Never Blamed Anyone For Not Playing International Cricket For 10 Years - Fawad Alam

Pakistan’s middle-order batsman, Fawad Alam seems to have made peace with how things have gone by in the past decade. Alam, as a stylish left-handed youngster, made his Test debut in 2009 and notched up his maiden hundred in his debut Test against Sri Lanka. However, a couple of matches, later he was dropped, never to be picked again for 11 years.

Despite Alam leading the domestic run-charts, year after year, he was not included in Pakistan’s national team. Of the 11 years, he was away from international cricket, Alam averaged more than 50 in seven of those in first-class cricket.

It was assumed that it was Fawad Alam’s crab-like stance, which got weirder every year, that was the reason for his exclusion, but nobody said it out loud. As Fawad Alam says he himself didn’t call out anyone for his omission in spite of scoring heaps of runs in domestic cricket.

Fawad Alam said, “Whenever I spoke to the media, I have never blamed anyone for not playing international cricket for 10 years. If it was in my destiny, then nobody could have taken it away from me. I am not thinking about the 10 years that have gone by, I am focussed on what my destiny has in store for me.”

I don’t think about the 10 years going to waste: Fawad Alam

With Pakistan cricket not doing well outside UAE, and the retirement of veterans, Fawad was recalled in August 2020 after playing Test cricket last in November 2009. Alam scored a duck on his return against England, however, he grabbed the next chances with both hands.

The 35-year-old scored a century in New Zealand, and on Wednesday, against South Africa, bailing his team out from 27/4 to a position in which the hosts have taken a substantial lead, he scored his first ton at home, at the National Stadium in Karachi.

Alam, who has over 12,000 first-class runs, opines that his grind in domestic cricket is not going to waste as that has helped him make a comeback in the national team. Alam, as a patient he has been for a decade, hopes to capitalize on whatever cricket is left in him.

“I am looking to perform in whatever chances I get, even in domestic cricket as it’s my bread and butter. I am not thinking on the lines that I have lost 10 years. I don’t think about the 10 years going to waste. How can I say all the runs and records made in domestic cricket went in vain? I thank the almighty for whatever I have achieved and the respect that I have earned,” Fawad Alam added.

“I had my heart set on playing a Test match at my home ground in Karachi. This was also my Test debut in Pakistan and I had asked the Almighty to give me respect at my home venue and he did that,” the southpaw further said.

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