Islamabad United coach Dean Jones will travel with his team to Lahore if they qualifies for PSL Final

Former Aussie batsman and the current head coach of Islamabad United Dean Jones has conceded that he will travel to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore with his team if Islamabad United qualifies for the final of the Pakistan Super League 2017. During an interaction with Geo.tv, Jones said, “I’ll be going but it’s up to the other boys what they do.” He further added that the players were awaiting the briefing of the security officials regarding the current situation.

“We’re yet to sit with the security people with regards to give us some proper briefing. Until we do that, players can’t make the decision”, Jones said. Speaking about his experience in both editions of PSL, Jones said, “It’s been great. I think the cricket has improved this year probably 5 to 10%. I think the fielding has been very good.”

After playing 6 matches in the ongoing PSL so far, the Islamabad United has won 3 matches out of 6 and Jones said that they were in a similar position like the previous year. He also added that his team was looking forward to executing their plans in the match against Karachi Kings and Quetta Gladiators. Speaking about the PSL spot-fixing scandal which wrecked the tournament in the early stages, Jones said, “Everyone knows we’ve had few whacks. A couple of our boys had to leave and it left a few holes. But we’re starting to get organised.”

He further added that the team was fortunate that the spot-fixing scandal happened in the early parts of the tournament. “Fortunately, it happened early in the tournament and not late. We just have to wait and see what happens in the hearing. Hopefully, for them everything is clean and they can get on with their lives and play but if they are guilty, they should expect the worst”, he said.

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Jones was pretty impressed with his team’s bowling performance during the match against the Lahore Qalandars. “The bowling of Muhammad Irfan and Muhammad Sami to Brendon McCullum was just riveting TV. Those first six overs, you couldn’t go anywhere. I hope that type of cricket would continue.”

Arguably one of the greatest limited overs batsman during his playing days, Jones urged the Pakistan team management to not get too much excited about the all-round performance of Shadab Khan despite showing immense promise in the domestic circuit. “He’s only just a boy. Let’s not think too much of him at the moment. He’s a magnificent fieldsman. We’ve had to straighten up his run-up and adjust his technique a little bit.”

” Believe it or not, he changed his technique about 30% inside a week. He’s been practising and working on his delivery stride. I find it very hard to pick him,” he further added. Jones also rated PSL on par with any other T20 leagues across the world. “You’ve got four overseas players for starters. In comparison BPL only has two. So it has to be better. It will get better and hopefully, in years to come we’ll play in Pakistan and showcase the best talent in the world.”

Jones further praised his boys for fielding well in the upcoming tournament despite not performing well for national colours. “The fielding has got better. It’s amazing, they don’t field well for Pakistan but they field well in Pakistan Super League,” Jones concluded.