This week Sports Crush Saturday features versatile batsman and Pakistani Cricketer Mohammad Hafeez also known as “The Professor”.
Photo Copyright – Steve Haag Sports
Mohammad Hafeez was born in October of 1980 in Sargodha, Punjab. The 39-year-old all-rounder has been a consistently good performer across all three formats at the highest level. He is known for his intelligent batting and for his ability to accelerate scoring when necessary.
Capable of playing anywhere in the top 6 while forming part of the bowling attack with his off-spinners, Hafeez also known as “The Professor” made his ODI debut on the 3rd of April 2003 against Zimbabwe and test debut on 20th August 2003 against Bangladesh. The Professor used to be widely regarded as one of the best white-ball all-rounders in the world, having been ranked as the top all-rounder by the ICC Player Rankings in the limited over cricket on several occasions. There is no doubt that his nickname, The Professor fits him well.
He came into the Pakistan side after their devastating exit from the 2003 World Cup, making a promising start to his Test career, scoring a half-century on debut against Bangladesh and following it up with a century in the next match. Although Hafeez saw his career take a hit when his performance dropped as his form with both bat and ball became inconsistent, leading him to sit out of the Test unit for two 3-year periods between 2003-2006 and from 2007-2010, he gave impressive domestic performances that revived his career, bringing him back into the side in November 2010 and since then he has been permanent fixture in the Test line-up.
Hafeez made his return to Test cricket in 2006 at The Oval scoring a fluent 95. He then went on to hold his place in the Test squad for Pakistan’s home series against the West Indies in November of that year. After getting out early despite good starts in the first two Tests, he went on to score his second Test century in the third Test in Karachi. Hafeez went on to score his Test career-best of 224 runs against Bangladesh in 2015 at Khulna during the Dan Cake Series.
In August 2018, Hafeez was one of the thirty-three players to be awarded a central contract for the 2018–19 season by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). In December 2018, during Pakistan’s series against New Zealand, Hafeez announced that he would retire from Test cricket following the conclusion of the tour, to focus on limited-overs cricket. Stating that the time was right to retire from Test cricket and that he was honoured to represent Pakistan in 55 Test matches, including captaining the side.
The versatile batsman has truly given the sport of cricket his best and I believe that cricket has also been good to him through the crests and troughs along with all the achievements and major tournaments and series that he has participated in. In terms of List A, First Class and domestic T20 competitions, he has also turned out for Lahore, Lahore Lions, Guyana Amazon Warriors, Kolkata Knight Riders, Sargodha, Sui Gas Corporation of Pakistan to name a few.
That’s it for this week’s edition of Sports Crush Saturday!
Written by Hazel Tobo for Hollywoodbets.
