Pakistan can give tough time to South Africa in ODIs: Tauseef

KARACHI: Former cricketer Tauseef Ahmed believes that the Green Shirts can give tough time to South Africa in the ODI series.

“Even after losing T20Is, Pakistan are able to defeat South Africa in the ODIs, which will begin from December 17th, as the team has good momentum in ODIs ever since winning a series against Australia,” said Tauseef while talking to ‘The News’.

He added that the management should select players according to the conditions there. “It will be a test for our players to prove their form and fitness by playing 50 overs,” he said. Tauseef showed concerns over the poor show by the Green Shirts during the T20I series and emphasised addressing the shortcomings in order to overcome the tough South African side.

“Saim’s 98 not out on 57 balls was indeed spectacular. Besides Saim, no top-order batter showed any strength,” said Tauseef, adding that the 50-over cricket is different from the T20Is because the role of specialist players is crucial in ODIs.

“The role of left-arm spinners in today’s white-ball cricket is also crucial. Luckily, we have a talented and skillful left-arm spinner Sufiyan Muqeem who has good variations like back-of-hand deliveries,” said the former off-spinner.

Tauseef said that mystery spinner Abrar Ahmed must use his skill-set to achieve good results since the South African batters didn’t take risks against him in the second T20I.

Talking about the under-performing Usman Khan, who gave up his UAE cricketing career to play for Pakistan, Tauseef said he failed to seize the opportunity. “Usman needs to do a lot of work on his game. He isn’t looking like a player of international level despite having played 18 T20Is so far,” said Tauseef.