Jason Gillespie, Pakistan cricket team’s Head coach, has acknowledged the brilliant bowling performance by Haris Rauf which highlighted the deficiencies in Australia’s batting line-up. While talking to Australian media, Gillespie praised Rauf’s brilliant performance, observing that Pakistan’s bowlers gave tough times to Australia’s batters. Gillespie mentioned that probably Australia will make preferable changes in their squad for the final match, suggesting that the team may include their leading fast bowlers in Perth to make their performance more powerful.
“We knew that there was probably going to be some change, knowing what Australia have coming up. You always thought at the back of your mind were they going to send the big quicks over to Perth to play one 50-over game. You always keep in mind that they’ll use their top pace attack in Perth,” he further said.
“Haris Rauf’s pace really exposed some flaws in Australia’s batting/ The reality is, we should have won the first game too,” Gillespie added.
He also expressed that he was satisfied with the Pakistan team’s achievement, by beating Australia in their homeland and getting victory easily.
“All we can do as Pakistan is play against the opposition that’s presented, and we did that really well. It was pleasing not just to beat Australia but to beat them pretty convincingly. The reality is we should have won the first game as well,” he noted.
The bowling attack, he said, perfectly exposed the weaknesses in Australia’s batting line-up but he hopes that the Aussies learn from their mistakes and come back stringer, with Champions Trophy less than hundred days away.
“I believe the Australian team will address these flaws. Strong teams learn and come back prepared. What we saw in this series is our bowling exposed some flaws in the Australian batting. I’m sure the Australians will look to right some wrongs and improve some things. That’s what good players and good teams do. You learn, adjust, and adapt and be ready for the next challenge,” Gillespie was quoted as saying by The Sydney Morning Herald.
Pakistan’s coach also said that with the amount of cricket the teams play now, it is unrealistic to expect players to be up to play all matches.
“It’s critical to look after and manage your players as effectively as you possibly can because you want them fit and firing for as much international cricket as possible, and sometimes you have to manage some players,” he said.
“It’s unrealistic to have players playing every single international that’s scheduled, I just don’t think that’s sustainable, and you burn players out very quickly,” he added.
He confessed that its the job of the coaches to manage the players’ workloads. He defended Australia’s much criticised step to bench their main players for the ODI series decider against Pakistan.
“We anticipated that, and that’s the nature of modern cricket, and it’s up to selectors and coaches to manage their players as best they can. Australia chose to do that. It was pretty obvious that this three-match one-day series wasn’t the highest of priorities for Australia,” he remarked.
