Former Pakistan Test captain Zaheer Abbas believes that the current crop of Pakistani batsmen lack temperament of staying at the wicket for long period of time. Stressing the need of a specialist batting coach, the legendary batsman described that the lack of patience and spirit in the players as the biggest cause of Pakistan team’s constant batting failures. “I don’t think the batsmen have that temperament to stay at the wicket for a long time, and somebody has to teach them. To score a century you have to have a lot of patience to stay at the wicket for a long time. To complete a century you need to stay at the wicket for at least three and a half hours,” said Abbas.
Abbas, who served Pakistan in 78 Test and 62 One Day Internationals, was renowned for his knack of playing longer innings in every format of the game. Commenting on the need of aggressive batting mindset in modern day cricket, Abbas said that it was always an advantage to have a batsman with a strong temperament, rather than a player who plays flashy and brief innings. The Asian Bradman further explained that flashy player can only get success for a shorter period of time but a run accumulator stays ever-green. The former cricketer, who has also worked as Pakistan national team manager, suggested that the team needs to focus on its batting as the coaching is too much oriented towards the bowling department.
However, Abbas gave full credit to bowlers for demonstrating a fantastic show in the ongoing series against West Indies. He claimed that if the batamen overcome their problems, Pakistan can do wonders in the international arena. When asked whether he would be asked to join team as a batting coach if Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) makes such an offer, Abbas affirmatively vowed to serve Pakistan in whatever way he could.
