Very selfish of him to retire after playing the best innings of the season (first Test, Australia) and knowing that regardless of his poor form, he can force his way back into the team because the hyped up youngsters who will replace him will inevitably fail, as we saw in the Asia Cup.
He simply cannot win. I have personally accepted the reality that he makes our team in all formats on batting merit. He is not a great player by any stretch, but he is more than decent for our pathetic standards.
He is the only opener we have who can score big at a fluent rate, and yes he was never going to do well in South Africa, which opener in the country today has the skill, confidence and temperament to handle Rabada, Steyn and Philander in South Africa?
I am indifferent towards his retirement because I don’t think it makes us any worse of better. With or without him, we are a mediocre, low ranked team and will remain so.
The series in South Africa will be a 3-0 whitewash regardless of which set of batsmen play. The myth that we are a better Test team without him will be busted just like in Limited Overs.
People should have enough nerve and respect to at least appreciate him for retiring when he could easily have forced his way back for the UAE/Asia Tests, because his replacement, some random batsman with a “talent spotter” thread on PP is unlikely to uproot any trees.
Same goes for Malik as well. He could easily have stretched his Test career in Asia for years. It may not be what we want to hear, but not everything that Hafeez and Malik do is selfish.
I personally respect him for making this call and not stretching his career further. Well done and let the detractors fume because their script of Hafeez forcing his way on the plane to South Africa has been derailed.
They were brushing themselves and doing bhangra over how Hafeez was going to fail in South Africa, and were coming up with fantasy dismissals, but he has proved to be a bigger and more dignified man than all of these little souls.
Well done on a respectable career. One of the most underrated Pakistani players in recent times, and has played some excellent knocks in Asian Tests. On his day, our best batsman in the UAE of his time (excluding Younis of course).
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