*LONDON – Revealing the secret behind his consistent batting in Testcricket, Pakistan all-rounder Shadab Khan said, “Whenever I go into bat, Ibat as if this was my last innings.”*
Speaking to the media after a disappointing day for Pakistan at Leeds, theleg-spinner admitted that he cannot fill the gap left by absence of YasirShah. “I didn’t do that well at Lord’s and I realize that I cannot fill thegap left by absence of Yasir but I will try my best,” he added.
Commenting on his batting performance he said, “There was swing and seam inthe second session today but I tried to bat the way I usually bat.”
“The weather makes a big difference as when we started to bowl, it was verysunny. Tomorrow, cloudy weather is expected so we will try to get Englandout quickly as possible,” the 19-year-old said.
When asked whether he would love to bat up the order or not, he replied,“All batsmen ahead of me are there as specialists and they are doing well.There have been no discussions about me being promoted up the battingorder.”
Comparing Test cricket with One Day Internationals (ODIs) and T20s, Shadabsaid, “[Test cricket] is quite difficult for me, especially compared to thekind of cricket I had played before.” He was quite pleased and satisfiedwith his performance in the longest format of the game. “I am glad that myform is good, I am scoring runs and taking wickets also. I am feeling goodabout myself; I played my first Test and then played a lot of T20Is andODIs which gave me a lot of experience of international cricket.”
Giving credit to England bowlers, he said, “The decision to bat first was agood one but England bowled well. Steve Smith is my favourite but I did notcome into this team as a batsman and my focus is on bowling.”