Women's cricket will soar to new heights: head coach Iqbal Imam

Women's cricket newly appointed head coach Iqbal Imam has aimed to take the sport to new heights.

Imam was named head coach earlier this month after serving as interim coach for the team during the home series against Bangladesh. His position followed the resignation of Mark Coles.

His first official assignment is the series against England in Malaysia next month and has instructed plays to adopt an aggressive style.

"The series against England is a tough one and we’ll have to work really hard for it," he told media in Karachi.

"What we are trying is to aim for is scoring 250+ in ODIs against England women which will allow us to give them tough competition."

Iqbal said that he will try his best to make Pakistan one of the best teams and take it to new the heights.

"We did well against Bangladesh in T20Is and ODIs, we tried new players which is a good sign that we are getting new talent. Bowling has improved and we have controlled conceding extras. The girls also didn’t bowl any no-ball in series against Bangladesh," Iqbal highlighted.

The head coach stated that the team has improved its bowling and fielding and their batting has also progressed gradually. 

"Our girls used to play dot-balls and were unable to convert 20s in to big score and being coach my first priority is to change this attitude and have achieved success to some extent," he said.

"They are not physically strong like Australian girls, and that’s natural. We still have three four girls who can do good hitting, we did well previously as well. I have told them if they can’t hit sixes then they must utilize opportunities to play between gaps and keep rotating strike," he said.

Imam hoped that the team could rank among the top four in the Women's T20 World Cup and said that the Women in Green have a very good chance.

Besides this, the head coach said that the team will prepare on cement pitches ahead of T20 tournament . He added that bowling all rounder Nida Dar's participation in the Women's Big Bash League in Australia would provide the team with a great sense of the  conditions. 

"I will arrange practice on cement wickets so that players can experience playing on hard surface. We will also go to Australia two/three weeks before the tournament begins," he said.

"Nida Dar is playing in Australia and her experience of playing Women Big Bash League there would help all players know about the conditions in the country,” he concluded.