Ozi Indian
New Delhi, November 17
Former cricketer Mohammad Hafeez will serve as Pakistan’s head coach for the upcoming Australia and New Zealand tour, according to a report by ESPNcricinfo.
Hafeez was appointed as the Pakistan team director. Earlier, Mickey Arthur held the post until a reshuffle took place followed by Babar Azam’s resignation as the captain.
As per ESPNcricinfo, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will now merge the post of team director and head coach. As of now, Hafeez will play a dual role in their upcoming three Test matches in Australia and five T20Is in New Zealand which will take place in December and January respectively.
Hafeez was recently part of the PCB Cricket Technical Committee. The former all-rounder was part of the Pakistan Men’s team which won the ICC Champions Trophy in England in 2017.
The PCB has changed the portfolio of the Pakistan coaching staff. All coaches will continue to work in National Cricket Academy while PCB will announce the new coaching staff in due course for the upcoming series in Australia and New Zealand.
Star Pakistan batter Babar Azam on Wednesday announced his decision to step down as Pakistan captain from all formats of the game after his side’s debacle in the ICC World Cup 2023 in India.
Pakistan suffered five defeats out of their nine matches and one at the hands of arch-rival India by seven wickets at the ODI World Cup 2023. In their last league match of the tournament, the ‘Men in Green’ started proceedings knowing that they had the slimmest of chances of still reaching the SFs, requiring a win by an enormous margin to force a gargantuan swing on net run rate. However, the possibility of such a result soon disappeared as the 2019 champions England built a sizeable first-innings score and registered a 93-run win.Earlier this week, Morne Morkel resigned as the bowling coach of the Pakistan Men’s team. The former South Africa fast bowler joined the Pakistan team on a six-month contract in June this year.
