Rising star Haris Sohail was hit for six when he woke in the middle of the night sensing a spectre, according to Pakistan media reports.

The 26-year-old was convinced a malevolent ghost had pushed him while he slept at the Rydges Latimer Christchurch, a source told NZME.

Sohail apparently called his team bosses and by the time they appeared on the scene he had developed a high fever.

So horror-stricken was the all-rounder, he insisted on being immediately moved to another room.

Since his otherworldly encounter, Sohail has reportedly been so "freaked out" he has been unable to resume training.

"He's not trained for two days because he's so traumatised. He's pretty freaked out," a source told NZME.

He missed Pakistan's first World Cup warm-up match against the New Zealand President XI on Sunday. It was uncertain if he would have recovered enough to play in the second warm-up match on Tuesday.

Sohail is not the first cricketer to be bowled over by a ghostly encounter.

Australian all-rounder Shane Watson was troubled by an ill-natured presence while he stayed at the Lumley Castle Hotel in England in 2005.

He famously fled to Brett Lee's room, and was mercilessly taunted by cries of "boo!" on the pitch.

Watson later claimed he had not actually seen a ghost but had been wound up by the team bus driver's local legends.

"Then I went back to my room, and it was a tiny little room, and I had to walk through a dungeon to get there, so I got a bit spooked out. I didn't see anything but it was a very spooky sort of place and it definitely freaked me out, things that probably aren't there but some people believe are there … I think I've grown up a bit since then," Watson said in reflection a few years later.

English paceman Stuart Broad was also haunted out of sleep and asked to change rooms while staying at a five-star hotel in London last year.

The Langham Hotel is notorious for its room 333 - "the most haunted room in London" - and there have been many claims in the past of ghosts pursuing hapless guests.

"It was so hot in the room I just couldn't sleep. All of a sudden the taps in the bathroom came on for no reason. I turned the lights on and the taps turned themselves off. Then when I turned the lights off again the taps came on. It was very weird,"  Broad told the Daily Mail.