In a clip that Pakistan’s Cricket board (PCB) presented after Pakistan’s 3-0 sweep on Bangladesh last month, Mohammad Haris issued when his captain Salman Ali Agha joked that “it was probably the first time he used his brain.”
The comment was ironic because Haris is known by the nickname ‘Mr. Google ‘among his teammates, due to his intelligence of Crickt.
Such public relations content is mainly used to show camaraderie among players and provide fans healthy moments to appreciate. Sometimes, it also offers a look at the costumes.
Haris, that night, had become the first unopened batter of Pakistan to score a century in T20I, while facing only 45 balls, the second minimum for any batter in his country, to reach the brand. It was also his first century in all T20.
Haris had been censored for a long time for being an reckless and considered not good enough for international Cricket. He averaged an insignificant 13.46 races for dismissal and lasted only 11 balls per tickets before the house is T20is against Bangladesh. Do you think you have silenced your critics for now?
“This is just the beginning, since I have to do more to silence them,” he tells Eos with all humility.
Once ridiculed as a more reckless site he always played below his potential, Mohammad Haris seemed to be a different player in the recent T20i series of Bangladesh Home, where he scored his first century T20. What changed it?
Haris had a sensational start in his international career and played an integral role in Pakistan’s career for the 2022 T20 World Cup final, with the scores of 28 free in a high pressure match and must win against South Africa, 31 of 18 against Bangladesh and 30 of 26 against 26 against New Zealand in the semifinal. He was being prepared as a second choice goalkeeper behind Mohammad Rizwan in the white ball cryket, but then slid to oblivion due to the turbulence that the successive Ad-Hoc management committees brought to the PCB.
His return to the national side in March, after a gap of almost two years, was due to a paradigm shift in the Pakistan approach to the T20 format.
In fact, 2024 was a terrible year for Pakistan, since they only gathered nine victories of 24 games and lost in the United States on their way at the exit of the group stage in the World Cup T20 that year. Its slow racing accumulation rate was considered the reason behind the abject results. From the beginning of 2022 to the end of 2024, Pakistan’s execution rate of 8.04 was the fifth worse among the 12 teams of full members.
After the ignominy of the World Cup, Pakistan issued his two most consistent but slow runners in Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan and doubled on the philosophy of hitting with intention and aggression by presenting his most recent set of changes: Agha as Captain and Mike Hesson as a chief coach, as the requirements for the criteria of the modern day.
But Pakistan’s first T20 series without Babar and Rizwan resulted in a 4-1 battle in New Zealand. (This was the last series of AAQIB Javed as the chief coach of Pakistan and the first of Agha). Haris, who had been added to the higher order to inject the aggression, managed only 11 races in 16 balls in the first two games: a six ball duck scored its first international output since 2023. He published his highest score of T20i of 41 in the third game, but later finished the series with a series with a series with a series with a series with a series with a series with a series.
“There is enormous pressure when you play for your country and I could not sleep before the third T20I, since I kept thinking about how to score races,” he recalls. “But, the coaches and the captain continued to show their confidence in me, which motivated me.
“I talked to Pakistan’s rapid bowling players about possible bowling plans against me. I spoke with Nasem Shah, [Mohammad] Wasim Junior, Abbas Afridi and Hasan [Ali] Bhai and his ideas were extremely useful. They told me that aggressive batters like Fakhar Zaman and I don’t have to go overboard with our shots.
“I used to try to hit the ball behind the square unnecessarily or drag the leg side without any reason. They told me that I would have left in the wickt, since my presence was enough to create pressure for the opposition. I worked on that and I realized that the bowling players hit the bad balls for me due to that pressure,” says Haris.
Haris’s cunning against Bangladesh caught his attention. He scored almost half of his races in T20is in those three games and limited the series with a twinkling 107 not out of 46, destroying seven six and eight four four when Pakistan pursued 197 with 2.4 overs to spare.
“I entered the Bangladesh series under pressure. Previously, I had an excuse of being in alien conditions, but now I was playing at home and had not hidden. But, the century gave me a lot of confidence. He assured me that I could play great tickets. I have been labeled as someone who is only good enough for 25 to 30 races. Even my coach here in Peshawar used to ask me when I noted more than 30 races.
“I began to question myself too,” he says.
The line between the batting with ultra or controlled aggression is often blurred and if the brand with which a team played in a particular day was correct or is not determined only in retrospect, depending on the result. That is the sad reality of the business -oriented business. But, it is important that teams learn lessons.
“We weren’t intelligent enough in New Zealand and we were stunning blindly,” Haris admits. “We had meetings with the coaches after the New Zealand series and we argue how we have to be intelligent while we stay aggressive …
“We have an intelligence rooted in our batting by keeping the marker marked, which exerts pressure on the opposition. Now we seek to choose favorable clashes, make sure you do not take unnecessary risks when we have obtained sufficient limits on again and communicate to build associations.”
To convince players to adapt according to the new demands can often be a challenge, since elite players can be too arrogant to change their game styles. But Haris has brought a new philosophy. The first signs of that were the night of May 28, when he scored only seven of the first eight balls to stabilize Pakistan’s tickets after having lost both openers in the first eight balls.
It rose to 24 of the next nine. He made 41 of 25 in the next game, since Pakistan published 201 in the first two games.
“There will be failures with this approach, but now we have a captain and a team administration that is ready to support and possess those failures,” he says. “Previously, that was not the case, and used to sow thoughts in our minds that we might play to ensure our places after a couple of failures.
“Our coaches have realized that we are capable players and that they are working with us on how they can make our potential into races in the field. I am working closest with our bat coach Hanif [Malik] Bhai. I tend to think excessively when I beat, but now I communicate with him through different signs when I am in the middle and helps me calm. My game has improved. “
Haris understands the message in the irony of what his captain, Agha, had said with reference to his nickname, Mr. Google.
“That nickname has been applicable in all aspects of my Cricket, but in the batting,” he says laughing. “I have no idea why that is the case. I give the best tips when I am in the locker room, keeping the wickts or captaining a side. My teammates, such as Saim Ayub, question where all my intelligence is going when I am batting.
“But I am working to bring that intelligence in my batting now. It’s 2025 and it’s time for I had an update.”
The writer is a former PCB media administrator.
You can contact ahsannagi@gmail.com
X: @ahsannagi
Posted in Dawn, EOS, July 20, 2025
