Mohammad Hafeez – The veteran who reinvented himself in T20I cricket

Mohammad Hafeez batted like a dream in the Twenty20 Internationals in 2020 which helped them to overcome a forgettable 2019. Hafeez was dropped from the T20I format at the end of 2018 and was limited to the ODI format in which he didn’t even play post the World Cup. The all-rounder began the year with a low score of 17 in the home series against Pakistan but followed it up with an unbeaten 49-ball 67. It was only three months prior to him turning 39 and his retirement talks were in full flow.

Hafeez turned up in England with a quick-fire 36-ball 69 in the Manchester T20I despite which Pakistan fell short of a winning total. In the very next game, he smashed an unbeaten 86 from 52 balls to hand Pakistan a close win and also complete a hat-trick of wins. Hafeez’s exploits continued in the New Zealand tour even after turning 40. The right-hander finished with an unbeaten 99 from 57 balls and scored more than 60% of the team’s total despite walking to bat at No.4 on a slow track.

? 415 runs at 83
? Highest of 99*
? Strike-rate 152.57
? Four fifties
? 20 sixes, 36 fours

?? Pakistan star Mohammad Hafeez is set to finish 2020 as the leading run-getter in men’s T20I cricket!

What.A.Player! pic.twitter.com/cU8wUVZxE7

— Muhammad Ahsan (@MuhammadahsanKS) December 26, 2020

The change in intent did show up in Hafeez’s batting numbers as his aggregate, average, strike rate and fifties in 2020 are the most for him in any calendar year. Hafeez ended the year with 415 runs across 8 innings he batted across the 10 T20I games in 2020 with help of four fifties at an average of 83 and a strike rate of 152.57. No player before Hafeez had aggregated 400 or more runs in a calendar year in T20I format while averaging 50+ and also with a strike rate of 150.

The veteran batsman smashed as many as 20 sixes through the year in T20Is which is the most by any Pakistan player in a calendar year. Mohammad Hafeez, one game away from completing 100 T20I appearances, became the leading run-getter for Pakistan in the format as he levelled with Shoaib Malik’s tally of 2323 T20I runs for Pakistan. The team management would be hoping that Hafeez could turn the tables in the next year’s T20 World Cup as well.