Give up bowling and focus on batting: Akram to Hafeez

Karachi, Nov 18 (PTI) Pakistan fast bowling great, Wasim Akram has advised Muhammad Hafeez to give up bowling and just focus on his batting in a bid to extend his cricket career.

"I think Hafeez should give up bowling now and just concentrate on his batting. Work harder on his batting," Wasim told reporters here.

Hafeez's bowling action has been found to be illegal for a third time by the International Cricket Council (ICC) last month and he has been suspended from bowling in international cricket on Thursday until he clears a biomechanics test.

The ICC decision to suspend Hafeez from bowling came this week after the Pakistani allrounder failed his bowling assessment test held in England.

Wasim said Hafeez should have taken a decision about his bowling even before the ICC match officials reported him and he failed the bowling test.

"I think Hafeez does not realise that he has been bowling a lot and when he bowls a lot he tends to get tired which is natural and that is when I think his elbow extension exceeds the 15 degrees extension allowed by the ICC," Wasim said.

The former captain said there was no doubt that Pakistan required Hafeez's allround skills and he had served the national team well.

But he noted that after the ICC's revised laws on illegal bowling actions, Hafeez should have thought about his career specially after he was first suspended from bowling in 2014.

Hafeez, 37, in fact, had only resumed bowling again last December after completing a 12-month ban and getting his action cleared in Brisbane.

The ICC had banned Hafeez for a year from bowling in July, 2015 and before that also in December, 2014.

Wasim said Hafeez should now give up bowling and accept himself in the role of a batsman only.

"He is experienced and he just needs to work harder on his batting and it will be good for his career," he added.

Hafeez on Thursday decided to skip going to play in the Bangladesh Premier League and work on his bowling action at the PCB's biomechanics lab at the LUM's university in Lahore