Wasim Akram asks Mohammad Hafeez to focus on his batting instead of bowling

Former Pakistan bowling great Wasim Akram has advised Mohammad Hafeez to relinquish bowling and just concentrate on his batting that will help him to extend his cricket career. Hafeez’s bowling action has been detected as illegal by the ICC rule for the third time in his career. ICC suspended him from bowling in international cricket on Thursday.

The International Cricket Council’s decision to suspend Hafeez from bowling came this week after the Pakistan all-rounder failed the bowling action test. The test was conducted in England. Akram said the time has come for the 37-year-old to decide about his bowling. He must give up it and focus on his batting.

“I think Hafeez should give up bowling now and just concentrate on his batting. Work harder on his batting,” Wasim told reporters. “I think Hafeez does not realise that he has been bowling a lot and when he bowls a lot he tends to get tired which is natural and that is when I think his elbow extension exceeds the 15 degrees extension allowed by the ICC,” he added.

The former World Cup-winning fast bowler said that there is no confusion that Pakistan need Hafeez’s all-around skills as he served the national team very well. But, feels after the ICC amended the bowling laws, Hafeez should have thought about his career, especially after he was first suspended from bowling in 2014.

The off-spinner had resumed his bowling last December after completing a 12-month ban and he got his action cleared in Brisbane. Earlier, ICC banned Hafeez from bowling in July 2015 and in December 2014. Akram said that Hafeez should give up his bowling and concentrate on his batting.

“He is experienced and he just needs to work harder on his batting and it will be good for his career,” he added.

On Thursday, Hafeez decided to skip going to play the Bangladesh Premier League and work on his bowling action at PCB’s biomechanics lab at the LUM’s university in Lahore.