Imam-ul-Haq: 'I just want to be in my bubble where I am enjoying my game'

Pakistan batsman Imam-ul-Haq is enjoying the best season of his career. This year has been a prolific one for the left-handed batsman, with a few records thrown in for good measure.

Imam started 2022 with centuries in both innings of the Rawalpindi Test against Australia in what was a long-awaited tour by the Antipodean side. This, after spending well over a year out of the Test team and also fulfilling 12th man duties.

A fifty in the third Test was a precursor of a record run in white-ball cricket.

In the subsequent home ODI series, Imam blasted back-to-back centuries and capped the tour with an unbeaten 89.

The next assignment, against the visiting West Indies, produced three more fifties, taking his tally to six consecutive fifty-plus scores in ODIs this year and seven overall - making him just the second batsman after the legendary Javed Miandad to achieve that feat.

His run saw Imam climb to second spot in the ICC rankings for ODI batsmen, placing him behind national hero and captain Babar Azam and ahead of India's Virat Kohli.

It has been a satisfying turn of events for the bespectacled southpaw who has long faced criticism for his measured style of batting and also for perceived backing from the establishment; Imam is the nephew of legendary batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq, who was the chief selector until 2019.

“We were not playing white-ball [50-over] cricket [regularly] since 2019, just two or three series, and I was 12th man of the Test side. I was playing well but that form was not getting into matches,” Imam told The National from Sri Lanka ahead of the two-match Test series starting on Saturday.

“I knew I was in good form but was not getting opportunities. If you get opportunities to play continuously, you play