Asad Shafiq, Pakistan’s middle-order batsman, believes that regularly playing domestic matches in the country has brought improvement in his game and claimed that most of the criticism on first-class cricket is unjustified.
Most of the former cricketers in Pakistan are of the opinion that the current structure of domestic cricket in the country is not viable to produce players of the highest quality and needs rapid changes, if the Green Shirts want to remain a major force in international sport. Since the last decade, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has been regularly tinkering with national cricket and has made a lot of changes. However, the board has focussed more on quantity, instead of quality.
The 26-year-old cricketer from Karachi is one of those very few quality young batsmen produced by Pakistan since the last five years. Shafiq might not have played many big knocks in international cricket but the right-handed batsman has proved that he has the temperament to make it big at the ultimate level of the game. While talking to Pakpassion, the gritty young batsman expressed that he improved his game by playing Quaid-e-Azam Trophy for a number of years before making his international debut. Asad said that facing quality bowlers in four-day matches is bound to improve a batsman’s technique.
“I had played four seasons of domestic cricket before I was picked for Pakistan and I think that has been a distinct advantage for me. In those four seasons I had played about 40 first class matches and had made some big scores and played some long innings. I had played against a lot of international bowlers in Pakistan and that experience was crucial for me,” Shafiq expressed.
However, the Karachi-born admitted that there is a room for improvement in the country’s cricket,