Hafeez cannot afford to fail before World T20: Mohsin

E-Paper | June 13, 2026

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LAHORE: Former coach and chief selector Mohsin Khan has termed the change in captaincy of the national Twenty20 team as untimely, cautioning the situation may create panic in the Pakistan camp if new captain Mohammad Hafeez fails to produce positive results.

“As coach, I regard Hafeez as an impressive, talented cricketer and a very hard worker on and off the field. But I feel the World Twenty20 is just four months away. Prior to this mega event, he will get only five Twenty20 matches to set the right combination for the World Twenty20,” Mohsin said.

“And in case Hafeez fails — either as captain or player — the situation may turn panicky for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) ahead of the World Twenty20,” said Mohsin who was sidelined as head coach recently, despite Pakistan earning victories against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and England during his tenure.

On Thursday, the PCB replaced Misbah with Hafeez as Twenty20 captain for the Sri Lanka tour starting in early June. Pakistan are scheduled to play two Twenty20 games in Sri Lanka.

The PCB also announced three separate teams for the Sri Lanka tour.

The former coach insisted that it could have been better had the PCB named Hafeez captain till the World Twenty20, so that he could prepare a proper strategy with more confidence to turn the team into a well-oiled unit for the World Twenty20.

“I feel sympathy for Hafeez who will be under immense pressure to perform on the Sri Lanka tour, as captain and player, to become eligible as captain for the World Twenty20,” the former Test opener emphasised.

Acknowledging Hafeez had the ability to lead, Mohsin wondered if Misbah-ul-Haq was not suitable to T20 team, then how he was retained as the ODI skipper.

Misbah, Mohsin stated, has had a very good track record as captain and therefore he qualified to captain Pakistan in all formats of the game.

Without giving any candid comment on selection of the teams for the Sri Lanka series, Mohsin only said that there were a few debatable points. At the moment, the former coach of the team added, he wished Pakistan a very successful tour.

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BOOMBOOM

May 13, 2012 08:25am

what you sow you rip Mansur, if you loose you cannot say that your 2 bowlers brought the country into shame and got jailed and life time ban? Why you people are only involved in these things. May it be world cup final against Aussies OR Test series under Butt. Truth always gets out, you cannot defend a player who was banned from entering UAE for illegal drugs.

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BOOMBOOM

May 13, 2012 08:39am

Mansur we won worldcup all thanks to Misbah, as he stayed till the end and defended well and players coming and departing as they took risk to score but all thanks to Misbah calm cool and quiet like cucumber, didnt feel the pressure.

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Mansur (Namibia)

May 13, 2012 06:38am

Raj, I do not agree with you. Afridi the ball eater can never be a good leader. Hafeez has still to show his leadership abilites which we will know soon. You call Dhoni a great batsman is shocking!!!! he is pathetic in Test cricket. India only won the world cup because two of our best bowlers were unlucky and got jailed, I say unlucky because there are many Australians/Indians etc who did the same and never got caught. A hitter is not a Captain, Captain must be educated, do his home work, inteliggent enough and make decisions which Misbah does.

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Javed Gilani

May 13, 2012 05:30am

Pakistan cricket management have an uncanny knack to louse things up consistently.

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raj

May 13, 2012 05:46am

pAKISTAN Must learn from INDIA to keep a good agressive good performing player as captain Hafeez is a good choice but not the best being the Afridi in the team no matters AFRIDI will perform same being captain and not being as captain his form dont affect HE is a player with dignity and self respect.You can compare the performances of Misbha with our great captain Dhoni or Clarke or Srilankan Jayawardhane its pathethic MISBHA bats very ugly he is a slog player and he knows only stopping the ball with the bat from touchinng the stumps he never wants to score runs.You can take great DHONI who can during a pressur time in world cup final and scored agressively without defending our Great DHONI never nos defending specially in 50overs match and T20 u need to keep a huge score to win nor stay in the crease till end without scoring........Pakistan cricket board is ruinung the Cricket with conterversies Board cannot handle the good players and loose them in conterversies and Board chief like Ijaz butt father of salman butt always like puppets to lead the team....

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raj

May 13, 2012 05:57am

Hafeez has immense pressure and he might fail miserably with ball and bat.................God save Pakistan from Disastorious tour and pak must pray AFRIDI to rescue in bad times as he has done many times and even world T20 for them under Younis if Misbha and his Puppy Hafeez wont give AFRIDI rite time to call and bat doing some politics than Pak will go into ruins...............of cricket history

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LOVETOLOVE

May 13, 2012 07:48am

Mansur you cannot throw the stones if your house is lade of glass; MOHD AMIR AND MOHD ASIf,Salman Butt are criminals and they came out of jail if you got proof about other great cricketing nations doing the same than mail to ICC.

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Capt Mansur

May 13, 2012 06:58pm

Love they were ENTRAPPED...You must see the movie Entrapment to understand why other cricketrs were not caught. ICC can do nothing as we courts need proof which only entrapment can give otherwise not. There are Politicans going around doing bigger crimes and go free because of lack of proof, it does not make them innocent just Manupilators I guess.

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Khalid Sami

May 13, 2012 10:43pm

Change is good and Hafeez is the best choice at the moment. Misbah's strike rate was too low for him to be in 20/20 team. I think Hafeez should bat in the middle order and let Shehzad and Nasir open the innings. If the matches in SL proves that the captaincy impacts his performance there should be another change before the WC. Based on form either Shoaib or Afridi can step in.

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Khalid Sami

May 13, 2012 10:47pm

I think Mohsin is all hot air at this time because he lost his job with PCB. Playing at the highest level is not for the faint hearted. These guys learn to take pressure and perform. I think Misbah and Hafeez will be alright.

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akif

May 15, 2012 07:32am

i think mohsin is right on its on way....because as a Coach was attached mostly with Misbah as compare to hafiz...and Hafiz also new on captain ship

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Raj Chaudhary

May 12, 2012 02:55pm

Hafeez comes across as a sensible, mature guy and has many years to go before he hangs his boots; is therefore a good choice. However, somebody from the game (preferably a non-partisan ex international cricketer must be given the charge of the cricket board who can further give confidence to the coach & captain that they all are their to stay for long. Knee jerk reactions must go !! Raj Chaudhary Delhi

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Capt Mansur

May 12, 2012 05:59pm

Moshin is 100% correct. This decision has put pressure on both Misbah and Haffiz, which can affect their performances. Why we had to change Captain??? when the Pakistan tean was doing so well. So what if we lost a few matches but, we were playing like a team.

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