Pakistan need to appoint power-hitting coach in T20Is, says Ramiz Raja
Former Pakistan cricketer and World Cup winner Ramiz Raja touched on the importance of having a specialized coach for power-hitting in T20Is. Being the number one ranked T20 side, Pakistan had an unexpected and shocking series loss against relatively inexperienced Sri Lankan side.
Newly-appointed Pakistan Head Coach and Chief Selector Misbah-ul-Haq is under tremendous pressure as Pakistan failed to even compete till the very end in the T20 series against Sri Lanka. Pakistan was expected to run through this Sri Lankan line up that was relatively inexperienced. Despite being termed as a B team, Sri Lanka outplayed Pakistan in all three departments to clinch the series 3-0. One area of concern that Ramiz Raja recognized was Pakistan’s lack of power-hitting and killer-instinct.
“Misbah-ul-Haq has been overburdened by handing him the coaching responsibilities of all formats. I feel we need to bring in a power-hitting coach for the shorter format, to correct the direction of players,” he said on his YouTube channel.
“The result of the T20 series was expected as Pakistan team was stressed after losing the first game. Many old players were recalled in the T20 team but were unable to deliver under pressure,” he further added.
Ramiz also believes that their lack of understanding of the batting order also proved costly. There was too much shuffling in the batting order and some wrong team selections too that created unnecessary confusion.“Harris Sohail must be played at No. 4 as Sarfraz Ahmed was not in good form,” he said.
He was particularly unhappy about the dismal performance in the second T20I against Sri Lanka. “We just hit two sixes in the second T20 game whereas Sri Lanka hit eight. We don’t have any bowler who can take wickets,” he further added.
Ramiz Raja knows that if Pakistan has to do well in the t20 World Cup in Australia next year, they should work on their power-hitting and also on their team selection. A settled combination and killer instinct are something that Pakistan is desperately in need of.