Pakistan’s all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez has said that he wants to be among the best batsmen of the world by the end of this year.
The opening batsman has faced a lot of ups and downs in his eight-year-old career. He was dropped from Pakistan team after a disastrous ICC World Cup 2007 in the Caribbean but was given chances in T20 cricket off and on.
However, Hafeez made a comeback in the Pakistan team during last year’s One Day International series against England and since then he has been a permanent member of the Green Shirts in all the formats of the game.
While talking about his time out of the team, Hafeez said, “After my ouster from 2007 World Cup team and till 2010 England tour. I kept my motivation alive and worked really hard on my game technically and physically and forced my way into the team. My target is to finish among the top 10 batsman of the world by the end of the year.”
The opening batsman is often criticised for his lack of consistency with the bat as he is averaging around 20 in both Test cricket and the 50-overs format of the game. However, the stylish batsman has a wide range of strokes under his belt and has the potential to deliver the goods against the best of the bowling attacks.
The all-rounder has been doing reasonably well for Pakistan in all the departments of the game since last one year. His bowling has come of age in limited overs cricket and Hafeez gave the credit to former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi for giving him confidence with the ball.
“Afridi used me in a pressure situation and I lived to expectations of the team. Like the life, cricket is very hard and demanding game and now my objective is to keep up momentum and consistency extending in all areas of the game,” Hafeez added.
The 30-year-old all-rounder has not lived up to his potential in International cricket as yet, but he has started to show some signs of improvement, which augurs well for Pakistan cricket.
