Abdullah719
T20I Captain
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2013
- Runs
- 44,825
Azhar Ali at a press conference:
“We are lucky enough to have exciting fast bowlers although they are young. Naseem is just 18 while Shaheen is 20. You can’t buy experience, but they are exciting characters. We have to back them, they are bowling well and putting the opposition under pressure. You can’t gain experience by sitting outside, you have to play. At the end of last year when we were struggling for fast-bowlers, we picked them for Australia and they took up the challenge and impressed everyone. They have so much potential. Experience will come, but I think they are good enough to win Test matches for Pakistan”
“As a team and myself as captain, we are focussed at the game tomorrow which is a must-win match for us; we are looking forward to it and we played some good cricket so far in the series and want to take all the positives in the 3rd Test”
[Are you enjoying captaincy?] “Of course, I am lucky to have such a nice bunch of guys who are putting everything in for Pakistan; They have gelled nicely so they make my job easy, so I can focus on strategies etc; I am enjoying [leading them] and hopefully we can win this Test match and move forward from there”
“Conditions in England are always tought to bat in and the wickets in recent games have been bowler-friendly; So we havent seen any consistency amongst England and West Indies also; Good thing is that all our batsmen have fought it out, put on partnerships and put on enough runs; Its not easy for batsmen playing away from home to come to England and score runs in these conditions and score a century; Babar is playing really well and Abid Ali also showed it can be done in the previous game; We try as a team to score enough runs to put the other team under pressure and we have been very successful in that”
[Azhar, Asad performances, criticism on him as captain] “Our focus is on this Test match and people are free to have their own opinions; As a batsman, my focus is on my batting and its my responsibility to make sure that I score runs”
“Asad Shafiq is our match-winner and one of the best players we have got; Everyone, including the management and myself, are backing him to make runs; He has always made runs under pressure for Pakistan”
“As senior players, both Asad and I have to step up and contribute to the Pakistan batting; We will both try and do our best to help Pakistan win this Test”
[Pakistan to drop Fawad Alam after 4 balls?] “No idea how you know about such decisions - maybe you have seen them on talkshows; Covers have just been removed from the pitch so no idea how anyone can know what team will be selected; We will choose the best XI that will win the game for Pakistan”
[Boycott recently pointed out some issues with your batting] “There is always something that causes you to not score runs and this is analysed by the batsmen and the coaches too; I was feeling really good and confident about myself in the 2.5 hrs or so I spent at the crease in my previous innings and my balance was good as well”
[Are you available for white-ball cricket] “I have never said I would be available for ODIs - I do play ODs in domestic cricket as there are big gaps between Test match series; Although I have always said that whenever Pakistan team needs my help I will be ready”
[How have you motivating the team? Have they watched Ertugrul, or listened IK quote "Ghabrana naheen?"] “We are all watching Ertrugal - there is hardly any player who is not watching it”
“We are lucky enough to have exciting fast bowlers although they are young. Naseem is just 18 while Shaheen is 20. You can’t buy experience, but they are exciting characters. We have to back them, they are bowling well and putting the opposition under pressure. You can’t gain experience by sitting outside, you have to play. At the end of last year when we were struggling for fast-bowlers, we picked them for Australia and they took up the challenge and impressed everyone. They have so much potential. Experience will come, but I think they are good enough to win Test matches for Pakistan”
“As a team and myself as captain, we are focussed at the game tomorrow which is a must-win match for us; we are looking forward to it and we played some good cricket so far in the series and want to take all the positives in the 3rd Test”
[Are you enjoying captaincy?] “Of course, I am lucky to have such a nice bunch of guys who are putting everything in for Pakistan; They have gelled nicely so they make my job easy, so I can focus on strategies etc; I am enjoying [leading them] and hopefully we can win this Test match and move forward from there”
“Conditions in England are always tought to bat in and the wickets in recent games have been bowler-friendly; So we havent seen any consistency amongst England and West Indies also; Good thing is that all our batsmen have fought it out, put on partnerships and put on enough runs; Its not easy for batsmen playing away from home to come to England and score runs in these conditions and score a century; Babar is playing really well and Abid Ali also showed it can be done in the previous game; We try as a team to score enough runs to put the other team under pressure and we have been very successful in that”
[Azhar, Asad performances, criticism on him as captain] “Our focus is on this Test match and people are free to have their own opinions; As a batsman, my focus is on my batting and its my responsibility to make sure that I score runs”
“Asad Shafiq is our match-winner and one of the best players we have got; Everyone, including the management and myself, are backing him to make runs; He has always made runs under pressure for Pakistan”
“As senior players, both Asad and I have to step up and contribute to the Pakistan batting; We will both try and do our best to help Pakistan win this Test”
[Pakistan to drop Fawad Alam after 4 balls?] “No idea how you know about such decisions - maybe you have seen them on talkshows; Covers have just been removed from the pitch so no idea how anyone can know what team will be selected; We will choose the best XI that will win the game for Pakistan”
[Boycott recently pointed out some issues with your batting] “There is always something that causes you to not score runs and this is analysed by the batsmen and the coaches too; I was feeling really good and confident about myself in the 2.5 hrs or so I spent at the crease in my previous innings and my balance was good as well”
[Are you available for white-ball cricket] “I have never said I would be available for ODIs - I do play ODs in domestic cricket as there are big gaps between Test match series; Although I have always said that whenever Pakistan team needs my help I will be ready”
[How have you motivating the team? Have they watched Ertugrul, or listened IK quote "Ghabrana naheen?"] “We are all watching Ertrugal - there is hardly any player who is not watching it”
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Didn’t know it was that popular, great show!
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