Azhar Mahmood stresses on the importance of taking wickets up front

The bowling coach of Pakistan Cricket, Azhar Mahmood, in a recent interview, stressed the importance to take 20 wickets in a match. The struggling Sri Lankan side amassed a total of 419 runs in front of the Pakistani side who went ahead with only one spinner by the name of Yasir Shah.

In between the three seamers used namely Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Abbas and Hasan Ali, only two went on to be successful. Even after conceding over 400 runs, the men in green did not regret the use of only one specialist spinner.

“The challenge in a Test is to take 20 wickets and win it. The best thing is that we bowled well. There was a lot of talks that the pitch has grass or we should have played with three spinners but we went on our strength. We played Test matches in the West Indies with three seamers,” commented Azhar Mahmood according to Cricbuzz.

We didn’t bowl well with the new ball: Mahmood

Which meant an increased workload on Yasir Shah who bowled the most number of overs in his career with his 57 over tally. Part-time spinner Haris Sohail went on to share the workload with Shah and bowled 13 overs and claimed the wicket of Dilruwan Perera, thereby, breaking the partnership with centurion Dinesh Chandimal.

“The main thing is that we didn’t bowl well with the new ball, the first six overs I mean. So we need to learn how to take wickets with the new ball because if you get wickets at the top, it helps Yasir to attack. But we gave 419 runs in five sessions which is okay,” further added Mahmood.

“The coach had tasked me with getting wickets with the new ball. I wasn’t successful in doing that. Our plan on the day, if we don’t get any wickets, was to bowl a tight line and length, and contain runs. We were, to an extent, successful in doing that. And at the end, I got an opportunity to take wickets,” commented Mohammad Abbas.