- At the age of 42, Mohammad Hafeez has earned an unexpected call-up for PSL 2023. Hafeez, who went undrafted at first, has joined the Quetta Gladiators in place of Ahsan Ali, who is out with a knee injury.
- Hafeez was crucial to Lahore Qalandars’ PSL championship victory last season. In the championship match at Gaddafi Stadium, he scored 69 off 46 balls and then took 2 for 23 in four overs with the ball as Qalandars defeated Multan Sultans.
- He later participated in the Kashmir Premier League and the Dhaka Premier Division in Bangladesh, but it seemed as though his playing days were behind him. He had been considering his possibilities off the field and had established himself as a well-known cricket expert on Pakistani television.
- However, Gladiators, who won the PSL in 2019 but have missed the playoffs in three straight seasons, have given him a chance. They face the Multan Sultans in their opening match of the 2023 tournament on Wednesday night in Multan.
- Although it’s unclear if Hafeez will be worthy of a spot in the Gladiators playing XI, they want to make sure they have a wide range of options available. With Iftikhar Ahmed, Pakistan’s current man of the match, arrived to the PSL in top shape following a strong BPL season, they have rebuilt their core this year.
- After the 2019 World Cup, Pakistan moved on from Hafeez in ODIs. Hafeez retired from Test cricket in December 2018. But after being picked up to the T20I team in 2020, he went on an impressive run in T20 cricket and ended the year as the game’s top run-scorer.
- He had stated that the 2020 T20 World Cup would be his last assignment for Pakistan; however, since the Covid-19 pandemic caused the tournament to be postponed to 2021, he did not officially announce his retirement from international cricket until January of last year.
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