Sharjah:Toss became the hottest topic of discussion soon after Pakistan and New Zealand trained for the first time at Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Monday for the third Test match commencing from Wednesday.
Pakistan coach Waqar Younis and his counterpart Mike Hesson harped on the importance of winning the toss, especially after New Zealand put up a sterling performance in the Dubai Test after winning the toss.
When Gulf News asked Waqar on the role that toss can play in the Sharjah Test, he said: “In this part of the world where the pitches are more conducive to the spinners, captains think towards batting first. Toss does make a little bit of difference but I think you’ve got to play really good cricket to win a Test match. A Test match is not a contest that lasts a day or just three to four hours as it is a five-day affair and you have to be really good to keep things in control for five days.”
Hesson candidly admitted that winning the toss can be very beneficial for his team. “Winning the toss does give great advantage. I think being able to bat first and third rather than second and fourth has advantages in this part of the world. It does not mean you are out of the game [if you lose the toss] only thing it makes it a bit harder,” remarked Hesson.
He said that the Dubai Test match performance has given his team a lot of confidence. “I think it was a great Test match and we gained a lot of confidence from that and we made big improvements from Abu Dhabi to Dubai but we know that Pakistan will come hard at us again and we have to be able to withstand them over long periods of time.”
Waqar, who knows the conditions here like the back of his hand, said: “We have played quite a bit of cricket here, one-dayers and Tests and we are sure we are going to do well here but we are not going to do anything different from what we did in the first two Tests.”
Waqar was seen giving fielding practice to his players for nearly an hour revealing that he is keen to see his team improve their fielding. “We have debated about fielding. It wasn’t good in the second Test so we have to overcome all these frailties in fielding,” he said.
Waqar also backed wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmad, who was brilliant with the bat but was not behind the stumps in the second Test. “Wicketkeeping is a very thankless job, you take a brilliant catch and then drop one and on these kind of pitches it is tough to keep wickets because the ball is low and slow,” he said.
Waqar also expressed his happiness with the performance of his two new openers Shan Mashood and Taufeeq Umar and singled out Mashood for praise. “I am pretty happy with young Shan. He played a small gutsy one in the second innings. He is one for the future; unfortunately he had to miss out in the first Test. We had two very good openers in the first Test but one had to go because of the injury and the other one with injury and bowling action report so the two new openers came and did well.”
