Former Pakistan off-spinner, Saeed Ajmal believes that the spinners shouldn’t attribute their poor performances to dead pitches and prepare themselves for all kinds of pitches.
In an exclusive interview with Cricket Pakistan, the spin magician said that he does not know the reason why the spinners are looking at pitch conditions before the match. It is the responsibility of the spinners to get wickets in any conditions.
“If the spinner is going to look at the pitch and then bowl, what is the point of being a spinner then? Spinners need to learn to perform in all conditions. These were flat pitches and honestly, many decks in Test cricket are like this.”
Recalling his days when he was a part of the national side, Ajmal said the impression that Pakistan prepares spinner-supported tracks is absolutely wrong. “The notion that Pakistan always had spin wickets was never the case. Even when we were playing in the UAE, we had to spin the ball and it did not just magically happen,” he added.
Ajmal further added that there are two types of spinners; ones who can turn the ball at any surface and those who depend on pitch conditions only.
“There are two things; one is where you spin yourself and the other where spin happens for you. These are two fundamentally different things. The one who spins himself can take wickets in any condition. Our problem is that we don’t utilize the pace variations enough,” Ajmal added.
While criticizing those bowlers who blame pitch conditions, the former cricketer said that they should quit cricket then. “To take wickets, you need temperament. You need to bowl a good 8-10 overs to play mind games with the batsmen and then you will be able to execute your plan. If you want to complain about ‘flat pitches’ then you should quit cricket,” he further added.
Saeed ajmal is very right the spiners are not playing with batsman mind … their is no variety with bowlers