Mohammad Yousuf appointed Pakistan U19 Head Coach

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The Pakistan Cricket Board today confirmed the appointment of former Test captain Mohammad Yousuf as head coach of Pakistan U19. Yousuf’s first assignments in the role include the 2023 ACC U19 Asia Cup in the UAE from 8 to 17 December and the 2024 ICC U19 World Cup in Sri Lanka from 13 January to 4 February.

Yousuf, who has previously served as batting coach of the Pakistan Men’s Team and at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore, is one of Pakistan’s most distinguished batters. He scored 7,530 Test and 9,720 ODI runs in a career spanning from 1998 to 2010 and holds the record for the most Test runs in a calendar year when he amassed 1788 runs in the format in 2006.

Mohammad Yousuf: “I am pleased to join as Pakistan U19 head coach and feel honoured to have been given the opportunity to contribute to Pakistan cricket by Chairman PCB Management Committee Mr Zaka Ashraf.

“I am eagerly looking forward to the upcoming U19 Asia Cup and ICC U19 World Cup tournaments, which are crucial to the players’ growth and we will be aiming to do our best in these events.

“Having had the privilege of working with the senior men’s side, I will bring my coaching experience to the U19 set-up, providing a nurturing environment for the young talents to thrive and make a mark on the international level.

“Harnessing the skills of young players is crucial for Pakistan cricket and I am dedicated to fulfilling my responsibility in helping identify, improve and nurture future stars.”

What do you reckon a right move from PCB?


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Oh wow that’s a surprise

Good appointment. He’s been putting in the hard yards too at the NCA and with the Pakistan team
 
A right decision from PCB. I am glad with this decision. He has played 90 Tests for Pakistan. Now, I hope our grassroots level of cricket will get some basic knowledge of cricket from Muhammad Yousaf.
 
Excellent decision .Now Pakistan cricket is going in right direction . producing results will take time but this is good steps.
 
Similarities between Rahul Dravid and M. Yousuf .
both were worked at NCA
Rahul Dravid was Coach of U-19 team and now Yousuf has same role.
Grooming the talent at under -19 level is very important and nobody can do better job than Yusuf.
Next Yushuf will be coach of national team ?
 
Finally, something positive came from PCB. Yousaf is the person that you would want as your coach if you just stepped into the game and it is still your early days in cricket. A lot of things can be learned from this guy.
 
The real problem in PK isn't the coaches, ultimately they make little difference but a lack of grounds and facilities. Invest in grounds and good wickets, give the players good competition and the cream will rise to the top.
Our U19s are a facade, with overaged players, sometimes upto 4 years older. This worked when other countries had no real U19, systems but now that doesn't even work. Our U19s last few WCs have been very average
 
Let's see if he can finally walk the talk and make a difference at the U19 level as he has been harping about all these years
 
Mohammad Yousuf speaks after being appointed head coach of Pakistan Under 19:

"First of all, I thank Allah, and then I thank Pakistan Cricket Board's Management Committee Chairman Zaka Ashraf for giving me the opportunity to work for Pakistan Under 19.

To transfer my experience and whatever stuff I have, and with a good way to groom them. And to do their development. And further, the assignment has been given to us until Asia Cup and World Cup, to give my best performance and come back with Victory InshaAllah.

Our efforts are to come back with Victory and development for boys so that we have a strong bench side. For this, I'll try my best.

Whatever we will make the team InshaAllah we will move along each other. And I also want to thank Hafeez for giving me the opportunity. InshaAllah, I will try my best, will try to fulfill the trust of the nation, cricket board, and to all people who are looking at these things."

Source: PCB
 
very good appointment this. Learn the art of batting and finesse from the Master himself the best batsman that Pakistan has ever produced. He also thanked Hafeez which sounds good to me as if the team director is on the right direction.

These appointments need time to bring the fruitful results atleast a year or 2 , I’m afraid the next incoming chairman due in 3 months will scrap all these roles. Let’s wait and see the musical chairs.
 
I think this is one of the best appointments and will be a good role model for the younglings. He had one of the best batting techniques, was a hard worker, there were not many controversies around him, and was quite a sensable person.
 
Wasn't he appointed as coach earlier, only to be sacked? The allegation was that he was more interested in recruiting for the TJ and less in the cricketing part.
MoYo was a terrific batsman in his prime. I hope he takes his job seriously and does some good work with the u19 team.
 
PCB thinking MoYo will have same effect as Rahul Dravid
 
Pakistan needs to get rid of this mindset that great players make great coaches. They rarely do.

There is no evidence that exists that a person can only coach at the top level if they have performed at the top level. Yes, playing experiences do contribute to your coaching skills in terms of learning the technical and the tactical aspects of the game, however, that doesn't reveal the exact true role of a coach. Great coaches spend countless hours in planning and preparation. Coaches that have modest playing backgrounds usually have spent their time gaining other qualifications and experiences that are probably more useful to coaching than just knowing how to bat and bowl better than others.

Vince Lombardi is regarded as the greatest NFL coach of all time. Never played NFL football professionally. But what he was good at was translating his knowledge about the game and elevating the necessary skill sets of his players. Jose Mourinho played Portuguese second division and maybe about 70 or 80 games but he studied sports science and worked as a PE teacher, became a sports scout, youth team coach, and assistant manager before becoming head coach of a football team.

Great players when they are playing usually don't have the time to hone coaching skills because they are busy maximizing their on-field performances. We need to distinguish playing from teaching. These two are completely different things and coaching is skewed towards teaching rather than playing.

So while I extend my congratulations and good wishes to Mohammad Yousuf for his coaching career, I am also skeptical because he has no experience in dealing with a variety of personalities as he has hardly coached at any level. Just as we have heard Wahab Riaz talking about putting more respect to domestic cricket when it comes to selections, we also need to put more respect on coaching credentials and respect local coaches who have won laurels with their departments/regions.
 
Mohammad Yousaf is supervising the Pakistan U-19 team in a practice session in Dubai ahead of the ACC U-19 Asia Cup 2023.

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Under his supervision, I guess our grassroots level will get stronger.
 
Under his supervision, I guess our grassroots level will get stronger.
Not really. He will make no difference and soon he will be moved on. The coaches want to get paid to do nothing. Look at the support staff for the Asia cup, lots of people to do nothing. They even have an analyst but what do they analyse and shouldn't the coach be the analyst, if he isn't what will he coach
 
Mohammad Yousuf is working hard with these young lads, and his efforts are evident in the performance of the Pakistan U19 team against India U19 in the ACC U-19 Asia Cup 2023.
 
Mohammad Yousuf is working hard with these young lads, and his efforts are evident in the performance of the Pakistan U19 team against India U19 in the ACC U-19 Asia Cup 2023.
Really? You can tell all that with this match.We beat ind last year in the Asia cup.
 
Today, the batting lineup didn't crumble as it used to in the past while chasing.
 
One thing very noticeable as the terrible stances of most of these young players which leaves them unbalanced. The feet are too far apart and when they get onto bouncier tracks against the taller, quicker bowlers, they are left strokeless by the short balls.
 
So far so good. Love the mindset and intent of the team. Keep it up Moyo!
 
One thing very noticeable as the terrible stances of most of these young players which leaves them unbalanced. The feet are too far apart and when they get onto bouncier tracks against the taller, quicker bowlers, they are left strokeless by the short balls.

MoYo was a master batter so this sort of thing should be looked at by him
 
MoYo was a master batter so this sort of thing should be looked at by him
You can have it in writing from me that not a single player will be aware why they will struggle against quickl bowling, bowling the hard length and not a single stance will be changed
 
One thing very noticeable as the terrible stances of most of these young players which leaves them unbalanced. The feet are too far apart and when they get onto bouncier tracks against the taller, quicker bowlers, they are left strokeless by the short balls.
He mentioned in an interview. They are not working on major technical issues with stances atm, that will be after the WC.
 
Why would anybody try to train a different set of techniques to these boys when big tournaments like the Asia cup and the World cup are just around the corner?

No need to do that in the middle. They can be worked on when they are back from the world cup in the NCA.
 
He mentioned in an interview. They are not working on major technical issues with stances atm, that will be after the WC.
These young players are talented but these stances are only for T20 cricket and only for flat wickets. As they get older they won't be able to adjust to wickets with any bounce and require to play off the back foot.
 
Yousaf has talked a lot on Geo criticizing ex legends for not stepping in at the U19, A team and grass roots. Let's see if he can now walk the talk and make a substantial difference. At the NCA he has commented that he gives his feedback, advice to domestic, international players but it is then up to them to work hard on their game and to incorporate whatever they are being taught.
 
An unexpected batting collapse by team under 19 Pakistan, pushes UAE U19 into the final of ACC Asia Cup 2023. This great collapse owes an explanation from Pakistan under 19 batting coach Mohammad Yousuf,he should come clean on today's poor batting display. Didn't expected this performance at all under his supervision.
 
PCB should give top salary each year for 60 U19 cricketers, atleast 3lac per month apart from match fees and player of the match bonus , this is the only way we will attract youth towards cricket
 
Shamyl has been a disappointment in this Asia Cup but he surely is one for the future. Saad Baig and Azan have also been very impressive.

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Mohammad Yousuf speaking in an interview:

"Azan and Saad have shown very mature batting, and may Allah bless them to play even better. In team meetings, I often emphasize that we are performing well, but there is room for improvement. We strive to do well every day,"

“Zeeshan has bowled very well. Ubaid Shah has also bowled well. The bowlers have delivered excellent performances,"

"In the last match (against UAE), you can say that we should have bowled the opposition out for under 150 because they were not a very strong team. However, those UAE boys were mature, considering the aggression they were showing and they were carrying themselves on the ground. So they had a slight edge, but that's not an excuse. We should have won. If you look at the score, we were 114 for 2, and we needed runs at a required run rate of 3,"

"The boys played good cricket, but I am sure they have learned from this. They need to focus more, be disciplined for the future of cricket, the World Cup, and beyond,"

"Pakistan has a bright future. Among them, there is a boy named Shamyl whom I also like. Riaz Ullah is also promising, but they are still young. If they keep learning these small things, I am sure both these boys will have a great future for Pakistan,"​
 
Mohammad Yousuf speaking to the press:

“We need aggression, the kind of aggression we had in the 90s,”

“I don’t want the players to go overboard and use offensive language in any way but I do think we have to shun friendliness on the pitch in order to be more competitive.”

“We committed lot of mistakes in that match and despite that we lost by only 11 runs,”

“These are young players who are eager to learn and improve their performance."

“They are learning and putting in a lot of effort however they shouldn’t have lost against UAE, I think there were several miscalculations on their part.”

“The boys have put in lot of effort and it shows,” he said. “They delivered a good performance in U-19 Asia Cup and rest assured they will perform even better in upcoming matches and bring the World Cup home.”
 
In his role as the U19 head coach, Mohammad Yousuf is actively striving to unlock the full potential of our U19 squad in anticipation of the upcoming ICC U19 World Cup 2024.

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It seems Pakistan U19 Head Coach Mohammad Yousuf is working hard with the future of Pakistan ahead of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2024. He is consistently focusing on lecturing about technical aspects.

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Pakistan's batting coach for the New Zealand series, Mohammad Yousuf, during the innings break of the 5th T20I between Pakistan and New Zealand:

"The intent we are witnessing is a collective effort, including the coaching staff and players, to play a modern-day brand of cricket. In all four matches, we have used different players, including 3-4 debutants. People used to criticize that we don't check our bench strength, so first of all, we initiated player rotation. Usman Khan, you can see his intent tonight, since he is playing, his intent is fantastic. Usually, players, after failing in the first two matches, try to score for themselves. But in the case of Usman Khan, you can see he is trying to score for the team. Even all players are trying to score for the team. InshaAllah, there is planning, and we have a few more matches ahead. So, before the World Cup, you will see a good combination."
 
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