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- Oct 2, 2004
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"It's the players job to take ownership and make their judgement whilst batting" : Younis Khan
Younis Khan speaking to the media :
About Babar Azam
"Babar Azam is one of the top players in the world so there must be something special in him that has got him to that stage"
"I feel that Babar's learning process is amazing but I let me say that when players in my generation came into the national side, we had the examples of Saeed Anwar, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Aamir Sohail, Ijaz Ahmed and Salim Malik in front of us; So in a sense we had a factory of readymade examples where we could go into learn and come out as good players; The players from today miss that kind of exposure to top players but Babar is lucky that he saw players like Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan playing in their prime"
"Babar went through a process and got the time he needed to grow as he has been with the team for a good few years now"
"The most important quality that Babar has is the desire and hunger to score runs; We are also seeing his captaincy improve with each outing as his shot selection"
"There is a lot of expectation of Babar Azam as it should be as he is a top international player and he is meeting those expectations"
"His fitness is improving as his technique as well, especially where he used to struggle against spin in the past but what we saw was that he overcame that problem in South Africa"
"He scored hundred here against spin bowling and also worked on his power-hitting as well; Before this series, he wouldnt play sweep shots but now given the expectations off him, he is playing sweep shots, cut and pull shots too
"Fitness is a demand for today's games are very high; We would play 3 match series over 15 days but we recently played 4 T20Is over 8 days - but due to Covid-19 and travelling, its much tougher for players"
"Its tougher for players nowadays as they have to train and some have to fast as well as its Ramadan as we saw in the case of Rizwan"
"Sometimes people say that they say glimpses of us in Babar, Fakhar and Rizwan which feels like an achievement for us"
Players perishing whilst playing their natural game (Asif and Haider)
"In my view if a player has a good calibre then you will see him perform after 2-3 series"
"It can become difficult for us as coaches to say to a player to not play his natural game because sometimes we hear that some people say that coaches dont let players play their natural game; So it can be a little difficult, especially during match times to give this advice but at the end, its the players job to take ownership and make their judgement whilst batting; This isnt club cricket so players have to understand that and they are doing that and understanding their roles"
Haider Ali getting out too early, despite having lot of time to play an innings
"Would you like me to tell him not to play his natural game? Should he play like Younis Khan and play 30 balls and hit 35 or 40 runs? Fact is that there are a lot of opinions on this matter and its difficult to make an opinion about this"
"Recently on media I heard that players are saying that coaches arent giving us an opportunity to express ourselves; In my view we should always give them that opportunity, and not take credit when they perform but we should answer questions like these when they dont perform"
"Haider Ali is hoping to become a top player - when he debuted against England, what did he score on his second ball in international cricket? He hit a six and scored a fifty on debut; I have that written in my diary - I am not drawing cartoons but note down all bits and pieces about players and work with them on those points"
"In the national team, we dont work on technique but we make sure that for a player like Haider Ali we allow him to play his natural game but we also work on tactics"
"Haider Ali has had many opportunities and we need to give him time too"
"We didnt have so many coaches telling us how to bat in our days so its upto the players to get themselves ready as they are representing their nation"
"Players need to learn from their own mistakes and if you ask Haider, he is also saying that he is learning from his mistakes and to overcome his weaknesses"
Players being selected for international level before they are ready
"I always feel that a players selected for the national side should have played enough cricket (at the domestic level); These should be the best players that the country has and those who dont play at an average of 5 runs an over when 10 runs an over is the required rate, and also when 5 runs an over are needed they arent trying to play for a situation which demands 15 runs an over"
"This can only happen when they have played enough cricket before coming into the national side"
"So its important that we select players who are suited for particular roles and that they have played enough cricket before they are brought in"
Lower/Middle order not performing that well
"If we talk about Mohammad Hafeez, we see that when your top order is performing so well, then your lower order doesnt get so much of a chance to bat so when they are exposed to a crunch situation, we dont see the sort of form we expect from them"
"In 4th T20I, we had Babar and Fakhar playing so well and I have always told my batsmen never to leave a task half-done, and we saw that moment they were both out the situation became such that we were finding it difficult to hit a run a ball"
"I never wait to give my input to the players - In fact I have a meeting with the players in the airport lounge soon and sometimes players even get irritated by me as I am always talking about cricket with them"
"As a batsman, you need to learn from your mistakes and in that sense, Haider Ali is doing that and if we talk about the lower middle order, they are also doing that"
"In the past few series, our lower order would perform but the top order would not do that - which was the case in New Zealand and England"
Asif Ali still failing even though he is experienced
"I feel that players need to be given ample chances when it comes to a player like Asif Ali who is in and out of the side"
"Every player is not as strong minded as Javed Miandad or Shahid Afridi or Saeed Anwar, so we should give players chances to perform so that they and management dont have any doubts in their minds that they didnt give opportunities"
"Its not because Mohammad Hafeez has played cricket alongside me in the past that I support him - in fact I support all our players as they are a product of our country's system"
"Players like Asif Ali, Haider Ali and Danish Aziz should be given opportunities so that we can get the best out of them and also its upto the players that when they are getting so much support then they should give their best and play for their country"
Younis Khan speaking to the media :
About Babar Azam
"Babar Azam is one of the top players in the world so there must be something special in him that has got him to that stage"
"I feel that Babar's learning process is amazing but I let me say that when players in my generation came into the national side, we had the examples of Saeed Anwar, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Aamir Sohail, Ijaz Ahmed and Salim Malik in front of us; So in a sense we had a factory of readymade examples where we could go into learn and come out as good players; The players from today miss that kind of exposure to top players but Babar is lucky that he saw players like Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan playing in their prime"
"Babar went through a process and got the time he needed to grow as he has been with the team for a good few years now"
"The most important quality that Babar has is the desire and hunger to score runs; We are also seeing his captaincy improve with each outing as his shot selection"
"There is a lot of expectation of Babar Azam as it should be as he is a top international player and he is meeting those expectations"
"His fitness is improving as his technique as well, especially where he used to struggle against spin in the past but what we saw was that he overcame that problem in South Africa"
"He scored hundred here against spin bowling and also worked on his power-hitting as well; Before this series, he wouldnt play sweep shots but now given the expectations off him, he is playing sweep shots, cut and pull shots too
"Fitness is a demand for today's games are very high; We would play 3 match series over 15 days but we recently played 4 T20Is over 8 days - but due to Covid-19 and travelling, its much tougher for players"
"Its tougher for players nowadays as they have to train and some have to fast as well as its Ramadan as we saw in the case of Rizwan"
"Sometimes people say that they say glimpses of us in Babar, Fakhar and Rizwan which feels like an achievement for us"
Players perishing whilst playing their natural game (Asif and Haider)
"In my view if a player has a good calibre then you will see him perform after 2-3 series"
"It can become difficult for us as coaches to say to a player to not play his natural game because sometimes we hear that some people say that coaches dont let players play their natural game; So it can be a little difficult, especially during match times to give this advice but at the end, its the players job to take ownership and make their judgement whilst batting; This isnt club cricket so players have to understand that and they are doing that and understanding their roles"
Haider Ali getting out too early, despite having lot of time to play an innings
"Would you like me to tell him not to play his natural game? Should he play like Younis Khan and play 30 balls and hit 35 or 40 runs? Fact is that there are a lot of opinions on this matter and its difficult to make an opinion about this"
"Recently on media I heard that players are saying that coaches arent giving us an opportunity to express ourselves; In my view we should always give them that opportunity, and not take credit when they perform but we should answer questions like these when they dont perform"
"Haider Ali is hoping to become a top player - when he debuted against England, what did he score on his second ball in international cricket? He hit a six and scored a fifty on debut; I have that written in my diary - I am not drawing cartoons but note down all bits and pieces about players and work with them on those points"
"In the national team, we dont work on technique but we make sure that for a player like Haider Ali we allow him to play his natural game but we also work on tactics"
"Haider Ali has had many opportunities and we need to give him time too"
"We didnt have so many coaches telling us how to bat in our days so its upto the players to get themselves ready as they are representing their nation"
"Players need to learn from their own mistakes and if you ask Haider, he is also saying that he is learning from his mistakes and to overcome his weaknesses"
Players being selected for international level before they are ready
"I always feel that a players selected for the national side should have played enough cricket (at the domestic level); These should be the best players that the country has and those who dont play at an average of 5 runs an over when 10 runs an over is the required rate, and also when 5 runs an over are needed they arent trying to play for a situation which demands 15 runs an over"
"This can only happen when they have played enough cricket before coming into the national side"
"So its important that we select players who are suited for particular roles and that they have played enough cricket before they are brought in"
Lower/Middle order not performing that well
"If we talk about Mohammad Hafeez, we see that when your top order is performing so well, then your lower order doesnt get so much of a chance to bat so when they are exposed to a crunch situation, we dont see the sort of form we expect from them"
"In 4th T20I, we had Babar and Fakhar playing so well and I have always told my batsmen never to leave a task half-done, and we saw that moment they were both out the situation became such that we were finding it difficult to hit a run a ball"
"I never wait to give my input to the players - In fact I have a meeting with the players in the airport lounge soon and sometimes players even get irritated by me as I am always talking about cricket with them"
"As a batsman, you need to learn from your mistakes and in that sense, Haider Ali is doing that and if we talk about the lower middle order, they are also doing that"
"In the past few series, our lower order would perform but the top order would not do that - which was the case in New Zealand and England"
Asif Ali still failing even though he is experienced
"I feel that players need to be given ample chances when it comes to a player like Asif Ali who is in and out of the side"
"Every player is not as strong minded as Javed Miandad or Shahid Afridi or Saeed Anwar, so we should give players chances to perform so that they and management dont have any doubts in their minds that they didnt give opportunities"
"Its not because Mohammad Hafeez has played cricket alongside me in the past that I support him - in fact I support all our players as they are a product of our country's system"
"Players like Asif Ali, Haider Ali and Danish Aziz should be given opportunities so that we can get the best out of them and also its upto the players that when they are getting so much support then they should give their best and play for their country"
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