Karachi: Former captain Younis Khan Wednesday described Pakistan’s upcoming tour of England as significant for world cricket in view of the global health crisis but said it would be difficult for the players to adjust to the changed conditions.
Younis was Tuesday appointed as Pakistan’s batting coach for the three-Test and three-T20I tour of England starting July 30.
“The coming series is important in many ways but to me it is significant because of the existing situation. The world will be watching the series between two top sides. Tours to England have always been important for us,” he said.
Younis said it will be difficult for the players to get back to playing cricket with the new set of Standard Operating Procedures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is not easy for any player to let go of old habits. It will be difficult with the social distancing rules in place whether you are travelling, in the team bus or even in the dressing room.
“I think more than ever, the role of the support staff is going to be very important as to how they help the players. The support staff now has a big role to play,” he added.
Younis, who scored 10099 runs from 118 Tests between 2000 and 2017, said he can bring improvement in batting of the players with his experience and skills.
Reminded that former captain Muhammad Yousuf had claimed recently that when a group of players revolted against his captaincy in 2009, current head coach Misbah-ul-Haq was apparently the mastermind, Younis said for him “past is past”.
“I don’t know the real picture to be honest, but I go by the time I spent with Misbah when we were playing together, he was captain and we got along very well. Both of us retired in the same series and on a winning note when Pakistan won a Test series in West Indies for the first time in 2017,” Younis said.
“I want to share the dressing room with Misbah as a colleague and support staff and I have forgotten about what happened in the past. I have moved on. I am happy that Misbah pushed me for this position so soon after taking over as head coach,” he said.
He said he was happy to be on board the national team. “This is a new role for me and I want to make my contribution to Pakistan cricket.”
Younis said Pakistan have a relatively young batting side except for Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq, so he will have a lot of work to do.
He said he had learnt a lot from playing under top coaches like Javed Miandad and Bob Woolmer.
“I would like to emulate Bob who was a great coach. He used to give us space and just worked on our mental side to make us more productive and he succeeded in that. I have learnt how to make a player more productive without tinkering with his technique or skills.”
Younis also said he would be equally comfortable in all three formats. “Luckily I got a chance to play a lot of T20 cricket and we won the World Cup under my captaincy at a time when everyone doubted whether I was fit for the shorter format.”
PTI