'Lot Of Quality In Pakistan...': PCB Coach's Big Take On Pakistan Team Goes Viral Amid Batting Struggles In England

Pakistan’s batting problems have continued on their England tour, but batting coach Michael Smith believes the young players in the team need time to settle into Test cricket.

Pakistan were 52/2 at stumps on Day 2 of the third Test in Birmingham and still trailed England by 268 runs. Persistent rain then brought an early end to the day’s play.

Despite the difficult situation, Smith backed the youngsters to improve with more experience. He believes Pakistan have enough talent coming through and that helping the younger players become comfortable in Test cricket will be important for the team’s future.

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“For me there’s a lot of quality in Pakistan. We’ve seen it for many years and lots of countries go through slight changes. This is one where we’ve got some younger players with some experienced players but it’s the learning and how quickly we can get them to learn and get comfortable in the Test environment to really help them from a long-term point of view,” Smith told reporters following the second day’s play.

Pakistan’s Batting Struggles Continue

Pakistan have found it extremely difficult to put together big scores during the series.

After heavy defeats in the first two Tests at Headingley and Lord’s, the team made several changes to its squad. Seven players, including Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq and T20I captain Salman Ali Agha, were sent home midway through the tour.

The changes have left Pakistan with a relatively inexperienced batting lineup. Of the top seven players featuring in the ongoing Test, only Babar Azam and Shan Masood had previously toured England.

Smith admitted that the batting unit is going through a transition and needs to spend much more time at the crease.

“We’ve shown some real good signs but just not for long enough and I think that’s probably the biggest lesson is that we need some of our guys to be playing for hours at times and in certain game plans,” Smith said.

Smith Wants Young Batters To Learn Quickly

Smith pointed to Saud Shakeel, Azan Awais and Shan Masood as players who have shown glimpses of what they can do. However, he stressed that they need to convert those starts into long innings.

“I think Saud Shakeel has shown us at times, Azan Awais has shown us and Shan too, but we need that for hours and not just for half a session or so. Some of the players, it’s their first tour of England and they haven’t got a lot of Test experience so they are learning some challenging lessons along the way and they have to learn on the Test circuit which is a challenging one.,” he added.

‘Too Early To Judge’ Pakistan’s Youngsters

Smith also said the players remain positive despite the tough results. He believes it would be unfair to judge the younger members of the team based only on their first experience of playing Test cricket in England.

“It’s been tough, it’s been challenging but let’s not take away the fact that we’ve come up against a really good bowling unit in home conditions who’ve been excellent,” Smith said.

“I suppose we might not see the sort of success we want to see now but hopefully if a lot of these players are back on our next UK tour we’ll really see an upward trend and I think that’s the time to really judge them - especially some of the younger players who get their first taste of the English type of conditions,” said Smith.