Imam-ul-Haq reveals what made him cry in the shower before his international debut

Imam-ul-Haq revealed that he was demoralised before he had even started his international cricketing career. Imam is the nephew of former Pakistan skipper and 1992 World Cup winner Inzamam-ul-Haq and according to him, he had doubted his abilities after people had started accusing him of having got into the national side only because of nepotism. Imam was a part of Pakistan's World Cup 2019 squad and Inzamam had served as the chief selector of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) at that time.

'I remember crying in the shower': Imam-ul-Haq

While speaking to former  Indian wicket-keeper batsman Deep Dasgupta in an interview for ESPNcricinfo, the opening batsman revealed that he had only one friend when he was picked in the Pakistani squad and that was the current limited-overs skipper and top-ranked T20I batsman Babar Azam but at the same time, there was a communication gap between both of them as Azam was playing regularly for the national team while he was playing domestic cricket as a result of which they were not talking a lot. He then mentioned that when all this was happening, he would have his meals all alone.

Recalling his debut series against Sri Lanka in 2017, the southpaw added that whenever he would open his phone, there were people tagging him on social media posts and sending him stuff due to which he was disheartened and couldn’t understand anything. Furthermore, he added that he also stopped talking to his family because he did not want to put them under any pressure that he is facing problems due to which the left-handed batsman switched off and handed both his mobile phones to his manager.

Imam, who is second-fastest batsman to score 1,000 runs in the 50-overs batsman then mentioned that even before he had played at the highest level, he was crying in the shower for hours as he was surrounded by self-doubt and the only thing that was running constantly in his mind was that he had not even played in the national team yet and what will be the consequence if he plays and does not perform well and will that be the end of his career?

At the same time, the youngster also revealed that he would not step a foot out of his room fearing people might trouble him outside because there is a large Pakistan community in Dubai.

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(Image Courtesy: AP)