ISLAMABAD – Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Amir believes that a lack ofconfidence in his skills was behind his decline as a strike force inlimited-overs cricket this year, which saw him dropped from all threeformats over the past month.
Amir was part of Pakistan’s T20I side that won a tri-series in Zimbabwe inJuly, taking the most wickets as they beat Australia in the final, but helost his place for the series against Australia this month. Before that,poor ODI form led him to be axed from the Test team that beat Australia 1-0recently.
The 26-year-old said that failing in a sequence of ODI matches left himdiscouraged after exerting his body to its limits over since he returnedfrom a five-year ban in 2016.
“I was feeling that I was lacking confidence. As a professional sportsman,the first thing that you lose is confidence when you realise you are unableto perform,” he said. “The skills remain the same even then. They are thesame with which you had taken wickets earlier. But, when you are unable toperform for two, three, four games, you go down mentally and yourconfidence takes a hit which hampers your performance,” he said in aninterview with Cricbuzz.
Since returning to international cricket, Amir missed just one Test matchuntil he lost his place last month on account of poor ODI form. SincePakistan lifted the ICC Champions Trophy in England last summer, Amirmanaged three wickets in ten ODIs and was axed after five wicketlessmatches, three of which came during the Asia Cup last month. Amir’s ODIbowling average this year stands at 100.66 and his strike-rate is awhopping 140.
“It was both mental and physical [pressure] in my case. I was feeling thatI needed rest as I was playing cricket regularly for the past three years.It is good for me that I am here in domestic. I can now enhance my skillsand rebuild my confidence… So far everything is going well. I have beenplaying four-day matches and have also played one-dayers. I am feeling goodand can feel my body recovering. I gave my body rest after the Asia Cup.
“No doubt, it is tough. There are a lot of factors. This is cricket andthere’s no guarantee for us that we will get five wickets or three wicketsevery day. You look at both negatives and positives in cricket and youshould know how to manage them. In one-day cricket you have to work on yourskills more to increase the ratio of your wickets.”
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Amir also revealed that he had spoken to Pakistan skipper Sarfraz Ahmed,head coach Mickey Arthur and chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq regarding hisworkload.
“I had a proper discussion with Inzi bhai, Saifi bhai and Mickey Arthurabout my workload and we talked about every aspect of it. Playing threeformats is not very easy for any fast bowler. Mitchell Starc just returnedand got a niggle after playing just two matches. Nobody is superman,” hesaid.
“Our discussions ended on a positive note as both Inzi and Mickey decidedto manage my workload efficiently. There was no communication gap amongstus and there were very honest discussion about this… There’s so muchcricket these days that it becomes very difficult for a fast bowler torecover and work on physical fitness.
Sometimes the mental and physical fatigue keeps a batsman or bowler fromdelivering. As a professional, you have to be careful about your body: whenyou think that you need a break, you should take a break,” he added. – APP
