Haider Ali: Pakistan’s next batting superstar is now without a PSL deal, what’s next?

On an all too rare sunny September afternoon at the Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester, 19-year-old Haider Ali strides out to the crease and confidently marks his guard as he readies himself to face his first ball in international cricket, minutes after a Moeen Ali arm-ball lights up Fakhar Zaman’s stumps.

Haider assuredly clips his first ball through mid-on to score his first international run — and that is all the time he needs to get his eye in. Off his second ball, the right-hand batter from Attock gets down on one knee and authoritatively launches the ball over wide long-on for a massive six.

If the occasion overawes him, Haider shows no sign of it. He continues to pillage the England bowlers to all parts of the ground before departing for an enthralling 54 from just 33 balls.

A star is born. Haider is the solution to Pakistan’s T20 powerplay woes. He did it in the U19 World Cup, he did it in the PSL, and now, he is doing it in international cricket. He is all set to star for Pakistan – in limited overs cricket at least – for many years to come, right?

Fast forward three years, and Haider Ali finds himself far away from the Pakistan team, now also without a PSL contract. As dramatic as Haider Ali’s rise was, his fall has been even more startling.

A little over a year ago, Haider was part of the Pakistan XI that faced arch-rivals India in the T20 World Cup in Australia. Yesterday, all six PSL franchises looked past him. Where did it all go wrong?

Unfortunately, for all of Haider’s potential and promise, his debut innings against England is as good it has got, until this point in time at least. He followed his brilliant debut knock with another thrilling half-century in his third T20I innings against Zimbabwe but managed to cross 20 only twice in his next eleven innings, after which he was dropped from the side.

Though Haider’s stock was beginning to falter, he showed the world he was not going to be out of the international game for long as he dominated Pakistan’s National T20 Cup, scoring 317 runs at an average of 63.4 in eight games, in which he smashed a total of 15 sixes, the second most in the tournament. His domineering performances in domestic cricket allowed him to return to the 15-man Pakistan side that reached the semi-finals of the 2021 T20 World Cup, just five months after being dropped.

Although Haider did not play a game at the World Cup, his returns in the forthcoming series were impressive. He won the Player of the Match award in back-to-back games; the first for a disciplined 45 against Bangladesh, chasing 125 on a tricky Mirpur pitch, and the second for a ravishing 68 from just 39 deliveries against the West Indies in Karachi.

Just when it seemed like Haider had found the right balance between aggressive flair and composed batsmanship, he suffered from another wretched run of form, one riddled with poor dismissals from premeditated shots.

Haider’s continued struggles resulted in him being pushed down the batting order to become Pakistan’s finisher in their tri-series against New Zealand and Bangladesh in October 2022, after Asif Ali and Khushdil Shah struggled with the responsibility.

An impressive 31 at a strike-rate of over 200 in the tri-series final notwithstanding, Haider’s woes continued as his game became more limited that it was when he initially broke through into the Pakistan side. At the 2022 T20 World Cup, he scored two runs against India as Pakistan were bested by a Kohli special and scored a golden duck against Zimbabwe, missing a straight one, as Pakistan succumbed to a shock defeat. Haider was, unsurprisingly, dropped after this game.

He bounced back strongly after being in a similar position a year previously but there would be no such story for Haider this time, as things went from bad to worse.

Picked as a platinum player by Karachi Kings for the 2023 PSL season, Haider managed a meagre 109 runs from six games, striking at barely more than a run a ball, for which he was dropped from the Kings’ XI. Then, a middling season with Derbyshire in the T20 Blast was followed by a poor showing in the Asian Games, where Haider scored only six runs across two games against Hong Kong and Afghanistan. That run of form continued in the recently concluded National T20 Cup, the tournament Haider excelled in two years ago to force a return to the Pakistan team, as he scored only 130 runs all tournament, at an average of 14.44.

Haider has averaged 17.25 with the bat in the 54 T20 games he has played in the last two years — an average lower than Pat Cummins — and his rapidly regressing performances have led someone who was recently Pakistan’s brightest talent white-ball talent to fall out of favour with not only Pakistan’s first team, but their A side and the PSL too.

Perhaps time out of the limelight and scrutiny will do Haider good. He is still only 23 and has shown the world glimpses of his unquestionable talent. Even today, his career first-class average stands just below fifty – his ceiling remains high. Now, it is time for him to do something much harder. It is time for him to show the world that he is also tenacious; otherwise, he seems destined to become another one of the many Pakistani talents that fade into obscurity.