Imam-ul-Haq: Not my fault that I am Inzamam-ul-Haq’s nephew

Pakistan's national selector Inzamam-ul-Haq had selected his nephew Imam-ul-Haq for the ODI series against Sri Lanka.

A couple of weeks back when Pakistan‘s national selector Inzamam-ul-Haq had selected his nephew Imam-ul-Haq for the ODI series against Sri Lanka, the 21-year old’s position in the team was immediately questioned. It was being speculated that being Inzamam’s nephew, Imam had got the advantage to break into the squad. However, Imam silenced the critics on Wednesday when he slammed a century on his debut off 125 deliveries, as he steered Pakistan to a seven-wicket win in the third of the five-ODI series at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. He also became the second Pakistan batsman after Saleem Elahi to score a ton on debut. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: Pakistan vs Sri Lanka 2017-18, 2nd ODI at Abu Dhabi

Speaking on the record, he said, “Very proud about it. Honestly, I didn’t know about that record. Once I had gone back to the dressing room Sarfraz [Ahmed] told me. Great feeling to score a hundred on debut. It’s a proud moment for me, very happy to do it for Pakistan.” On being asked if there was pressure on him, since he was the nephew of Inzamam, he calmly said, “”It makes no difference to me because I have grown up in a [cricketing] family. I have self belief and I am mature. I have played in Junior World Cups and have performed well to win in domestic matches. My best answer is to perform. If I don’t perform then people will criticise.” Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq star in 3rd ODI; Pakistan seal series 3-0 against Sri Lanka

“It’s not my fault that I am his nephew. I can’t help that. I am not answerable to that. The best I can do is to answer with my bat. I will have failures and every player has that failure,” he added, as reported by Cricbuzz. He also spoke on how he had almost squandered his opportunity to get the ton on Wednesday. “I was thinking that I had messed up a great opportunity to score a hundred. Thank god it didn’t carry and [Mohammed ] Hafeez told me to stop. It was a great feeling to get back and get that hundred,” he concluded.

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