Grant Flower named Pakistan batting coach

Grant Flower, the former Zimbabwe batsman, has been named Pakistan’s batting coach for two years. The appointment comes little more than a week after Waqar Younis returned as the head coach as Pakistan overhauled their national team management.

Flower was recommended by the coach selection committee comprising Moin Khan (chief selector), Intikhab Alam (director domestic cricket operations) and Haroon Rashid (director game development). He will start in August, just before the Sri Lanka series.

Flower, 43, was Zimbabwe’s batting coach for over three years starting October 2010, and was a key player for his country in a lengthy career that included 67 Tests and 221 ODIs. He had applied for the Pakistan batting coach job last year as well but was not appointed.

Pakistan’s batting has been one of their major weaknesses in recent years, and the PCB had turned to former greats like Inzamam-ul-Haq, Javed Miandad and Zaheer Abbas to bring about improvements. Pakistan had also hired Australian Trent Woodhill for a brief two-month stint last year, but had decided to do away with the post earlier this year when Moin was named head coach. With former fast bowler Waqar now in charge, the PCB decided to appoint a mentor to the batsmen.