‘Pakistan need to rethink strategy in West Indies’

KARACHI: Former Pakistan Test cricketer Iqbal Qasim has said that Pakistan team and its management must forget what happened in England and start the West Indies tour with a new strategy.

While talking to ‘The News’ on Saturday, the veteran cricketer, who has served as chief selector, said that the West Indies environment was totally different.

He said Pakistan needed to rethink their strategy keeping in mind the difference of conditions of England and West Indies.

Iqbal said that the recent England tour performance made it clear that Pakistan did not have enough strength in its batting line, neither in opening nor in middle order.

“The entire team depends on the performance of Babar Azam and Muhammad Rizwan. The selection committee and team management have failed to produce any other batsman whose performance Pakistan can rely on,” he said.

He said that there was little time left before the T20 World Cup and so there was no room for any major substitution in the team management.

“There are things lacking in the planning, attitude and strategy,” he added.

He further said that the leg spinners were not bowling well. “Our leg spinners are failing to make the bowl spin,” he added.

“The team management should use the leg spinners with confidence as spinners play an important role against West Indies. Both our leg spinners look under pressure. There is need to give them confidence. All other teams in the world these days are using leg spinners successfully, so why not ours,” he said.

“Shoaib Malik should also be called so that there is some strength in batting in the middle order. In the presence of Malik and Hafeez, our batting line up will be able to score some more runs,” Iqbal said.

He said it was pointless to use Fakhar Zaman in the middle order. “He is an opener and should be played on his original position,” he added.

He also criticised the decision to send Babar and Rizwan as openers. “One of them should bat in the middle order,” he said.