Sharjah: The head coach of Lahore Qalandars, reeling under pressure after having lost three out of four matches in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), has admitted it was a gamble choosing their unfit star player Chris Gayle.
After crashing to an eight-wicket defeat to Islamabad United at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Wednesday night, head coach Paddy Upton had a tough time defending his team’s poor performance.
When asked whether it was a gamble picking a unfit Gayle, who has missed two matches, Upton said: “Picking an unfit player is a gamble for any team. Chris did have lower back surgery in August last year. Lower back surgery is a fairly significant operation to have and the rehabilitation of that takes up to a year or even longer than a year - but he played the Big Bash and he was all right through that before this tournament, so he will be able to get through this tournament and play some games as long as he manages himself well. He has a big World Cup coming up as well, so it is a risk and that is why we are managing him and not forcing him to play every game.”
In the two matches Gayle has played here, he scored six runs in the first match and was out for a duck to the first ball in the second. “A player of Gayle’s caliber, we are surely missing him. He does have a slight lower back concern and what is important for us is that he manages himself and we manage him and we manage how we use him through the tournament. We want him to go and once we qualify then hopefully Chris will be ready and fit to be able to play all the qualifier games,” the coach added.
Upton tried his best to deflect criticism that his team has the worst bowling attack among the teams. “It has been our bowling so far that has fallen slightly short but realistically if we look at the conditions we played on in Dubai, the majority of teams batting second won the game because conditions were better to bat on the second half of the game. We lost four out of our four tosses so we have always got the wrong end of the conditions. The 165, I think, was a par score but the dew was so much that it was significantly wet and you could see the bowlers drying the ball after every ball. The conditions were against the bowling team and it is very difficult to bowl with the wet ball. However, that isn’t an excuse and we probably did not execute as well as we could have, and should have, with the ball. Of course dropping four catches as we did, and our better fielders are dropping catches, it makes it very difficult to defend a total like that one.”
To a query why star all-rounder and reserve player Abdul Razzaq is not being picked, especially with the Masters Champions League ending, Upton said: “We will certainly look at making those changes but for the moment I am very happy with the balance of the team we have got and we have some good players that are sitting on the bench who haven’t played.”
