Mohammad Hafeez

Former captain of Pakistan national cricket team in the T20 format, Mohammad Hafeez was born on 17 October 1980 in Sargodha. He is a right-handed batsman, who usually opens the batting. Hafeez is known for his intelligent batting but also for aggressive shots when needed. He is also a right-arm off spin bowler.

In 2012–2013, Hafeez was ranked as the top all-rounder by the ICC Player Rankings in T20 format. He was the fourth international player signed to the Caribbean Premier League and the first Pakistani player to be named to the new Twenty20 tournament.

Hafeez was one of several young all-rounders whom the Pakistani cricket team turned to in order to revitalize their side after their poor display in 2003 World Cup where Pakistan was out from first round. Following strong domestic performances, as well as display of good form for the Pakistan A side, Hafeez was picked for the ODI side in 2005 and despite poor form with the bat, his bowling performances were impressive.

In the 2006 series held in Australia, Hafeez smashed his first century for Pakistan. With Pakistan struggling to find a solid opening pair for the Test side, he was called for the tour of England. His return to Test cricket was made at The Oval where he scored a fluent 95. Subsequently, Hafeez retained 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. However his form remained inconsistent and he was unable to command a regular place in either the Test or ODI side over the next 5 years.

He was subsequently selected for Pakistan's 2010 tour of England. He was the second highest Pakistani run scorer in the ODI series producing some solid opening partnerships with Kamran Akmal. Following this good form he was included in the squad that was selected to play South Africa in the UAE and he replaced disgraced skipper Salman Butt as an opening batsman in both Tests, achieving a batting average 32.50. He played in all 5 ODI matches ending up as the top run scorer and he also topped the bowling averages for the series. At the end of 2010 he was also selected for the party that would tour New Zealand and the West Indies and this resulted in him establishing himself as a regular in the Test, ODI and T20 teams.

In 2011 he won an amazing 10 Man-of-the-Match awards in all forms of international cricket and became only the third player (after Sanath Jayasuriya and Jacques Kallis) to score 1000 runs and took 30 wickets in ODI matches within a calendar year.

Against India in the Asia Cup at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur in Bangladesh on 18 March 2012, 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. He made his 4th ODI century in March 2012 against Bangladesh at Dhaka. He also made his highest test score of 196 against Sri Lanka in the second Test at Colombo in June 2012.

In December 2012, during the tour of India he helped Pakistan to win the first T20I and 2nd ODI with his heroics of brilliant batting and nearly chasing a mountain high target of 191 in the second T20I. His scores were 61 and 55 in first and second T20I respectively and scored 76 runs in the 2nd ODI and sharing an opening stand of 141 with Nasir Jamshed and also bowled economically to help Pakistan win their first ODI series in India since 7 years.

He had a great series against Sri Lanka in December 2013, where he scored 122 in the first match, 140* in the third and 113* in the fourth match becoming the second batsman after Zaheer Abbas to score 3 centuries in an ODI series. Hafeez was initially selected in the Pakistan squad for the 2015 World Cup but was ruled out 6 days before the World Cup due to a calf injury. He was replaced by Nasir Jamshed.

As a captain, he led Pakistan to victories over South Africa, West Indies the T20 champions and Zimbabwe. He equalled the records of most wins as Pakistan captain in T20 and most number of away series wins under his leadership and Pakistan moved up to the second position in the rankings. He also became the first Pakistan captain to hit three fifties in a row and became Pakistan’s leading run scorer in T20s. After Pakistan's exit from the T20 World Championship Hafeez apologized on behalf of his team and stepped down as captain. Imran Khan, Pakistan’s former captain criticised this decision and advised Hafeez to stay as captain. His resignation was a rare incident in Pakistan cricket.