A right-handed batter and canny off-spinner, Hafeez represented Pakistan in 392 matches across the three formats, playing his part in the side that went to No.1 in the Test rankings in 2016 and then the one that lifted the Champions Trophy a year later. Only four of his countrymen have secured more international caps.

In recent years, it’s white-ball cricket in which Hafeez has kept up appearances, but he enjoyed a lengthy Test career too before announcing his retirement from the format in 2018. Despite making his debut in 2003 and hitting a century in his second Test against Bangladesh, Hafeez didn’t establish himself in the Pakistan Test XI until Misbah-ul-Haq took up the captaincy in 2010. As an opening batter, Hafeez hit 2,430 Test runs at an average of 44.18 from the start of 2011 to the end of 2015, including seven hundreds – in that same period only Alastair Cook and David Warner hit more runs at the top of the order in the format.

He eventually fell out of form and favour, playing just eight Tests from 2016 to 2018 but still found time for a knock of 126 against Australia in Dubai in his second-last Test series. It was his 10th Test hundred and his ninth in Asia – he averaged 46.29 with the bat in the continent. He struggled elsewhere though, crossing fifty just twice in 33 Test innings outside of Asia. He played a part-time role with the ball in red-ball cricket but interestingly enjoyed contrasting fortunes to his batting – in 26 Tests away from Pakistan and the UAE, he collected 31 wickets at an average of 27.61, an improvement on his overall average of 34.11.

In ODI cricket, Hafeez climbed to the top of the ICC’s all-rounder rankings at the start of 2013, his best calendar year as a 50-over batter. He hit 1,301 ODI runs in 2013 at an average of 46.46, including five of his 11 ODI centuries – only Misbah made more ODI runs that year worldwide. While most of Hafeez’s ODI career was spent as an opener, he was perhaps best used at No.3, where he averaged 41.02 in 56 innings. At the back-end of his ODI career he graduated to the middle order and had his moments there too; his first innings as a No.5 was in the 2017 Champions Trophy final, when he hit 57 not out off just 37 deliveries to elevate Pakistan to a match-winning total against India.

Throw in 139 wickets at an average of 38.84 and Hafeez sits high among the charts for his country: only one other man has managed to both hit more runs and take more wickets in ODI cricket for Pakistan – Shahid Afridi.

In T20I cricket, Hafeez was not in the picture for Pakistan’s greatest moment in the format, the 2009 World T20, but stands as their second most capped player and second highest run-scorer. You don’t have to go back too far to see his highlights in the shortest international form; in 2020 he took his game to a new level, finishing it with 415 runs at an average of 83 and strike rate of 153 – no one made more T20I runs that calendar year. Hi all-round prowess extended itself to 61 wickets at a lowly average of 22.75, while he captained Pakistan in 29 matches from 2012 to 2014, winning 17.

Across the board, Hafeez was able to win matches for his country – he was Player of the Match on 32 occasions across all formats and Player of the Series nine times. His longevity is on show here too: his first Player-of-the Match performance came after he hit a half-century in an ODI against Sri Lanka in 2003, while his last was in July 2021, when he opened the bowling and collected figures of 1-6 after four overs in a T20I win over the West Indies.