Back in the fray: Fit-again Sohaib ready to fight for his place in playing XI

28-year-old regrets missing home series against Zimbabwe

KARACHI: Middle-order batsman Sohaib Maqsood is ready to fight for his place in the team after an increase in competition for batting spots has made the battle ever more challenging, with the likes of Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Rizwan performing well.

After a splendid series against Sri Lanka, Mohammad Hafeez is not going anywhere either, and newcomer Babar Azam was deployed in the middle-order with Asad Shafiq waiting in the wings.

The Pakistan team management has also used Sarfraz Ahmed successfully as a floater in the batting order, while expectations have increased from all-rounders Anwar Ali and Immad Wasim.

Furthermore, while Umar Akmal has been axed, Haris Sohail will walk right back into the side when fully fit.



Sohaib is aware that the competition has increased in the team, which according to him is a motivating factor. “I’m ready to fight for a regular spot in the Pakistan side on the back of performances against Zimbabwe,” the 28-year-old told The Express Tribune. “There is lot of competition in the playing 11 but that’s a healthy sign. Each player trying to give his best will ultimately benefit the team.”

The Multan-based cricketer has played 25 ODIs, scoring 725 runs at an average of 32.95 with five fifties. However, he has struggled to make the same impact in the T20 format with 145 runs in 14 T20Is.

The nagging wrist injury

Sohaib remained out of the national side after the 2015 World Cup for three consecutive series against Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka due to a nagging pain in his left wrist, and it was later found that he had sustained a fracture. He was told to undergo surgery to remove the broken bone that was causing discomfort and numbness in his hand.

By the time Sohaib went under the knife and was recovering, he missed a home series against Zimbabwe which was played in Lahore — something he laments to this day as it was the first time cricket had come home after an armed attack on the Sri Lankan team at Lahore in 2009.

According to Sohaib, it had become increasingly difficult for him to grip the bat the way he wanted to towards the end of 2014 and early 2015, when the World Cup was going on in Australia and New Zealand.

Asked whether he thinks that his World Cup campaign would have been different had he not been suffering from the wrist pain, Sohaib replied, “It would definitely have been a different story if I had not been disturbed by the pain. Two of my fingers used to get numb, which affected my grip so much that I couldn’t hit the shots with the same force. But now I want to put the disappointment behind me and focus on what’s ahead as, for me, it will be like making my debut all over again.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th,  2015.

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