifties, at an average of 30.34 and a strike-rate of 136.64.
“I was offered the opportunity to play professional cricket for another country but my belief was to wear the star and represent [the] Pakistan cricket team,” Farhan was quoted as saying by journalist Arfa Feroz Zake on X.
Farhan has yet to make his Test debut and was therefore not picked for Pakistan’s two-Test tour of the West Indies, which ended as a 1-1 draw.
He also isn’t playing in the ongoing three-Test series against England, where the men in green trail 1-0 after losing the 1st Test in Leeds by an innings and 103 runs.
The 2nd Test will get underway on August 27 at Lord’s.
Pakistan Squad for England Test Series: Babar Azam (captain), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Fazal, Ali Usman, Azan Awais, Imam-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Awais Zafar, Ghazi Ghori (wicketkeeper), Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel (subject to fitness), Shan Masood and Ubaid Shah