Mohammad Hafeez delivered a big surprise on Tuesday as the 37-year-old announced his retirement from Test cricket. The experienced player had made his comeback to Test side after a period of two years – for the series against Australia – and looked to revive his career but poor run with the bat forced him into retirement. Hafeez celebrated his Test comeback with an innings of 126 against Australia in the first game of the series last month.
He could not carry his form and his scoreline read 17, 4, 6, 20, 10, 9 and 0 in next seven innings which ultimately resulted in him taking a call on his Test career. The right-handed batsman will come out to bat for the final time in the fourth innings of the ongoing Test against New Zealand.
Shoaib Akhtar, Saeed Ajmal and few active cricketers lauded Hafeez after he announced his retirement. Here is how the cricketing fraternity praised Hafeez –
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He will retire with 55* Test caps in which he has scored 3644 runs at an average of 38.35 with 10 centuries and 12 half-centuries (stats do not include number of ongoing Test). He also scalped 53 wickets with best figures of 4/16.
Hafeez made his Test debut in 2003 against Bangladesh in Karachi. On occasions, he got dropped from the Test team but was a regular member of the side from 2011 to 2016. He was a part of the Test team for the England tour in 2016 but was dropped for the fourth Test of the series after a poor run with the bat. Following that, he was axed from the Test side and wasn’t recalled for the next two years.
He also led Pakistan in one Test match against Sri Lanka in a losing affair. Misbah-ul-Hq, the regular skipper, was forced to miss the first Test of the series against Sri Lanka as he was banned for one game due to slow over rate.
Hafeez will continue to play limited-overs cricket and might take a call on his limited-overs career after the 2019 World Cup.
