“The PSL final in Lahore will bring joy to the faces of our cricket-mad fans" : Shahzaib Hasan
The 2017 Pakistan Super
League has now entered a decisive stage with the top four teams vying
to qualify for the final in Lahore on the 5th of March. One of the teams
looking to make a mark after a rather disappointing first edition of
Pakistan’s premier Twenty20 tournament is Karachi Kings. Lead by the
vastly experienced Kumar Sangakkara in the ongoing tournament, the
Karachi team is now brimming with confidence on the back of some
excellent performances.
The
twenty-seven-year-old Shahzaib Hasan is playing his second edition of
the PSL for Karachi and in exclusive remarks to PakPassion.net, spoke
about his team's determination to reach the top, his experience of
playing alongside some top players in the tournament and the importance
to Pakistan cricket of the PSL final which will be played on home soil.
With a team of top
quality players that Karachi have assembled for the PSL, it is
understandable that competition for places is tight. For Shahzaib, this
meant that he could only play in two games so far. However, as a
committed professional, he has taken this in stride and concentrated on
ensuring that he makes the most of the opportunity to learn from the
best as he explained, “it’s been an amazing experience playing and
practicing alongside some world-class players in the shape of our
captain Sangakkara and Chris Gayle as well as some very talented young
players. It is unfortunate that I have not played enough games in this
tournament as I believe I could have done better with more opportunities
due to my excellent domestic record. But then, this is a team game and
the right combination of the team is what matters in the end. So, I am
content to sit the games out and happy that Karachi Kings have come this
far and can go further in this final round.”
The experience of
playing a tournament of such high intensity is obviously a great one for
any player but the heartening part of the PSL is to see teams come
together to enjoy each other’s company which is something that has
impressed Shahzaib as well.
“The team spirit is
amazing and we are all focused towards taking the team to the top. The
last year wasn’t that great for us at the PSL but this time we seemed to
have turned it around despite a slow start which is very exciting for
all of us. All we want to do is to continue enjoying playing as a team
and keep on winning our next games and then lift the trophy,
InshaAllah.”
With a hundred Twenty20
appearances, Shahzaib is by no means a newbie when it comes to this
high-octane style of cricket. What is heartening is to see that even
having scored over two-thousand-and five-hundred runs in this format of
the game, the right-handed batsman still feels he has a great deal to
learn from his illustrious team-mates as he stated, “Sangakkara is truly
a legend of the game and Chris Gayle’s name is enough to make any team
strong. I have had a lot of things to learn from both. They explained
how to play under pressure, under different conditions and how to assess
the bowling to get the most out of any situation. These are the types
of lessons that only such experts can teach you and I was lucky to be
able to gain that knowledge from such excellent players.”
Apart from star-players
on their register, Karachi Kings are also lucky to have the Pakistan
Head Coach Mickey Arthur as well as bowling coach Azhar Mahmood as part
of their coaching staff. For Shahzaib, the association with Mickey
Arthur goes back to the first edition of the PSL and he continues to be
impressed by Karachi Kings Head Coach.
“This was the second
time I have worked with Mickey and all I can say is that working with
someone so qualified and experienced is simply amazing from a players’
point of view. Apart from coaching Pakistan he has also coached some of
the top teams of the world and having someone of his calibre pay
attention to you as a player is really something. Not only Mickey, but
having Azhar Mahmood who himself is a well-established batsman was also
beneficial for me as he has played all over the world and his advice was
excellent. I am hoping that I can apply some of what Azhar taught me in
the future.”
A true judgement on the
quality of the PSL tournament in 2017 cannot ignore the darker aspects
of the ‘fixing’ scandal which broke out on the second day of the
tournament. Shahzaib Hasan’s own involvement in the affair as a
whistle-blower became well known but as far as he is concerned, this is
something which his team and he did not dwell on for too long, “The
whole issue was sad and we did not pay much attention to it as the main
aim of our presence at the PSL was to win the tournament. We had our own
issues with a slow start which was a bit of a wake-up call for us at
the start of the tournament. Our team management did not let us worry
too much about what was happening around us in regard to this issue and
we got on with our job.”
With the likes of Chris
Gayle and Kevin Pietersen expected to unleash a flood of runs, it may
have gone unnoticed that Shahzaib Hasan himself has a strong track
record in power-hitting. His belligerent innings of 171 from just 117
balls in the Regional One-Day cup in late January of this year simply
reinforced his reputation as a hard-hitting run-getter. It is,
therefore, strange in Shahzaib’s view that much is being made of the
lack of such players in the Pakistan line-up, “Whether your hitting
comes off on a certain day is really down to what happens in that
innings but I don’t agree that Pakistan lacks such type of batsmen. You
have to look for and identify such players and the main idea is to give a
consistent run to a player because only then can we develop such
players.”
The announcement that
the PSL 2017 final will be held in Pakistan on the 5th of March has been
met with mixed feelings from different quarters. However, as a player
who has not seen international cricket on home soil for many years,
Shahzaib is delighted about the prospects of such a top-level cricketing
contest being played in Lahore as he explained, “The PSL final in
Lahore will bring joy to the faces of our cricket-mad fans. As a player,
there is very little that compares to playing in front of our doting
fans and InshaAllah, the final will be a great occasion for all of us.
Of course, it will mean much more if Karachi qualify for the final and
we can lift the trophy in Lahore. If playing such a high-profile game
with some international players can also introduce international cricket
to Pakistan then that would be the proudest day for all of us”, he
concluded.
