LAHORE – Head coach Saqlain Mushtaq has accepted that Pakistanispinners didn’t come up to expectations in the Test series againstAustralia and they need to improve and add more variations into theirbowling.
Addressing a virtual press conference, Saqlain said: “I think our bowlersneed to do more to add more variations into their bowling. “It is not thatthey bowled badly but to be fair to them, the pitches didn’t give them thatmuch support but against top batting they need to improve upon theirvariations and come up with something different,” the former spin greatsaid.
Saqlain praised the Australian batters for their commendable show but atthe same time conceded that the hosts were not able to producespin-friendly tracks, leading to their 0-1 series defeat. “There was spinin the Tests but not like you would find in India or Sri Lanka,” thechampion spinner of yesteryears told media persons.
‘’I think in the last 8-10 years, they have improved a lot in playing spinbecause when I was playing, they couldn’t play spin that well and didn’tknow how-to pickup differences for playing with the spin or against it.“But in this series, I thought Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith really battedwell against us.”
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The head coach hailed his boys for the historical series win where battersand bowlers both made performances. “This is historical, winning the ODIseries against Australia 2-1 at home. Some phenomenal performanceswitnessed by the batters and bowlers. Keep supporting our great Pakistan.”
When asked whether he is working on part-time spinners to perform well inbowling department, Saqlain replied: “First of all, we need to wipe outthis word of ‘part-time’ bowler or spinner. When a player is bowling, he isnot a part-timer rather he is a ‘proper’ bowler and an ‘all-rounder’, andhe must be made aware of his bowling strength and seriousness about bowlingso that he may deliver well for the team in the time of need.”
