Perth: UAE coach Aaqib Javed has worked out a simple theory to combat the World Cup’s big boys as his team prepares to take on the mighty India on Saturday and Pakistan, South Africa and the West Indies thereafter.
After overseeing two valiant performances so far, with the UAE losing narrowly to both Zimbabwe and Ireland, Javed told Gulf News: “I have told my boys ‘don’t look at the bowlers, focus on the ball’.
“It doesn’t matter who is bowling at you, you have to focus on the cricket ball — whether it is coming from the great Dale Steyn or Morne Morkel.
“I have asked everyone to just respect the cricket ball and not the player. I have made it very clear to them that it is all about how you think about yourself as a player. You must be ready to go out there and show what skills you have proudly. For this you need to believe in yourself and you must not feel like a lesser player.
“If you are afraid of anything, you cannot win. Go out there and push hard,” added Javed, who played in the 1992 World Cup-winning Pakistan squad in Australia and New Zealand.
When asked about what is needed to be successful on the wickets Down Under, Javed said: “In batting you need to choose your shots. For example, shot selection is not like in the sub-continent, where you tend to come forward looking for drives and flicks off the front foot.
“On Australian and New Zealand wickets, you have to be good at cut shots and pull shots. I have worked a lot on training them how to play the short-pitched balls. Mudassar Nazar as batting coach for the last six months has been very helpful.”
On bowling here, especially against teams like India, he added: “Where you get more bounce, you need to pitch the ball up a bit. At the beginning of last year we went to New Zealand for World Cup qualification so we had experience of those wickets — and then we came here for preparation matches. Those helped us know how to bowl here.”
Javed has also have prepared the team on how to play in a high-profile tournament like the World Cup.
“When you play in these tense and high-profile competitions you need to talk to the players to keep their tempers down. They should be playing the normal way, like in a club game — in a very relaxed frame of mind but full of confidence. That is what is needed,” he said.
