South Africa vs Pakistan: Knee-injury forces Haris Sohail out of the first Test

Pakistan’s plans of resurrection after the shock 1-2 defeat to New Zealand in a Test series at home received a blow as their in-form batsman Haris Sohail was ruled out ahead of the Boxing Day Test against South Africa in Centurion. The 29-year-old middle-order batsman was in a fine nick, scoring a hundred in each of Pakistan’s last two series against Australia and New Zealand besides hitting an unbeaten fifty against Cricket South Africa Invitation XI in Benoni last week which Pakistan won by 6 wickets.

Pacer Mohammad Abbas also ruled out

The management did not want to risk Haris who saw his knee injury flare up and replaced him with Shan Masood who was playing a Test after 14 months, according to a report in ESPNcricinfo. Pakistan were off to a poor start in the first Test after their captain Sarfraz Ahmed won the toss and elected to bat. The visitors lost opener Imam-ul-Haq for no score in the second over of the match and Masood and Fakhar Zaman, who is playing his second Test, were at the crease.

Harris’ ruling out was, in fact, the second blow that Pakistan faced after paceman Mohammad Abbas too was ruled out of the first Test because of a shoulder injury. Haris incidentally was struck with an injury while touring South Africa in 2013 as well and Masood had replaced him on that occasion as well. But a series of low performance saw Masood eventually losing out in the race until destiny brought another chance to him in the current series.

This is the fifth time that Pakistan are touring South Africa since 1994-95 after the Proteas returned from their exile but the Asians are yet to win a Test series in South Africa. Their best result in Tests in the Rainbow Nation came in 1997-98 when they drew a three-game series 1-1. Overall, the two sides have played in 23 Tests so far with the Proteas having a 12-4 lead with seven games ending in a draw.

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