It helps me a lot when we have local coaches as communication is easy, admits Yasir Shah
Pakistan’s leg-spinner Yasir Shah admitted that local coaches like Waqar Younis and Mushtaq Ahmed help improve his game more than foreigners as there are no communication barriers. Yasir also paid tribute to Pakistan’s legendary leg-spinner Abdul Qadir who passed away recently, aged 63.
After three years of experimenting with Mickey Arthur and a support staff crew dominated by foreigners, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has finally appointed Misbah-ul-Haq as head coach cum chief selector. Before Arthur, Pakistan had hired the likes of Bob Woolmer, Geoff Lawson, and Dav Whatmore – all foreign coaches. However, the recent revamp of the coaching staff is a welcome change for the 33-year-old Yasir.
“It has helped me a lot when we have had local coaches because they help a lot. I can say that Waqar Younis and Mushtaq Ahmed helped me a lot when they were with us. With foreign coaches, I feel it becomes a bit difficult due to communication issues. At times I couldn’t convey what I wanted to discuss across to foreign coaches,” Yasir told PTI.
Although Yasir has found great success in Test cricket – fastest to 200 Test wickets – the same is not the case for him in the limited-overs format.Â
“That is true I have struggled in white-ball cricket due to reasons. In the World Cup, the weather and pitches were not ideal for leg-spinners and other bowlers also struggled from other teams. Leg-spinners can’t be successful on every pitch and in Australia there was bounce but the ball didn’t grip to get a break,” Yasir said.
At 33, Yasir is currently working hard to maintain his fitness and touch peak form as Pakistan head into a fixture-list packed with Test matches. He further added a note of gratitude for all the help he received from the late spinner Qadir.
“Qadir bhai was an institution in the art of bowling leg-spin, googlies and flippers. I remember once asking him why I couldn’t bowl googlies like he did and he said my fingers were small. But one learnt a lot from. Bowlers from other teams also sought his advice I think that shows what a world-class bowler he was,” Yasir added.