Pakistan coach Mushtaq Ahmed backs pace battery to deliver at World Cup

Sport360 staff 19:24 13/03/2015
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  • Pakistan coaches Mushtaq Ahmed (L) and Waqar Younis look on during a training session in Brisbane last month.

    Pakistan’s spin bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed has backed the pace battery to continue delivering the goods in the world cup after exceptional performances in last three matches.

    The team was on the brink of crashing out in the group stages having lost the first two group B matches against India and West Indies. The early losses put Pakistan team officials on loose footings and they came out with all sorts of excuses that the team went handicap in the mega event after injuries and suspensions to key players.

    However, there has been a refreshing turnaround in the fortunes as Pakistan bounced back in style to gather momentum with wins against UAE and Zimbabwe, and then came the big jolt when they thumped favourites South Africa.

    Now the Men in Green are just a win away from sealing their place in the quarter-finals and Mushtaq, who was one of the standout performers in the 1992 world cup victory, feels that the dependency has shifted from spinners to fast-bowlers now.

    “We’ve been successful in last three matches due to our fast-bowling and we’re depending a lot on them to deliver the good in world cup,” Mushtaq said while speaking to reporters in Adelaide.

    “They have been running in hard and bowling with lots of heart, so there is no need to experiment right now.”

    The quartet of Mohammad Irfan, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Khan and Rahat Ali have bowled effectively as a unit.

    Pakistan have Yasir Shah in their ranks and there has been talk of including him against Ireland but Mushtaq maintained that the plan cannot be changed just for the sake of it.

    Indian fans look on as Pakistan fieldsman Yasir Shah dives in an attempt to catch Indian batsman Virat Kohli.

    “There is no doubt leg-spinners are match winners. I played a vital role in 1992 (Cricket World Cup) but we’ve to set a combination and Yasir doesn’t set in our current plans. The think tank has to look very carefully into the playing 11,” Mushtaq said in relation to Yasir, who was specially selected because the selectors and team management believed that he could turn out to be the surprise weapon down-under.

    “Shahid Afridi has not bowled well so far but history suggests that whenever he doesn’t do well in two or three matches, he comes back hard with a top performance. There has been a great vacuum after our match-winner Saeed Ajmal was ruled out so the balance had been disturbed a bit.”

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