Prior to Australia's tour of Pakistan, the two cricket heavyweights faced off against each other at the semifinals of the T20 World Cup last year as well, where the Australians had defeated the side to reach the title clash. During that game, Pakistan pacer Hasan Ali infamously dropped Matthew Wade in the 19th over of the run chase, as Australia reached their target of 177 runs with an over to spare.
Ali faced a lot of backlash on social media following the incident but has continued to for Pakistan. Currently representing Lancashire in the English County Championships, the Pakistan star opened up on the dropped catch in the T20 WC last year in an interview with Pakistan's cricket website PakPassion.
“That dropped catch in the semi-final against Australia did give me nightmares for a couple of nights. I was in deep shock and felt very low for letting the side down at that point and couldn’t figure out how and why I dropped that catch. Especially given that as an individual and a team we trained very hard on our fielding so it was a tough pill to swallow for me but as a professional I do know that such things can happen again, just like dropped catches have happened in the past as well,” Ali explained.
The 27-year-old further revealed he feels people 'hate' him for the mistake, but also mentioned that he will continue to work on his game, “Of course, for me, it’s more painful because I feel that people have started to hate me and started believing that I am incapable of playing for Pakistan. Obviously, this would have been a different story had I held on to that catch but that is the past and no one can change that."
“Of course, there is no guarantee that I will take all my catches in the future, but what I can assure everyone is that I will continue to work hard on all aspects of my game," said Ali.
