Cricket World: Pakistani Current T20 Captain :MOHAMMAD HAFEEZ

MOHAMMAD HAFEEZ

MOHAMMAD HAFEEZ MAIDEN CENTURY

Mohammad Hafeez (born October 17, 1980 at Sargodha) is a Pakistani cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm slow bowler. Hafeez generally opens the batting and also acts as the part of bowling attack.Mohammad Hafeez also serves as Pakistan's national T20 captain.

nternational career

Hafeez was one of the several young all-rounders the Pakistani cricket team turned to after their poor Cricket World Cup display in 2003, in which they were eliminated in the first round.

Hafeez scored a half-century on his Test debut against Bangladesh, and in his following Test hit a century. His form with bat and ball would then drop considerably and in late-2003 he was dropped from the Test squad, and soon after the ODI side. With strong domestic performances as well as good showings for the Pakistan A, he remained on the fringes of a recall in 2004. Hafeez returned to the ODI side in 2005 and despite not contributing with the bat, his bowling performances were impressive. In the 2006 Top End Series held in Australia, Hafeez smashed a century for Pakistan A. With Pakistan struggling to find a solid opening pair for Test cricket, Hafeez was recalled for the tour of England. His return to Test cricket was made at The Oval and he scored a fluent 95. Later that year in November, Hafeez retained his place in the side for their home series against the West Indies. After getting starts in the first two Test he would go on to score his second Test century in the third Test in Karachi. He made his 4th ODI century on March, 18 2012 in Bangladesh at Dhaka.

INTERNATIONAL CAREER

In 2010 he was recalled for the third ICC World Twenty20. he had poor form in it but showed signs of class batting. He was subsequently recalled again for the T20Is and the ODIs on Pakistan's tour of England. He had some good scores in it and had some solid partnerships with opener Kamran Akmal.

Following this good form he was also in the squad that was selected to play South Africa in the UAE. After some impressive score in the opener slot, he was again rewarded with now a test call up. He had some decent scores in the test matches and bowled some tidy overs of offspin as well.

At the end of 2010 he was also selected for the party that would tour New Zealand. In all of the T20s he made some good scores including a 46.

In the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, he started the tournament with a few poor scores with the bat, and was consistent with the ball. Especially 10 overs for just 26 runs against Australia and 2 wickets for 16 runs in quarter final. In the quarter-final against West Indies, Hafeez provided a major contribution to the team's victory with 2 wickets and 60*, receiving the player of the match award. Also in the semi final he scored 43 runs and took a wicket for 31 runs in 10 overs although Pakistan lost the match.

In the tour of the West Indies, Hafeez continued his good form with both bat and ball scoring 267 runs in 5 matches with an average of 53.40, and took 6 wickets at an average of 23.50. . He made his second One Day International century in the fourth ODI, where he scored 121 runs before being bowled by the promising leg spinner Devendra Bishoo.

He was in the form of his life with all-round performances when Pakistan toured Zimbabwe in September 2011 taking his batting average to 27 from 21 after the recall. Scoring his third career One Day International century all in 2011 playing the second ODI. He was top run scorer throughout the series in all formats. He was also dangerous with the ball and specially taking wickets on the straighter deliveries mixing up with off-spin with 7 wickets in T-20 series.

After tidy performances against Bangladesh, he jumped to the number 2 position in the ODI Bowler rankings below fellow spinner, Saeed Ajmal and above Shahid Afridi.

Against India on March, 18 2012 in Bangladesh at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur at the 2012 Asia Cup. He scored 105 off 113 balls and was involved in a 224 run partnership with Nasir Jamshed, which is the best opening partnership for Pakistan against India in one day internationals. They eclipsed Aamer Sohail and Saeed Anwar's record of 144 runs which was made in 1996.

MOHAMMAD HAFEEZ PLAYING A STROKE

Captain of Pakistan T20 Team

On May 10, 2012, The Pakistan Cricket Board has appointed Mohammad Hafeez as the captain for the Twenty 20 (T20) format of the game during the tour of Sri Lanka. Hafeez, who has reinvented himself as a reliable and prolific allrounder, takes over from Misbah-ul-Haq with Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) opting to axe the aging batsman from their Twenty20 squad.

TEST CENTURIES

In the column Runs, * indicates being not out
The column title Match refers to the Match Number of the player's career

Mohammad Hafeez's Test centuries
	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
[1]	102*	2	Bangladesh	Peshawar, Pakistan	Arbab Niaz Stadium	2003
[2]	104	7	West Indies	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	2006
[3]	119	18	Zimbabwe	Bulawayo, Zimbabwe	Queens Sports Club	2011
[4]	143	22	Bangladesh	Chittagong, Bangladesh	Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium	2011

ONE DAY INTERNATIONAL CENTURIES

In the column Runs, * indicates being not out
The column title Match refers to the Match Number of the player's career

Mohammad Hafeez's One Day International centuries
	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
[1]	115	61	New Zealand	Christchurch, New Zealand	AMI Stadium	2011
[2]	121	76	West Indies	Barbados, West Indies	Kensington Oval	2011
[3]	139*	81	Zimbabwe	Harare, Zimbabwe	Harare Sports Club	2011
[4]	105	98	India	Mirpur, Bangladesh	Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium	2012