Mohammad Hafeez Shrugs off Poor ODI Form to Dazzle Against Bangladesh

If anyone ever needed an example of just how different the limited-overs format is to the Test format, point them to the current Test between Bangladesh and Pakistan.

After copping a severe beating in the one-dayers and the one-off Twenty20, Pakistan have bounced back tremendously in the first Test against Bangladesh to finish Day 3 on 537 for five, with a lead of 205 in the bag.

A central figure in their fightback has been Mohammad Hafeez, who notched up an impressive double century on Thursday. Hafeez had a pretty disastrous one-day series, but with patience and resilience he has turned things around and put Pakistan firmly in control.

Bangladesh looked out of their comfort zone. Their bowlers were always bowling too short, too wide, too this, too that, but that should not take away from Hafeez’s feat. It took immense concentration to reach the milestone. That he got out to the worst ball he had faced all day, playing one of the silliest shots he had played through his entire innings, will be merely a subtext to his feat.

But Hafeez’s knock should not come as too much of a surprise. With it came a most pleasant record. Hafeez now has the most runs in five consecutive innings in Test cricket for any Pakistan player and the fourth-most overall. He’s also the third-oldest Pakistan batsman to score 200 in a Test.

In his last four Tests, Hafeez has scored 690 runs at an average of 115.00, including one fifty and two hundreds with the bulk of those runs coming in a series against New Zealand last year. He came agonisingly close to his first double century against New Zealand in Sharjah, managing 197 in the first innings before top-edging a half tracker and being caught at deep square leg.

While the double century in itself is impressive, even more impressive is that it has come away from home and it has come at a time when Pakistan still do not play any Tests on home soil.

It’s something of a stretch to suggest Hafeez is the only one to have survived the impact of no home Tests. He was not part of the squad that faced Sri Lanka when the terrorist attack that would subsequently see cricket taken away from Pakistan happened. A young Ahmed Shehzad was, and he has since gone on to notch up some impressive knocks.

Hafeez was part of the squad that played South Africa two years before, but that does not mean the lack of home Tests should be ignored.

For many young Pakistani batsmen, especially those who are just starting their career, no cricket at home means they have to work so much harder to achieve consistency. 

Playing their “home” tours in the United Arab Emirates has proved fruitful. For the young players who still play their domestic cricket in Pakistan, though, simply shifting to a different venue that is always away from home and having to adjust to that takes something special. And while Hafeez is something of a late bloomer, he falls into that category, too.

In the context of his career and this series, this double century is possibly one of the most crucial of his career. It’s now up to Pakistan to use this platform and kick on.