Speaking to the media ahead of Pakistan's tour to South Africa at the national stadium today, Hafeez said it was unfortunate that in the last few years, the team had played very few Test matches compared to other countries.
"Last year we played three Test matches against England in January. Than we played three Tests in Sri Lanka in June-July. Now we are going to play the world's number one Test side (South Africa) after a gap of six months. This is tough on the players," he said.
"We need to play more Tests because I believe players can only develop in this format not through T20 cricket. The two good players we have found since 2010 are Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq and this is because they have done well in Tests," Hafeez, who won the player of the year award at the first PCB annual awards held last week in Lahore for his all-round performances in all formats of the game, said.
Hafeez also heaped praise on Pakistan's Test captain, Misbah-ul-Haq for the team's consistent show in this format in the last two years despite some tough situations.
"Misbah-ul-Haq has led the side maturely. And we have had the same nucleus of players in Tests. There has been stability and consistency in selection and that has helped a lot."
Insisting that the players deserved credit for adjusting well to all formats of the game, Hafeez said, "The good thing is our players have been playing international cricket and lot of four-day domestic cricket." (MORE)