Pakistan's rising cricketing talent Haider Ali enjoyed great success in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) as he was one of the highest run-getters in the tournament. The star batsman earned his first senior call-up recently for Pakistan's much-awaited tour of England later this year. Pakistan will play three Tests and as many T20Is against England between August 5 to September 1.
The 19-year-old considers team India's fiery opener Rohit Sharma as his role model and desires to get big scores just like the Hitman.
"As far as role models are concerned, mine is Rohit Sharma," said Haider in a video conference with reporters. "I really like him as a player, and want to give the side an aggressive start at the top, and hit the ball cleanly like him."
Rohit Sharma is the only batsman to have scored three ODI double centuries and Haider said that he wants to have the mentality that Rohit has which will allow him to score big.
"He (Rohit) is a man for all three formats, and he can adapt his game to all three formats. And the thing I like best is when he crosses 50, he moves on to a 100, and then he's thinking of 150, and even 200. That's what I want to do: to think about getting big scores, and when I get there, aim for even bigger ones. He finishes the game off for his side, and is a real match-winner," Haider said.
Haider, who plays for Peshawar Zalmi’s in PSL, scored 239 runs in 9 games for his franchise before the tournament was called off due to the rise of deadly coronavirus pandemic.
Pakistan's 29-member Squad for England tour: Abid Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali (captain), Babar Azam (Test vice-captain and T20I captain), Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmad, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Imran Khan, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sohail Khan, Usman Shinwari, Wahab Riaz, Imad Wasim, Kashif Bhatti, Shadab Khan and Yasir Shah.