Sharjah: Is the Pakistan team now scared of spinning wickets? Their own weapon seems to have backfired as, despite creating slow turners, Pakistan batsmen struggled against spin and crashed to defeats in both Dubai’s Twenty20 game and Sharjah’s first One-day International.
What’s more, Australian spinners are now bowling better than their counterparts.
Australian skipper George Bailey had earlier expressed fears that Pakistan may doctor pitches to favour spin.
When asked as to why Pakistan was struggling against spin, Australia’s spin coach Muttiah Muralitharan said: “I think Pakistan were struggling against Sri Lanka as well. I think there are a lot of young players in their team and they are not so experienced. I also think it is because they are not playing at home and they are now in the process of developing a lot of young cricketers and that could be the reason why they are struggling. When it comes to this standard it takes some time to learn this standard,” said Muralitharan.
When Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq was asked during the pre-match press conference for the first One Day International on what was their instruction to Sharjah groundsman on the type of wickets, he said it was a secret.
After the defeat Misbah said: “I think the pitch was on the slow side, you needed to stay at the pitch to settle down. It played the same throughout, it was, maybe more spin in the second innings.”
The captain also admitted that the absence of quality spinners in Pakistan’s domestic cricket circles was also affecting the batsmen’s ability to play spin. Though many Pakistan supporters believe that Australia’s Nathan Lyon and Glenn Maxwell are nowhere near the class of their best spinners in Pakistan’s domestic cricket, the two are fast improving as top class bowlers under Muralitharan’s guidance.
“I have been working with Lyon and other bowlers in Sri Lanka as well when they came for four days and I set some goals for them to achieve,” Muralitharan said.
“We are not working on action so much, but on how fast you can bowl the different deliveries. Australian wickets have a different pace; and if you are in Sharjah or Sri Lanka, it is also different. It varies everywhere you bowl and that is the kind of advice I have been giving them,” .
Following the absence of spinners Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez, Pakistan may now have to ask for fast paced wicket for the coming matches in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. However, with Mitchell Johnson recovering from his injury and bowling at his best and pacer Junaid Khan joining the injured list, Pakistan are in a dilemma right now.
