Mohammad Hafeez is set to be only the second cricketer from Pakistan to play 100 T20I matches when South Africa will go head-on against the visitors in a four-match series starting April 10. However, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has stated that Hafeez will be the first Pakistani player to be playing his 100th T20Is (the tweet has been removed).
Instead, he will join his countryman Shoaib Malik, on the list that also has Rohit Sharma, Martin Guptill, Eoin Morgan and Ross Taylor as players who have featured in 100 or more T20 international matches.
Hafeez has been around for quite some time, and although his success in the longer format of the game dwindled leading to him hanging up his boots, his bat has silenced his critics every now and then in the shortest format.
He has been in imperious touch with the bat in T20s on the tour of England last year and followed it up with another brilliant overseas tour of New Zealand.
He played a splendid knock of 99 not out against the Kiwis in the second T20I of the series albeit Pakistan could not defend the score. Earlier in 2020, he had plundered English bowlers to all parts of the grounds to hit 36-ball-69 and 52-ball-86 in the two matches of the three-match series.
Ahead of his 100th T20I against South Africa, Hafeez is aiming for a match-winning innings while if it turns out to be a century, it will be a ‘cherry on top.’
“A knock to help my side win the match would be amazing, there can’t be any better feeling than guiding your country to win and that too in an away game. A century on that occasion will be a cherry on top,” said Hafeez said in a virtual interaction with reporters from South Africa.
Hafeez will be eager to maintain his top-notch form with the bat in the series against South Africa as there are two T20 World Cups lined up to be played in the next two years.