(Cricket News) The former middle-order batsman for Pakistan in Test matches, Asad Shafiq, has declared his retirement from all forms of cricket and is anticipated to become a national selector. After leading the Karachi Whites to the National T20 title and defeating Abbotabad in the Karachi final, Shafiq, 37, announced his retirement on Sunday.
Shafiq has agreed to play three games for his department side SNGPL (Sui Northern Gas Pipelines) in the returning Patron’s Trophy, the first-class tournament for department teams, as they will be missing several players away on Test duty. However, the T20 final effectively marked his farewell from the Misbah-ul-Haq Test side.
Nearly ten years after making his debut, Shafiq played the final of his 77 Test matches for Pakistan in 2020. Although he had been a regular on the domestic circuit since then, he admitted after the match that he was no longer as passionate and excited about the game as he once was. “I wanted to thank all those who have helped me through my career,” he said.
“I decided before the season started that this would be my last season because I felt that approaching 38 years old this was time to retire instead of people telling me to step down,” the player said. “After being dropped in 2020, I kept on playing domestic cricket for three years in the hope of getting another crack at the Pakistan team.”
Shafiq, along with Misbah, Younis Khan, and Azhar Ali, formed a middle order that was the cornerstone of much of Pakistan’s success, particularly during their years of exile in the United Arab Emirates. He concluded his career with 4660 runs at an average of 38.19, though in his best phases it hovered near the mid-40s.
In part, this was due to him playing most of his Tests at No. 6, acting as a bridge between the engine room and a lower order that was always vulnerable. Notably, he has the most hundreds of hundreds of runs from that spot; he broke Sir Garry Sobers’ record after one of his most memorable hundreds of runs at the Gabba, a 137 that almost brought Pakistan home in a massive chase of 490 runs.
Shafiq made his debut for Pakistan in the immediate aftermath of the 2010 spot-fixing scandal, playing his first ODIs on that tour and his first Test in November of the same year, when Misbah took over as captain.
“It was quite difficult after the 2010 incident and we had to win the trust of the public back,” he said. Shafiq now awaits a future as a selector in Wahab Riaz’s new-look committee, while his contract is still pending.
