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'India fortunate to have found Kohli and Rahane'

Last Updated 28 February 2015, 04:07 IST

Mudassar Nazar, in his prime, was more than a handy cricketer and Pakistan benefitted a lot from his batting that was more about substance than style and a medium pace bowling that was more teasing than tearaway.

Nazar, now 58, is part of the ICC’s Global Cricket Academy in Dubai and he has been ‘loaned’ as a batting consultant to the United Arab Emirates for the World Cup. The former all-rounder found some time to discuss the state of Pakistan cricket and India’s strengths in the World Cup here on Friday. Excerpts.

Pakistan's WC has not been great so far and the likes of Shoaib Akhtar have criticised the team. What is your take?

Shoaib Akhtar and others may say whatever they want to but if you see the team's composition — this team has done very well in Test cricket. In ODIs, I was seeing problems from the very beginning. Your number one bowler (Saeed Ajmal) is banned from bowling six months ahead of the world Cup and then your senior-most batting-cum-bowling option -- Mohammed Hafeez -- is not there. And the most successful pace bowler Junaid Khan – left-arm bowling over the wicket like a Zaheer Khan -- is not there.

The absence of these three key players has really hurt Pakistan. We unfortunately don’t have the same bench strength. There are two reasons for that -- the academy system has been chopped and changed 3-4 times. And secondly, funds are required and I think PCB felt the crunch and that has affected Pakistan cricket.

So you're saying there's a problem of system in Pakistan?
System problem is there for sure but not as grave as what Shoaib Akhtar is making it out to be. PCB bashing has also become very fashionable in Pakistan.

What about the batting talent, why is there a lack of quality batting talent coming out from Pakistan?
Only reason is that the cricketers are not getting enough exposure. They are not being nurtured. It’s not possible to think we don’t have the talent. First-class cricket isn’t as strong because there are few grounds to play on.

All your one-day, two-day, district matches, club matches, everything is being played on the same grounds so the pitches get tired. Then when batsmen are used to playing on tired wickets and then they come and play international matches against quality opponents on fresh wickets, they face problems.

Everybody spoke of India's batting before the WC but nobody gave Indian bowling enough attention…

In India's recently concluded Test series, your bowlers let you down. There were some injury problems too. The team's chances didn’t look great. But the bowling that the Indians displayed in their first two matches in the WC, batting was always their strength, but the bowling turnaround is extremely remarkable. Within two weeks India's fortunes have changed.

How do you look at Indian batsmen and their quality?
It’s very rare that 3-4 great players go away and are replaced by same pedigree of players. And you can count Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid as amongst the greatest in cricket history. In such a situation, you get Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane and it’s a very fortunate thing. When Imran Khan was leaving Wasim Akram came into his own, and then Waqar came in and then Shoiab arrived. Pakistan’s fast bowling used to have similar quality replacements.

Do you think the new bowlers coming into Pakistan team have the pedigree of the past?
They are too new and of course not of the same quality. But I must add that we have a lot of talent in bowling and our bench strength in this department back home is stronger than most other countries'. We have a good dozen odd bowlers back home who bowl over 140kmph plus. We need to nurture them properly. Look after them with regards to injury.

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(Published 27 February 2015, 19:06 IST)

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