Mohammad Hafeez is a part of Pakistan's World Cup plans

All-round cricketer Mohammad Hafeez has been one of Pakistan’s most reliable batsmen in all the formats, however, recently, the 37-year-old has had to go through a turbulent phase as far as his international career is concerned. Previously, he was a part of the national team, which won a T20I and ODI series in Zimbabwe. But Hafeez could only play a couple of T20s in the entire tour.

To add to his agony, the Sargodha-born cricketer was demoted to the ‘B’ category by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and he initially refused to sign the contract. Recently, he along with Imad Wasim was dropped from Pakistan’s preliminary 18-man Asia Cup squad. In the meantime, Inzamam-ul-Haq, the chairman of selectors, mentioned that Hafeez isn’t out of Pakistan’s World Cup plans.

We don’t have any right to claim that anybody’s career has ended

“Hafeez is a part of the 20-22 players that we are considering for the World Cup. Hafeez is a good player and now he can bowl as well. But, we have other options now. There is much more cricket after the Asia Cup. At this moment, we are trying other options,” Inzamam was quoted as saying in Cricbuzz.

Quite expectantly, talks of the curtains coming down on Hafeez’s career has already sparked, but Inzamam didn’t mince any words in saying that dropping of a player shouldn’t be translated into the end of his/her career. “We select players and we don’t have any right to claim that anybody’s career has come to an end,” the 48-year-old added.

As far as the Asia Cup is concerned, uncapped left-handed batsman, Shan Masood was called up. Pakistan are scheduled to play their first match on September 16 against the qualifier at Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Thereafter, they will lock horns with India in the event’s marquee clash on September 19 at the same venue.

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