India has failed to guard its bowlers: Wasim Akram
Pakistan legend Wasim Akram on Monday blamed the Indian cricket administrators for the lack of good pacers in the country pointing that they have failed to guard their fast bowlers. Akram also added that he is looking forward to the iconic clash between India and Pakistan at the Asia Cup T20.
In an exclusive interaction with the Times of India ahead of the Asia Cup T20, Wasim Akram opened up about Mohammed Shami’s injuries, India’s fast bowling conundrums and about the Asia Cup T20 clash between India and Pakistan.
“The primary reason is that India has failed to guard its bowlers. First of all, there are just too many people that a bowler is talking to. The BCCI has to be very strict about it and tell the bowlers that they can only go to a certain academy or a BCCI-appointed coach and over there they should interact only with specified coaches with regards to their bowling.
“The more you start taking advice from multiple people, the more likely you are to enter a state of confusion. That's exactly what had happened with Irfan Pathan. He went to too many people and lost his swing,” Wasim Akram told ToI.
Akram also said that he knew Mohammed Shami would get injured during India’s tour of Australia when he came to know that the
“When I came to know that Shami was making a comeback for the tour of Australia last month, I told Harsha (Bhogle): `You wait and watch, this guy will probably pull his hamstring.' That's because the pressure of bowling in a practice game or in the nets or in a domestic game is different and the pressure of bowling in an international match is different.
“You need to properly play a full season of first-class cricket after a knee injury before you return to international cricket. Forget the operated knee, that's healing or maybe already healed,” Akram said.
The Kolkata Knightriders bowling coach was full of praise for former Indian cricketer Zaheer Khan and opined that he was the last of the Indian bowlers, who reached the next level in International cricket.
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“Zaheer Khan was the last Indian bowler who managed to create this balance. He became a very intelligent bowler over a period of time. He tried different things. He got a good hang of the reverse swing. He would hide the shining side of the ball like I did, when he ran into bowl. Nobody told Zaheer all this. He learnt this by himself. And yes, Zaheer was the last of the Mohicans,” Akram said.
Before concluding the session, the former Pakistan cricketer also talked about the iconic clash between India and Pakistan in the Asia Cup T20 and said that he is looking forward to the contest between the arch-rivals on February 27.
“Yes, that'll be a good game to look forward to and given the way India are playing right now, they're clear favourites. The Asia Cup, this year, assumes a lot of significance particularly because of the T20 format that it'll be played in.Out of the last five World T20 champions, three are participating in this Asia Cup so that quotient alone adds so much excitement,” Wasim Akram said.
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