Once touted to become Pakistan’s next batting great, Haider Ali went unpicked in yesterday’s PSL draft.
On an all-too-rare sunny September afternoon at Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester, 19-year-old Haider Ali strode towards the crease, confidently marking his cover while playing international cricket. He was preparing to take the first ball. Moeen Ali Fakhar Zaman’s arm ball off the stumps shines.
Haider did indeed hit the first ball down the middle and scored his first goal for his country. That was all the time he needed to make sense of his expression. On the second ball, the attacking right-handed batsman got down on one knee and confidently bowled the ball to long-on for a massive six.
Even when Haider is overwhelmed by the situation, he doesn’t show it. He continued to plunder England’s bowlers in all parts of the pitch and just after that he scored an astonishing 54 runs off 33 balls.
A star is born. Haider is the solution to Pakistan’s T20 powerplay woes. He did it in the U-19 World Cup, he did it in the PSL and now he’s doing it in international cricket. He’s ready to play for Pakistan for years to come – at least in limited-overs cricket – and he is, right?
Three years later, Haider Ali is far from the Pakistan team and currently does not have a PSL contract. As dramatic as Haider Ali’s rise was, his fall was just as surprising.
A little over a year ago, Haider was part of the Pakistan team that played against arch-rivals India in the T20 World Cup in Australia. All six PSL franchises ignored him yesterday. Where did the problem occur?
Despite Haider’s potential and promise, unfortunately his first innings against England was as good as ever, at least for now. After making a brilliant debut, he scored another thrilling half-century in the third innings of the T20I against Zimbabwe, but only scored more than 20 twice in the next 11 innings before being dismissed. became.
Haider’s stock was beginning to waver, but he won the Pakistan National T20 Cup and scored 317 runs in 8 games, averaging 63.4 runs and a total of 3.5 runs, indicating that he would not be away from the international game for long. Showed it to the world. He has 15 sixes, his second most in the tournament. His excellent performance in domestic cricket allowed him to rejoin his Pakistan 15-a-side team, where he reached the semi-finals of the 2021 T20 World Cup just five months after being eliminated.
Haider did not play a match in the World Cup, but his performance in the following series was impressive. He won the Player of the Match award for the second consecutive game. The first time was on a difficult pitch in Mirpur where he disciplined his 45 against Bangladesh chasing 125, and the second time was against the West Indies in Karachi where he scored an astonishing 45 off just 39 shots. He scored 68 points.
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Haider seemed to have found the right balance between attacking flair and calm stroke play, but once again suffered a disastrous run of form, marked by ill-advised dismissals for deliberate shots. Ta.
Haider was dropped down the batting order in October 2022 due to continued problems and was Pakistan’s finisher in three consecutive matches against New Zealand and Bangladesh after Asif Ali and Khushdir Shah struggled with the responsibilities.
Haider’s problems continued as his play became more limited than when he first joined the Pakistan team, despite posting an astonishing strike rate of 31 in the series final over 200. Ta. In the 2022 T20 World Cup, he scored two runs in Pakistan’s defeat against India due to Kohli’s special, and played a golden duck against Zimbabwe, but missed the straight as Pakistan suffered a shock defeat. Unsurprisingly, Hyder was eliminated after this match.
After finding himself in a similar position a year ago, he bounced back strongly, but this time it was no such story for Haider as the situation was even worse.
Haider was selected by Karachi Kings as a platinum player for the 2023 PSL season, but he scored just 109 runs in six matches, barely managing to score more than one run per ball, and was not included in the Kings’ eleven. It was removed. This was followed by a mediocre season with Derbyshire in the T20 Blast, followed by a poor performance in the Asian Games, with Haider scoring just six goals in two matches against Hong Kong and Afghanistan. This form continued in the recently concluded National T20 Cup. In this tournament Haider shone two years before him and was forced to return to the Pakistan team as he scored only his 130 points in the entire tournament with an average of 14.44 points.
Haider has averaged 17.25 with the bat in the 54 T20 matches he has played over the past two years, a lower average than Pat Cummins, but he has been Pakistan’s brightest white-ball talent of late. I saw a person’s performance decline rapidly. He lost support not only from Pakistan’s top team but also from the top team and PSL.
Perhaps Haider would benefit from being away from the spotlight and scrutiny. At just 23 years old, he showed the world a glimpse of his undeniable talent. Even now, his average first-class career is under 50 years old, and his ceiling remains high. Now it’s time for him to do something more difficult. It’s time to show the world that he’s stubborn too. Otherwise, he seems destined to become one of the many Pakistani talents to fade into obscurity.
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