Haris Sohail happy to play as an 'all-rounder'

E-Paper | June 07, 2026

DUBAI: Pakistan's newcomer Haris Sohail Tuesday showed confidence he can help his team's bowling which has been hit badly by the suspension of ace spinner Saeed Ajmal and all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez.

The 25-year-old bowled ten overs for 39 runs before hitting an unbeaten career best 85 to anchor Pakistan's three-wicket win in the first one-day international against New Zealand in Dubai on Monday.

His left-arm slow bowling enabled Pakistan to overcome the loss of Hafeez who was suspended on Sunday over illegal bowling action.

On Monday, Hafeez played as batsman only with Sohail coming to the rescue as fifth bowler in the match, a cause of delight for the youngster.

“I am very happy to help Pakistan's bowling,” said Sohail, who had bowled only 68 deliveries in 57 first-class matches before Monday.

“I have been bowling in the nets for two to three hours daily and the spin bowling coach (Mushtaq Ahmed), coach (Waqar Younis) and skipper (Misbah-ul Haq) all gave me confidence and it was a great encouragement,” said Sohail.

Pakistan have named both Hafeez and Ajmal in their preliminary 30-man squad for next year's World Cup but would need extra help in bowling in case both failed to get cleared.

The International Cricket Council Tuesday cleared Sri Lanka's Sachitra Senanayake and New Zealand's Kane Williamson after re-tests.

Both were suspended over illegal bowling action in July this year.

Sohail hoped his match-winning performance will help him in future.

“I am confident that my performance will help me cement my place in the team,” said Sohail, who added a match-turning 110 runs for the seventh wicket with all-rounder Shahid Afridi who made 61.

Their partnership helped Pakistan recover from a precarious 124-6 to chase down the 247-run target in 49.3 overs.

The remaining matches will be played in Sharjah (December 12 and 14) and Abu Dhabi (December 17 and 19).

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Canada

Dec 09, 2014 09:10pm

According to PCB logic and merit based system. Haris will not play again and S Malik will replace him.

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hrk

Dec 09, 2014 10:17pm

It is too early to call him an all rounder. With no experience at all in bowling department, the experiment might not always work.

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Atif

Dec 09, 2014 10:34pm

Pakistan need pace bowling all rounders in Australia and New Zealand. Instead, we have hours and hours invested in spinning all rounders, and there is all the talk of bringing back a tried and tested failure in Shoaib Malik. Pak should have invested the same effort in grooming Hammad Azam, Anwar Ali and Bilawal Bhatti instead. Bhatti is in the ODI squad and Anwar Ali was strangely sent back after the T20s when batting wise, he is more suited to ODIs.

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sami

Dec 10, 2014 12:20am

@Atif Agree, but honestly we need a batsman allrounder not a bowler allrounder.. Anwar and Balawal are bowler allrounders, don't know about Hamad Azam. Is there someone like Abdul Razaq???

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ksch

Dec 10, 2014 02:08am

May not be good idea to bowl him out every time. Nz lost wickets and were looking to rebuild when he bowled. If pk want to play with 4 main bowlers and 5 th coming from elsewhere then some one else need to share his load. Ahmed Shahzad should bowl 3-4 overs regularly. And also in worldcup they will need medium pace all rounder. From squad: bhatti or anwar.

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Salma

Dec 10, 2014 09:17am

Bhatti and Anwar are second rated bowlers who get hammered for 10 an over even in the domestic matches. And both of them are as good batsmen as Wahab and Umar Gul are, nothing more nothing less. Hammad Azzam is a decent allrounder. In th QA trophy, he has taken 35 wickets at an average of 15, and every one knows, he is a much better batsman than the above two.

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Burki

Dec 10, 2014 02:33pm

yet another aspiring all rounder! nunnay mian, focus on just one area and develop yourself as a specialist. We already have bunch of those so called all rounders Hafeez, Afridi, Malik etc. they come dime a dozen. I'd rather have Afridi the leg spinner over Afridi the all rounder in the team, anyday anytime.

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Irshad ul Hassan

Dec 10, 2014 03:46pm

@Salma ......agreed....Hammad Azam is the most talented player among all youngsters.

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khalid

Dec 11, 2014 02:37am

Pakistan unbelievable victory last Monday proved everyone they are capable of changing game at any part of there innings to win it for Pakistan.harris and sahid afridi's outstanding innings cruised towards a comfortable victory for Pakistan last Monday at Dubai.there high cricket standards proved there outstanding class.they have played like cornered tigers.sahid afridi batting was an absolute delight to watch.he performed with absolute class helped Pakistan to win it's first one day international.i think maximum gratitude shall be given to sahid towards his performance with exceptionaly talented class as a batsmen to hit high altitude sixes with a brilliant attitude.i keep my fingers crossed to wish him the best during upcoming 2015 world cup.

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