Shoaib Maqsood Reveals about his Downfall in International Cricket
Oct 15, 2017 at 4:16 PM
The discarded Pakistan middle-order batsman Sohaib Maqsood straightaway hold himself responsible for the early exit from the national team after he subsequently failed to leave an impact with the bat following his inability to convert his scores into something big.
“When I was playing consistently, I had so many chances to convert starts into big innings. I let myself down with some below-par performances,” Maqsood told PakPassion.net
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Limited-overs specialist Maqsood was touted as veteran Inzamam-ul-Haq’s look-alike with the bat, as the former cricketers termed 30-year-old batsman great find for Pakistan after Inzamam bid adieu to the gentleman’s game in 2007.
The Multan-born Maqsood further went on to say that his shot selection was solely part of the situation when team required quick runs when he mostly batted at number five or six respectively.
Maqsood, who last represented Pakistan in Hamilton against on January 17, 2016, reiterated he struggled with the wrist injury, as his short international stint has nothing promising on offer so far.
“I’d put that down to bad performances. Other than that, the wrist injury I sustained was a major setback in my career,” Maqsood maintained.
Maqsood’s highest individual score of unbeaten 89 off 73 balls which came against Sri Lanka at Hambantota in 2014, after showing lot of character early on when he made his debut in August 2013 against Zimbabwe at Harare,
The injury-marred Maqsood further revealed his ordeal while stating he has experienced a tough phase while nursing the wrist injury which has further made things miserable for the promising prospect during his peak days eventually in the domestic set-up.
“A bone was removed from my hand, and two years on, I still have not entirely recovered from the operation I underwent. I have had a decent amount of injuries in my career,” Maqsood remarked.
Interestingly, Maqsood, who was compared with concurrent PCB’s national chief selector Inzamam further failed to live up to the expectations after dominating in the domestic cricket.
“I was able to return stronger as a player and was able to put up notable performances in the domestic circuit,” Maqsood further added.
Further, Maqsood pointed out that professional players are bound to be psychologically strong, to make most of the lost time on their return to top-level cricket.
“As a professional cricketer, you have to be mentally strong in order to lift yourself up in such situations, where you are down and tackling an injury,” Maqsood asserted.
Maqsood played 26 One-day internationals in which he amassed 735 runs at an average of 31.95. He went on to register five fifties to his name in 25 50-over innings.
Moreover, in 20 Twenty20 internationals, Maqsood has failed to impress the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) national selectors, as he averaged at unimpressive 13.81 in the shortest version of the game.
With his prime focus on fitness, Maqsood believes being hundred percent fit allow players to pay rich dividends for respective teams while concluding with the observation that Pakistan’s fitness standards among athletes have improved a lot with the time following the major overhauling.
“The most important aspect which I feel I need to work on and improve on is my fitness,” Maqsood concluded.
In 61 first-class matches, Maqsood scored 3,744 runs at an average of 43.53. He smashed eight hundreds and 23 fifties, whereas, in 96 List-A fixture he averages at 38.14.