England seemed to be in apparent jeopardy as their players dropped left and right ahead of the New Zealand tour. They needed someone to step up to the task as post the New Zealand series, India was up against them. The man called for action was a young Haseeb Hameed who found a shot at redemption after being chosen for the ongoing series between India and England.
The opening matches couldn’t really see him fire as Siraj, Shami, Bumrah and Ishant were on target but the third Test at Headingley brought out the best in the opener as he managed to smash a well-stitched 68, helping England to set a podium of destruction.
Much to the contrary belief, Hameed made his debut in 2016. However, it needed a couple of injuries and a solid century against India in the practice match to make a cut for himself in the national team. Though it may seem that his carnage against India is new but it actually dates back a staggering 5 years when he played a couple of amazing knocks against the Indians.
Haseeb Hameed has his first 50 in Test cricket since 2016!
A special moment at Headingley.#ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/7tNkWf1rvJ
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) August 25, 2021
Haseeb became the youngest debutant to open for England when he played against India in Rajkot in 2016. To spice things up, he managed to smash a scintillating 82 on his very debut becoming the third youngest English batsman to achieve the feat of a half-century.
Despite a decent start to his career, he started floundering in the next matches that left his career in question. This, however, didn’t dampen his spirits as the man fought with a broken finger to score a half-century batting at number 8 despite the effort going in vain.
In the three Test matches that he played, he managed two half-centuries and a decent average of 43 plus. Sadly, for the youngster, his career was threatened by the injury that took its toll and forced him to wait on the fringes for five staggering years before he could again make a return.
He has so far been a part of 77 first-class matches and managed to garner 3821 runs at an average of 32 plus while his 19 List A matches have seen him scoring 556 runs.
