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Thursday March 28, 2024

It was lack of professional approach, says Naushad

By Abdul Mohi Shah
January 14, 2018

ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan’s batting line-up gave another disappointing performance in the third One-Day International, former manager and chief selector Col (r) Naushad Ali said the top-order has not been able to cope with the demands of pitches in New Zealand.

Talking to ‘The News’ on Saturday after the Greenshirts lost the third ODI, Naushad said rising and seaming deliveries seemed to be a difficult task for Pakistan’s leading batsmen.

“It was not a good sight to see Pakistan getting reduced to 16-6 and then 32-8 while chasing a reachable target. Such a pathetic scorecard clearly shows that the top-order batsmen are not equipped to meet the demands of such tracks,” he said.

“The Dunedin pitch was not unplayable, rather by New Zealand’s standards it was a friendlier track.”

He added: “I fail to understand why senior batsmen like Mohammad Hafeez, Azhar Ali and Shoaib Malik are not showing resilience. They have been to New Zealand many times before. It’s lack of a true professional approach.”

Naushad, who managed the national team in the 1992 series played in New Zealand, said gone were the days when Pakistan used to beat the Kiwis at their home.

“I remember on that tour we beat New Zealand 3-1 in the One-Day series and 1-0 in Tests. New Zealand had a very good team even at that time.”

Naushad remembered arranging a 10-day training camp in Auckland before officially starting the tour.

“We organised a camp prior to the start of the series in New Zealand. Before embarking on the tour we realized the requirements and what we had to do about it. There we also had the facility of drop-in pitches. So after training on those pitches, we knew well what we needed to do for positive results.”

Naushad was also unhappy with separate tours the PCB arranges these days.

“I think there should be full-fledged tours in which the team plays Tests, One-Dayers and T20s. By separating the limited-overs and Test series, we actually are minimising our chances of winning. By the time the players acclimatise to the conditions, the tour is over. So a 15-day tour makes no sense. These types of tour arrangements should not be repeated again,” he said.

Naushad, who has also officiated games as match referee in New Zealand, backed leg-spinner Yasir Shah’s selection even in ODIs. “You should play to your strength and Pakistan’s strength is leg-spin against teams like New Zealand. There is no harm in playing even two spinners,” Naushad said.