Younis Khan speaking after the close of play on Day 3 against New Zealand.
We were unlucky with the dismissal of Shan Masood on day 2. If we could have gone into day 3 without any wickets down it could have been different as there would have been 2 set batsmen at the crease.
We have seen in this match that when a team builds a partnership, the other side starts making mistakes as the Rizwan and Faheem partnership showed. If we had a top order partnership or two we could have scored over 300.
New Zealand’s innings was built around the long innings of Kane Williamson and a few partnerships. If a team makes 400 or more in the first innings of a Test match it makes all the difference.
We struggled due to no top order partnerships and we needed that badly. However, our middle-order and lower-order fought hard, especially Faheem Ashraf who is now showing his value as an all-rounder and I hope he continues to perform like this. He played a mature innings and is improving day by day just as he showed in the recent T20I series. He can become a genuine bowling all-rounder for Pakistan and it’s a type of player that we have needed for quite some time. Whenever we go abroad we lack a bowling all-rounder and I think Faheem is showing that he can be that player.
The stage was set for Faheem to perform as the ball was 50 overs old and he wasn’t facing the new ball. The top order didn’t perform but they batted for quite a few overs.
I can’t praise Mohammad Rizwan enough because the way he played in the series in England and the way he batted today was totally different. He played today like a mature batsman, like a senior player, like a leader. As a captain your performance matters a lot and if you perform as a captain your decision-making becomes positive. If he continues to play such brave innings it will make a huge difference to his captaincy and his career.
We were unlucky with the dismissal of Shan Masood on day 2. If we could have gone into day 3 without any wickets down it could have been different as there would have been 2 set batsmen at the crease.
We have seen in this match that when a team builds a partnership, the other side starts making mistakes as the Rizwan and Faheem partnership showed. If we had a top order partnership or two we could have scored over 300.
New Zealand’s innings was built around the long innings of Kane Williamson and a few partnerships. If a team makes 400 or more in the first innings of a Test match it makes all the difference.
We struggled due to no top order partnerships and we needed that badly. However, our middle-order and lower-order fought hard, especially Faheem Ashraf who is now showing his value as an all-rounder and I hope he continues to perform like this. He played a mature innings and is improving day by day just as he showed in the recent T20I series. He can become a genuine bowling all-rounder for Pakistan and it’s a type of player that we have needed for quite some time. Whenever we go abroad we lack a bowling all-rounder and I think Faheem is showing that he can be that player.
The stage was set for Faheem to perform as the ball was 50 overs old and he wasn’t facing the new ball. The top order didn’t perform but they batted for quite a few overs.
I can’t praise Mohammad Rizwan enough because the way he played in the series in England and the way he batted today was totally different. He played today like a mature batsman, like a senior player, like a leader. As a captain your performance matters a lot and if you perform as a captain your decision-making becomes positive. If he continues to play such brave innings it will make a huge difference to his captaincy and his career.