Aamir Sohail "Pakistani Bowlers Need to improve against the Sri Lankan Lower Order"

[Saj]

Speaking exclusively from Lahore to Pakpassion.net former Pakistani opening batsman, skipper and chairman of selectors Aamir Sohail expressed his appreciation for the Sri Lankan team and their efforts in Galle in the recently concluded first test match against Pakistan that the home team won by 50 runs.

“You have to give the Sri Lankans credit for their bowling performance in the second innings, especially considering what an inexperienced attack it was without Muralitharan and Vaas”. “They fought hard and bowled to their gameplan on day 4 in good bowling conditions” added Sohail.

When asked about the selection and balance of the Pakistan team that took the field in Galle, Sohail stated “it was the right team that was selected in my opinion. You just have to look at the fact that Pakistan dominated the test match barring a couple of sessions and should really have won the test match”. “The captain and coach picked the exact right team for that surface”.

Sohail who is widely tipped for the role of Chairman of Selectors once again, added “my only criticism of the Pakistan bowlers would be that they didn’t wrap up the tail quickly enough in both innings, although especially in the first innings allowing the Sri Lankans to reach 292 after being 194 for 6 in the first innings and 156 for 7 in the second innings. The Paksitani bowlers allowed the home team’s lower order and the tail enders to add valuable runs in both innings”. “The Pakistani bowlers really need to improve their approach and tactics against the lower order and come up with a gameplan whereby they can get rid of the lower order much more cheaply than they did. The same thing happened in the Twenty/20 World Cup final and it’s a worrying aspect of the current bowling attack”.

Sohail when quizzed about the fact that the Pakistani batting just seemed to succumb to the pressure in the second innings stated that “there was obviously a fair bit of movement out there and the Sri Lankan bowlers exploited the conditions very well.” Losing those key wickets so early on day 4 wasn’t something that the Pakistani team had contemplated but it was disappointing the way that Pakistan folded and struggled under the pressure of a 4th innings run chase”. “I don’t think it was overconfidence, rather it was a case of the pressure got to the batsman especially after Yousuf’s dismissal”.

Aamir added “Younis Khan made a brave decision to bowl first and that decision was justified throughout the test match apart from Day 4’s proceedings. Again you cant argue with the decision to bowl first by the Pakistan skipper”.

As for changes to the Pakistani lineup for the second test Sohail stated that “the Pakistani skipper and coach need to have a very close look at the nature of the pitch before making any enforced changes to the lineup”.

The aggressive left handed batsmen added “I’m busy working at the National academy at the moment in Lahore working with some of the up and coming talent which has meant that my commentary work has had to take a back seat for now.

Many thanks to Aamir for his time today.

[PlanetPakistan]

Good thoughts...

Some of the other experts and PPers seem to be ready to press the panic button.

[Rh bat]

As for changes to the Pakistani lineup for the second test Sohail stated that “the Pakistani skipper and coach need to have a very close look at the nature of the pitch before making any enforced changes to the lineup”.

thats whats important. just chopping and changing bcuz of the loss aint gonna improve the team.

[xbox]

He did make sense and said all the right things. I don't think through out the game pakistan was at the top. But funny thing is since he is part of board right now he is saying all the right things, if he wasnt I bet he would be saying something else. That is how our board works and sadly that is how our country is.

[cricketpassion]

I dont understand how people change their view as soon as they get the job in PCB .I am not saying he said anything wrong here but if he wasnt board member he would have critisized the team after loss .

[Zaz]

For once he made sense but i hope he dont come back into pcb fold

Its been disastrous in past

[shaun3]

As for changes to the Pakistani lineup for the second test Sohail stated that “the Pakistani skipper and coach need to have a very close look at the nature of the pitch before making any enforced changes to the lineup”.

Our batting needs a shake-up, regardless of the pitch. This is not knee-jerk because of Galle. Our batting was weak v SL in the ODI series, and it was weak v Aus in UAE. It is our biggest problem, and it has been a consistent problem over the last year, and it is the only thing that hasn't been changed or addressed. The real issue is that there is absolutely no-one out there, aamir included, who is able and willing to break the seniority mentality when it comes to the middle-order.

Good read though, thanks Saj.

[Mohsin]

Our bowlers have always seemed to have taken it easy after doing all the hard work. It always seems as if they think they can just bowl the ball anywhere, anyhow and get the tailenders because they've done the hard work in getting the specialists out.
Thats what you'll never see with an Australia or a South Africa...they always go full steam ahead from wicket number 1 to wicket number 10.

[Zaz]

Originally Posted by Mohsin Our bowlers have always seemed to have taken it easy after doing all the hard work. It always seems as if they think they can just bowl the ball anywhere, anyhow and get the tailenders because they've done the hard work in getting the specialists out. Thats what you'll never see with an Australia or a South Africa...they always go full steam ahead from wicket number 1 to wicket number 10.

No sth africa have struggled to take tail end wkts in recent past

Its just in a low scoring affair 20s and 30s add up, in large scoring games them scores are inconsequential

[Amjid Javed]

Did it occur to Amir that barring Gul this was a novice Test attack? The problem in the test was the batting and thats been the problem in most test series we have lost over last few years!

[Saj]

I think Aamir is spot on regarding the Sri Lankan lower order and tailenders being allowed to add a few too many runs in both innings.

There's an art to bowling to lower order batsmen and thats where I think Umar Gul was disappointing in the last test match. He never really got his inswinging yorker going.

[Wazmiester]

Amir Sohail is spot on. In my opinion the current lot of Pakistan cricket have "leave it to another guy to finish the job" sorta an attitude otherwise they wouldn't play irresponsible shots. Also most of them lack game awareness hence don't have the ability to grind it out. It's all about the mindset and i am afraid it will be tough for them to switch to longer version of the game right away. Having said all of that i think SL bowlers bowled extremely well especially the left hand fast bowler who put a lot of pressure from one end and Hearath capitalized on the other.

[Wassixpakistani]

These guys know how to destroy tail-enders

[Saqs]

He is spot on.
Sick of everyone calling for heads - conveniently forgetting that we dominated the test match with the side we had.

To argue that Razzaq or Kaneria would have meant we would have won the game is ludicrous (as other "experts" have been quoted to say on cricinfo)

[Ryankhan]

Good read and amir sohail was spot on, agree with him 100%. 196-6 in 1st innings and yet you allow them to reach 292, so thats poor bowling in the end and great batting by srilankans tailender. wish our tailenders could put on 50 on 4 wickets if not a 100.

this really is a concern of getting rid of last few wickets earlier. in both innings pa jsut gave away runs to the tailenders....batting is the most worrying this for us atm. our bowlers no doubt did great to outclass the top order of srilanka but it was batting that cost us the game....

We do need some chanigng in the batting line up. not one or 2 change but many.

i would drop but, malik, manzoor, and bring in fawad, razzak and faisal iqbal or let malik remain.

bowlers doing fine job but in 2nd test if the pitch was totally spinners paradise then we have to bring in kaneria aswell.

[KA$H]

i like the way he wasn'y overly critical

[pakcricketfan]

He's right about the SL tailenders.. We got their key batsmen out but in both the innings, their tailenders scored. So this is one aspect where the bowlers have to work on.

[Saj]

Last 4 wickets for Sri Lanka could only muster 20 runs between them. Aamir Sohail must be a happy man.

[Saj]

101 runs for the loss of 3 wickets today. Absolutely shocking stuff !

Sri Lanka were 131 for 6 and ended up on 232 for 9.

[pakistanbest]

Disgraceful stuff, we need to finish what we started, Aamer was the only one who looked good at the end

[Couch Cricketer]

Thats why I think we need Rana in the team
With Gul out of form and unable to bowl with the new ball
I think he should be rested and Rana brought in as he is effective at the depth and is also able to swing the new ball. Later I think he can replace Razzak but
now we need him to replace Gul