Waqar Younis wants Pakistan openers to find form soon – ICC World Cup 2011 news
Pakistan coach former pacer Waqar Younis has finally warned the opening batsmen Mohammad Hafeez and Ahmed Shehzad to deliver the goods as soon as possible.
Speaking to the press Younis said, “We have to show real improvement in our batting, especially our openers who have not done well. Both openers know they have not fired yet, but I’m not worried because there is no problem with their techniques, they were
in good form coming into the World Cup, so I am sure they will come good soon.”
Hafeez and Shehzad who looked in tremendous form before the World Cup have struggled to score runs in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2011. The duo has shared 11, 28 and 16 runs in the three opening stands for Pakistan.
The head coach nevertheless, insisted that all batsmen in the Pakistan squad needed to perform from here on in because the tournament is getting tougher now, which will make Pakistan a vulnerable team if their batsmen lack ability to score runs against stronger
bowling attacks.
After the batting collapse in the match against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Green-c60723 scored just 184 runs against the bowling attack of the minnows.
Waqar feels that since the middle order batsmen http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972, Younis Khan and Umar Akmal were performing in the tournament before the Canada debacle, there was less pressure on the openers. However, he feels that things have changed after Pakistan’s last
clash and now it is dearly important for the Men in Green that their openers provide them with solid starts.
Waqar praised the bowlers for their performance in defending a meagre total against the minnows. However, he reiterated that Pakistan would have faced major problems defending the same total against a stronger batting line-up.
The former king of reverse swing had words of appreciation for the Pakistan skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482, who took his second five-for of the tournament, giving away only 23 runs from his 10 overs in the game against Canada.
“When Canada were batting well, I was sure that if we got one or two wickets then the gates would open and the way Afridi bowls I’m sure we can defend any good target,” he said regarding the performance of the Pakistan skipper.
Afridi, who was under pressure before the World Cup, has hushed his critics in a befitting manner by taking 14 wickets from 3 matches and is the leading wicket-taker of the tournament.
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