The last few tournaments for Pakistan haven’t been successful as they failed to enjoy success. The national team’s pace bowler Naseem Shah has admitted the team’s worst times in the last few months and has displayed his excitement, looking at the prospects of their cricket across formats.
In the recent Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, in the West Indies and the United States of America, Pakistan could win just a couple of games in the group stage of the event and failed to qualify for the Super Eight stage of the competition, despite being in a group which contained Ireland, Canada and United States of America (USA).
In preparation for this tournament, the Green Brigade faced Ireland and England in the T20I series. They lost the opening game against The Irish before making a comeback to win it but were handed a 2-0 series defeat by the Jos Buttler-led side.
Naseem Shah spoke about his process of regaining form
Despite them not doing well in the event as a team, the performance of their pacer Naseem Shah was quite decent as he showed a good rhythm picking up wickets in regular games.
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In a candid media conference before the start of their home Test series against Bangladesh at the Pindi Stadium, Shah addressed the shortcomings of their performances in the last few events but remained quite hopeful of making a strong comeback in the series.
“Yes, our comeback wasn’t great, and we can’t deny that we didn’t play good cricket. Criticism is part of it, and we must endure it until things improve.” Naseem Shah said in a media interaction recently. “This is a good chance to bounce back, play better, and show up as a team. That’s what I’m hoping for.”
The 21-year-old pacer wasn’t allowed to be played in the ongoing season of the Hundred, as he was denied NOC. The last time he featured in a Test match was more than a year ago at the SSC ground in Colombo against Sri Lanka.
In 17 Tests, he has already enjoyed great success with 51 wickets at an average of 33.82 and a strike rate of 56, with an economy rate of 3.62, having the best bowling figure of 5/31 in an innings. Shah touched on the transition of a long break, which presents challenges.
“I haven’t played red cricket for thirteen months; it’s not easy to play after a long time. International cricket has its pressure; however, we are training hard for it.” Naseem Shah remarked.
“I know personally that playing an international match after a long time is not easy. After returning from injury, I am gradually increasing the load of bowling spells.” The 21-year-old shaded light.
When asked about how the feeling has been in working with the foreign coaches (red-ball head coach Jason Gillespie and white-ball head coach Gary Kirsten), the fast bowler pointed out the language issue that they generally face as players.
“There is a language problem with foreign coaches. We need someone to translate the language. It is easier to communicate with the coach in your language.” Naseem Shah pointed out.
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That Test match in 2023 was also his last first-class game, and that’s a bit concerning, being not sure about his bowling fitness. He, however, looked upon the journey while recovering from injury and the process of getting back into form.
“As a professional, you must take care of your fitness; no one can be forced to improve their fitness. International athletes are not schoolchildren to be taught fitness.” Naseem Shah noted.
The Test series will start on August 21, while the second game will be played on August 30 at the National Stadium in Karachi.