In the recently concluded Test series against Australia, Pakistan spin bowlers remained ineffective as they managed to get just 13 wickets in three matches which was below-par.
Legendary spinner and current head coach, Saqlain Mushtaq has said that Pakistani spinners will have to improve their skills and work on variations if they want to bowl effectively against world-class teams.
Addressing a virtual press conference, the former off-spinner said, “I think our bowlers need to do more to add more variations into their bowling. It is not that they bowled badly but to be fair to them, the pitches didn’t give them that much support but against top batting, they need to improve upon their variations and come up with something different.”
While discussing the Test leg of the series which Australia clinched by a margin of 1-o, the inventor of ‘Doosra’ said although surfaces didn’t support spin much, the bowlers should still have troubled the batters.
“There was spin in the Tests but not like you would find in India or Sri Lanka,” the head coach added.
While appreciating Australia’s batting line-up, the off-spinner said that their batters were previously not very good against spin but they have improved their techniques against spinners during the last decade.
‘’I think in the last 8-10 years, they have improved a lot in playing spin because when I was playing, they couldn’t play spin that well and didn’t know how to pick up differences for playing with the spin or against it. But in this series, I thought Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith really batted well against us.”
While responding to a question regarding the Pakistan ODI series, the head coach said that the Pakistan team has showcased outstanding performance in all three departments which led Pakistan to a historic series victory.
“This is historical, winning the ODI series against Australia 2-1 at home. Some phenomenal performances witnessed by the batters and bowlers. Keep supporting our great Pakistan,” he added.
Saqlain who represented Pakistan in 169 ODIs further said that there is no part-time bowler in cricket. When any bowler takes a ball in his hand, he is a proper bowler and he has to deliver his best.
“First of all, we need to wipe out this word of ‘part-time’ bowler or spinner. When a player is bowling, he is not a part-timer rather he is a ‘proper’ bowler and an ‘all-rounder’, and he must be made aware of his bowling strength and seriousness about bowling so that he may deliver well for the team in the time of need,” he concluded.
