Former England captain Michael Vaughan and Pakistan’s Director of Cricket Mohammad Hafeez buried the hatchet as they shared a friendly moment during the first Test between Australia and Pakistan at the Optus Stadium in Perth. The encounter followed a recent social media banter where the two cricketing personalities expressed differing opinions on Virat Kohli's batting in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023.
Hafeez had criticized Kohli's approach in the 49th over of a match against South Africa, accusing him of prioritizing personal milestones over the team's needs. Vaughan, in defence of Kohli, reminded Hafeez of being one of the victims of Kohli's bowling in a T20 World Cup match between India and Pakistan in 2012. Despite their differences, the duo seemed to have set aside their past disagreements and happily posed for a selfie, which Vaughan shared on the social media platform 'X' with the caption, "Great to catch up with @MHafeez22 in #Perth."
This meeting comes after Hafeez had previously urged Vaughan to refrain from commenting on Pakistan cricket matters, especially criticizing the treatment of Babar Azam after Pakistan's disappointing ODI World Cup campaign. Babar later stepped down from captaincy in all formats, with Shan Masood named as the new Test skipper and Shaheen Shah Afridi taking over leadership in ODIs and T20Is.
The ongoing Test series between Pakistan and Australia marks a significant challenge for the visitors, who have never won a Test series against Australia and last tasted victory on Australian soil in 1995. The two teams have announced their starting XIs for the match, with Australia featuring David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (C), Nathan Lyon, and Josh Hazlewood. Pakistan's starting XI includes Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood (C), Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Aamer Jamal, and Khurram Shahzad.
