Social media comes down hard at Hashim Amla as his poor run continues

Veteran South African batsman Hashim Amla failed yet another time on Wednesday when he got dismissed for eight in the first innings of the first Test against Pakistan in Centurion. The 35-year-old, who has been one of the Proteas’ most prolific scorers with nearly 18,000 international runs, has been struggling with the bat of late and it has given rise to a call for his retirement on social media.

Amla came back to the No.3 position in Centurion but yet failed to reach the two-figure mark. South African captain Faf du Plessis has though backed Amla but conceded that the latter has seen a slide compared to the high standards he had set previously. The right-hander who is less than 1,000 runs short of the 10,000 runs club in Tests, has scored only 444 runs since his last century against Bangladesh in October 2017. His average in this year-plus time has been a poor 23.36.

Amla failed in the first innings against Pakistan

Amla was even moved to No.4 in South Africa’s previous Test series which was against Sri Lanka and according to du Plessis, it was done deliberately to see the team using Amla’s experience to tackle the spin bowlers. Amla’s form has been so poor (74 runs in seven games) that he was even dropped by his franchise in the local Mzansi Super League Durban Heat.

He though showed some form in the 4-day Franchise Series for the Cape Cobras against the Warriors with a half-century in the second innings earlier this month.

That innings also made Faf hopeful about Amla and he had said: “What is important is time in the middle. Hashim knows he hasn’t scored the amount of runs he would have liked in the last year but it’s a new season and he’s fresh, coming off a fifty. It is important for him to get off to a good start in this series, just to settle the nerves and be confident. Hashim technically he is one of the most sound players in the world.”

Amla’s low score in the first innings of the Pakistan Test will nevertheless embolden his critics again.

Here is how Twitterati reacted to his poor run of form:

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