Pakistan’s T20 skipper Mohammad Hafeez believes that their just-concluded tour to South Africa will benefit the side in future assignments including the ICC Champions Trophy.
Hafeez said the learning from facing South African bowlers in hostile conditions will be visible in his side’s performance in the upcoming matches.
“Obviously, the way we lost the Test series in South Africa was very disappointing for us but we came back strongly in the T20 match and the One-day series and finished on a positive note. Having played such tough cricket it will benefit us for future assignments,” Hafeez said.
Hafeez, who returned home from South Africa on Tuesday, turned up for the Lahore Lions side in the national Super Eight T20 Cup and scored a blistering hundred against Multan Tigers.
The 32-year-old urged his Pakistan teammates to play in domestic competitions regularly in order to raise the profile of the national level events.
“It is good to see that all the top players are playing in this event and I think our players need to play domestic cricket regularly to enhance the importance of our domestic cricket specially since international teams are not touring Pakistan since 2009,” he said.
Hafeez pointed out that there was also a need to introduce more professionalism in domestic cricket.
“Our solid cricket future depends on how well organised and competitive our domestic cricket is. We should have more professional coaches and trainers in domestic events,” he said.
With the exception of Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi, Muhammad Irfan and Saeed Ajmal all the other players who went to South Africa are appearing in the national T20 event.
