Poor tactics: Pakistan let England off the hook, says Basit

45-year-old unhappy with bowlers not adjusting once ball stopped moving around

KARACHI: Former Test player Basit Ali, who recently worked with Pakistan A as their head coach on the tour of England, feels Pakistan allowed England off the hook despite taking two wickets quick wickets early on day four of the third Test at Edgbaston.

“Pakistan had such a good start on day four but they allowed England to make their way out of trouble,” Basit told The Express Tribune.

The 45-year-old feels the visitors should have bowled better lines once the ball stopped swinging like it was in the first hour of play.



“If the ball stopped moving then the Pakistani bowlers should have adjusted their line but they didn’t and instead were hoping for a wicket to come,” he said. “You don’t just wait for a wicket because there are times when you have to go all out to get them by utilising different plans. If the ball was not coming in to Joe Root or James Vince then the left-arm pacers should have gone round the wicket to create a different angle. These are the sort of things you expect from these players.”

Root and Vince came together after openers Alastair Cook and Alex Hales were dismissed in quick succession by Sohail Khan and Mohammad Amir respectively and their 95-run stand helped swell England’s lead to a comfortable tally.



Basit — who is also the head coach of SNGPL which has won four consecutive domestic league titles — added that Yasir Shah, who has played under him in the domestic circuit, is being utilised as a defensive weapon all of a sudden, a change in tactic that is affecting Pakistan adversely.

“Suddenly Yasir Shah is being used defensively and that is hurting Pakistan,” he said.

Basit suggested the team management has stopped trusting the leg-spinner, who has had a remarkable fall from grace after claiming a match-winning 10-for in the opening Test at Lord’s.



“There are times when a bowler isn’t bowling to the level that he can bowl at but that doesn’t mean you stop believing in him,” he said. “Even if Yasir is bowling some bad balls or conceding boundaries, he should be used as an attacking weapon. Let the English batsmen go for boundaries but the field should be attacking. The captain needs to give him confidence in tough situations because that is where the player needs to be backed the most.”

The four-match series is currently tied at 1-1 as England bounced back from a 75-run defeat at Lord’s to canter to an emphatic 330-run win at Old Trafford.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 7^th, 2016.

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