ISLAMABAD – Legendary Bowling Coach Waqar Younis believes that theinduction of young guns like Nadeem Shah, Musa Khan, Shaheen Afridi,Mohammad Abbas and Imran Khan in the squad for two-match Test seriesagainst Australia would mark the birth of a new era for Pakistan cricket.
Pakistan made an unprecedented move by naming 16-year-old Nadeem and two19-year-olds Musa and Shaheen in their Test squad along with Abbas, whostarred against Australia in the UAE last year, and veteran seamer Imran.Imran (5-32) and Afridi (2-42) executed their class against Australia A inPerth in the first innings of their tour match.
“They both bowled well and troubled the Aussie batsmen every time they wereon,” brisbanetimes.com.au quoted Waqar as saying.
Waqar, who was inducted as the Bradman Foundation honoree on Wednesdaythere, feels Pakistan can match it with Australia in the pace bowlingdepartment.
“Coming to Australia is a different ball game. You need a pace attack andsince Muhammad Amir and Wahab Riaz have retired from the longer versionsthis has given an opportunity to the selectors as well as to the boys,” hesaid.
“These youngsters are very talented. It’s a matter of how quickly theylearn and how quickly they adapt to pressure. All they have to do at themoment is stay fit. They’re very tender, they’re very young, but it’s noteasy.”
“If they can get through this tour, going forward, they can really helpPakistan in the near future,” he said.
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Waqar said all three teens can bowl north of 145kmh, which would suitAustralian conditions much more than it would if they were taking part intheir first Test series on the subcontinent.
“I came on my first tour of Australia back in 1989/90 and I learnt a lot.It gives you all the perspective. If you do well your name becomes bigvery, very quickly and these guys have a great opportunity. All of themhave what it takes to do well at Test match level but we just have toremember that they’re very young. It’s going to be a great learning curvefor them.”
Waqar was also confident that Pakistan’s batting stocks are deep enough tosurvive the onslaught that Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc andJames Pattinson would unleash back on home soil.
“You look at the experience of Azhar Ali, who has done extremely well in aprevious tour. Asad Shafiq scored a massive, big hundred here. Then we haveBabar Azam, who is growing in confidence and Haris Sohail, too. We have toplay accordingly, disciplined and I think we can handle the pressure,” hesaid.
