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Mohammad Hafeez put an end to more than 18 years of international cricket with Pakistan as the veteran cricketer announced his retirement from international cricket. His international debut was in 2003, in an ODI game against Zimbabwe and the last match was Pakistan's defeat against Australia in the T20 World Cup semi-final last November.
Hafeez played 55 Tests, 218 ODIs and 119 T20Is while amassing 12,780 runs across formats, and was credited with 32 Player-of-the-Match awards. He is the fourth-highest among Pakistan players in all international cricket, with only Shahid Afridi (43), Wasim Akram (39) and Inzamam-ul-Haq (33) above him. In addition to that, Hafeez also earned nine Player-of-the-Series awards, joint-second with Imran Khan, Inzamam and Waqar Younis.
It is to be noted that Mohammad Hafeez had initially decided to retire from international cricket after last year's T20 World Cup. However, with the postponement of the tournament last year, his stint as an international cricketer also got extended. Hafeez had already announced his retirement from Test match cricket. The 41-year-old will continue to play franchise-based T20 leagues and has signed up with Lahore Qalandars for the upcoming edition of the PSL. He will be available for selection for several such tournaments around the globe.
Hafeez was dropped from the T20I side in 2018 but pushed himself back into the team in 2020 due to his consistent returns in the domestic competitions. He was drafted into the squad for the home series against Bangladesh and had a splendid year, ending as the leading run-getter in the format in 2020. He had a bitter-sweet experience as far as captaincy is concerned and while he led the Men in Green to the semifinals in the 2012 World Cup, he also became the first captain under whom the team failed to progress to the semis in 2014.
Hafeez is the only Pakistan player to have played in all T20 World Cups except one, which Pakistan won in 2009. Consequently, he holds the record or most T20 World Cup appearances for Pakistan.
Apart from being a reliable batter, Hafeez even bowled off spinners when called upon to do so and was effective in most parts but not so much during the latter stages of his career after he had been asked to remodel his action.
