By Sohail Ali
LAHORE, Apr 04 (APP): Head coach of Pakistan Cricket team, former test cricketer Saqlain Mushtaq has accepted that Pakistani spinners didn’t come up to expectations in the Test series against Australia and they need to improve and add more variations into their bowling.
Addressing a virtual press conference here on Monday Saqlain said: “I think our bowlers need to do more to add more variations into their bowling. “It is not that they bowled badly but to be fair to them, the pitches didn’t give them that much support but against top batting they need to improve upon their variations and come up with something different,” the former spin great said.
Saqlain praised the Australian batters for their commendable show but at the same time conceded that the hosts were not able to produce spin-friendly tracks, leading to their 0-1 series defeat. “There was spin in the Tests but not like you would find in India or Sri Lanka,” the champion spinner of yesteryears told media persons.
”I think in the last 8-10 years, they have improved a lot in playing spin because when I was playing, they couldn’t play spin that well and didn’t know how-to pickup differences for playing with the spin or against it. “But in this series, I thought Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith really batted well against us.”
The head coach hailed his boys for the historical series win where batters and bowlers both made performances. “This is historical, winning the ODI series against Australia 2-1 at home. Some phenomenal performances witnessed by the batters and bowlers. Keep supporting our great Pakistan.”
When asked whether he is working on part-time spinners to perform well in bowling department, Saqlain replied: “First of all, we need to wipe out this word of ‘part-time’ bowler or spinner. When a player is bowling, he is not a part-timer rather he is a ‘proper’ bowler and an ‘all-rounder’, and he must be made aware of his bowling strength and seriousness about bowling so that he may deliver well for the team in the time of need.”
