India Has Done The Right Thing By Investing In Under-19 And A Teams; Pakistan Suffers Because Of No International Cricket At Home - Saqlain Mushtaq

Former Pakistan spinner Saqlain Mushtaq opined that the key reason for India‘s success and Pakistan’s inconsistency, especially on overseas tours, is the difference in the quality and management of the system a level below the international standards of the two countries.

He pointed out that while the BCCI continued to invest heavily in their under-19 and A teams, sending them to foreign countries often, the PCB hardly hosts any overseas A team.

In the past few years, only a few international senior teams have started to tour Pakistan, but not their A teams. Teams like Australia, England, New Zealand are yet to tour Pakistan, while South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh have toured the country.

“Pakistan cricket has suffered a lot because of no international cricket at home but India has done the right thing by investing on its under-19 and A team tours. I remember I was working in England for like four summers and once in Australia and every year I saw some Indian team touring those countries,” Saqlain Mushtaq was quoted as saying by PTI.

The gulf between the strength in depth of the two countries was on display this month. Pakistan were white-washed 3-0 in the ODI series by a second-string England side and lost 2-1 in the T20Is to an England team that was without Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, and Sam Curran. A second-string Indian outfit, on the other hand, thrashed Sri Lanka away in a couple of ODIs.

Players are discouraged from taking up the art of off-spin bowling: Saqlain Mushtaq

Saqlain Mushtaq made another point regarding the change in the trend of spinners in white-ball cricket in the last few years. He observed that leg-spinners are more in demand in limited-overs cricket than off-spinners used to be. The 44-year-old who snapped 496 international wickets with variations of off-breaks is a bit worried about the losing art in white-ball cricket.

“It is an ongoing trend in white-ball formats that teams want to have maximum wrist spinners like India has Chahal and Yadav, Australia has Adam Zampa and Stephenson, England has Adil Rashid etc…And this is discouraging players from taking up the art of off-spin bowling,” the former spinner asserted.

Also Read: ICC Should Review The 15-Degree Elbow Rule For The Bowlers: Saqlain Mushtaq