‘Injured’ Hafeez faces uncertain future

LONDON: It was business as usual for Mohammad Hafeez as Pakistan trained here at Lord’s ahead of their second One-day International against England on Friday.

He did some fielding practice, went to the nets with the bat and also bowled for a while.

But as soon as Pakistan took the team bus back to their hotel late in the afternoon, the senior player decided that he was ‘injured’.

It seemed that Hafeez, who was facing the axe after failing to impress with the bat during this entire tour, opted to make himself unavailable for selection before being told that he was not playing on Saturday.

A well-placed source told ‘The News’ that the team management was taken aback by Hafeez’s sudden injury.

“One moment he is training and all seems well. And then he says that he has injured his knee again,” said a source. “The team’s coaches and other officials were obviously surprised when they learned about it as nothing happened during training that could have lead to any injury to the player,” he added.

However, the team’s physio Shane Hayes later confirmed that Hafeez might have been suffering from a niggle in his knee.

“The physio was of the view that Hafeez could have sprained his knee, which had been giving Hafeez problems in recent times,” said a source.

Though a final announcement will only be made after Hafeez goes for tests, it is feared that the 35-year-old might not be able to play any more part in Pakistan’s campaign during the rest of their tour. Pakistan play three more One-day Internationals and a Twenty20 game before returning home on September 8.

Hafeez was a doubtful starter for the tour of England after getting ruled out of the pre-tour skills camp at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore because of the knee injury. He also missed the fitness training camp in Abbottabad.

He was rested by Pakistan after their disastrous World T20 championship campaign in India earlier this year.

The former T20 captain was included in Pakistan’s touring party subject to fitness and once he did make it into the side he failed to fire in the first three Tests before getting dropped for the fourth and final one at The Oval. The decision came after Hafeez flopped in the first three Tests, scoring 40, 0, 81, 42, 0 and 2 in his six outings.

He also flopped in the first ODI in Southampton on Wednesday and was on the receiving end of head coach Mickey Arthur’s verbal thrashing ahead of Saturday’s game at Lord’s.

Hafeez’s future as an international cricketer is now on the line because of a series of issues that include his below-par fitness, lean form and an illegal bowling action.