Birmingham, Sep 11 : Despite Pakistan’s ongoing tour of England taking a turn for the worse, batting coach Michael Smith backed the youngsters within the side to come good with time, saying there are a lot of quality cricketers coming through from Pakistan, and getting the youngsters to get comfortable in the Test environment help them from a "long-term point of view."
Pakistan's poor run with the willow continued in the series as they they were 52/2 at stumps on Day 2 in their second innings and trailing by 268 runs when continous rain ensured that play for the remainder of the day was called off.
"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.
After heavy losses in the first two Tests at Headingley and Lord’s, Pakistan sent seven players, including wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan, opening batter Imam-ul-Haq, and T20 captain Salman Ali Agha, home midway through the tour. Out of the top-seven playing the ongoing Test in Birmingham, only Babar Azam and Shan Masood have toured England before.
Smith acknowledged a transition phase for the batting lineup and their inability to bat for longer periods of time. “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.
“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.
Smith maintained that the team remained in good spirits despite their struggles and reiterated that it was too early to pass a judgment on the youngers within the side.
“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.
'Too early to judge youngsters, learning on Test circuit is tough': Pakistan batting coach Smith
