The pitches have got dryer. Does that help with the extra spinners that you have?
Yeah, you saw the last game. So for spinners, they bowled really well, and the wicket is suitable for our spinners. As the wicket, same like last one, so maybe it’s very difficult for them. But if we bowl the right areas, so that would be the key point, and hopeful tomorrow will be the same wicket like the last one we played against Pakistan.
Coming into this tournament did you think you’d get more wickets like the game the other day?
Yeah, because at the start of the tournament the wicket was very difficult. The wickets we played first three games, just totally different. We didn’t realise like this kind of pitches we can find like in the upcoming games like now and also against Pakistan. First, we think different. Now it’s totally different wicket. We didn’t expect in England these kind of pitches especially, but now I think it’s because of weather. It’s a very good wicket for today, especially for us.
What do you think you need to do to turn a close win to an actual win?
We played last four, five games quite well. I’m happy with the performance of the team. But we missed in the last, for the last game we played against Pakistan and especially like Bangladesh, because we played really well. If we played 50 overs, especially in the batting, so it’s all depending on our batting strength.
All the kids coming in want to be the next Rashid or the next Mujeeb. Is there a problem that nobody wants to become the next Hamid Hassan?
Good question. If you look forward cricket last two, three years, we’re just depending on spinners. We played a lot of cricket in Sharjah especially and Dehradun in India. So we all depend on the spinners, especially when Mujeeb joined the team in qualifying round before he played a series against Ireland. He bowled really well. But now the problem is here, so if you have two spinners like Rashid and Mujeeb — I’m not saying every time, he also bowled too fast. It’s like a medium pacers. So it's very difficult to pick them. So if you have work on the fast bowlers in the last two, three years, so maybe we have a good pacers now in this tournament. So this is a problem. Now struggling here in the fast bowling department, especially last game, we missed Hamid Hassan, his injury. It’s a big turning point for me.
You bowled against Afg. If you had that time again would you still bowl that over?
Yes, because if you look, we missed Hamid Hassan. He bowled only two overs. If I have Hamid in the last overs, so maybe I just only bowl three or four, five overs — only five, four overs. Like we also have a spinner option — Sami and also Rahmat, they’re also good spinners. Samiullah Shinwari bowl really well. He took the place of Hamid Hassan.
Hamid is a very hard bowler. He’s very quick, he’s a 140-plus bowler. So, but it’s bad luck for me, for my team. We missed him. I bowled last — in every match I bowled 10 overs, eight overs like this. This way I bowled in the end, I just — I have no option. Only me as a fast bowling department. This way I bowled in the end, but he did bowl really well. The luck is on the other side; it’s bad luck for us.
Courtesy: © ICC Business
Corporation FZ LLC 2018