Legendary Pakistani pacer Wasim Akram put forth some hard questions to national team batting coach Mohammad Yousuf after Pakistan suffered a brutal loss in the 6th T20I to England, who chased down 170 runs in 14.3 overs.
During an interview in the aftermath of the drubbing Pakistan received, Wasim and Yousuf sat down for a chat and the former pacer questioned the batting coach about Pakistani batters’ ability to play big shots.
“Forget 360, can they even play 180 degree?” he asked batting coach Mohammad Yousuf in a television chat.
“Ben Duckett bowler ko, especially spinners ko set hone deta hi nahi. Vo har jagah shots maarta hai. Agar main Pakistan ke against khelu, toh mujhe pata hoga inhone kidhar shots maarni hain. Vo versatile nahi hain. Koi koshish bhi nahi karta. 360 is too much to ask, 180 hi kar lein. Ye practice karte ho aap, aur agar karte ho toh apply kyun nahi karte?” he bluntly asked his former colleague.
Yousuf smiled and said he is doing his best to improve the all-around hitting abilities of his batsmen.
“I’m making a conscious effort. I talk to (spin bowling coach) Saqlain bhai about this. When they play spinners, I stand behind and suggest to our batsmen a number of different shots, play this shot at this ball, this at this.
Recently against West Indies, Khushdil attempted reverse-sweep; even here, he struck Moeen Ali over extra cover. So, we are trying. I don’t know if the people before me did this as well, but I keep trying, even talk to selectors about and other support staff as well,” Yousuf said.
Akram had another query. “Who gives them the freedom and confidence to play these strokes? How do they get it? You can try in the nets, but to do that in the game, it is difficult.”
Yousuf replied: “The first stage is to practice in the nets, the second is to implement those in practice games, but we don’t get too many of those. We keep telling that if there is an intent, there is no problem in getting out. The intent, in the modern game, is to hit a boundary on every ball, if it’s a difficult ball, take a single. That’s the demand of modern-day cricket. The players know that and they are trying.”
“I remember that when I started playing cricket for Pakistan, I didn’t have too many shots either, but I learned a lot from talking to guys like Salim Malik, Ijaz Ahmed, Saeed Anwar and it took me a lot of years to develop the game. It’s happening in this team as well,” he said
Akram was critical of how England outplayed Pakistan in all departments.
“England played fearless cricket (in the last game). Fearless cricket. We were more cautious after the previous games, but England was the opposite. Within the first two overs, the game got over. They never stopped. When we bat, we like to take the game to the 19th over. But they just keep hitting, hitting. Opposition gets demoralized,” he said.
(Indian Express inputs)
