Islamabad, October 17, 2019: Pakistan’s Bowling Coach Waqar Younis believes young players were not been given enough opportunity in the ongoing National Twenty20 Cup 2019 at Faisalabad.
“There must be two Under19 players in the Playing XI of each team in the tournament,” he said while talking on Shoaib Akhtar’s YouTube channel.
Waqar, who played 87 Tests and 262 ODIs for Pakistan from 1989 to 2003, said it should have been made mandatory in such tournaments to include two U19 players in the Playing XI. “The Pakistan Super League (PSL) was coming up. I feel the youngsters were not given enough opportunity in the tournament which was the best platform for grooming them,” he said.
To a question, Waqar, who had previously worked as bowling coach with the national side from 2006 to 2007, said he cannot search for bowlers like Shoaib Akhtar and Wasim Akram as it was a part of natural talent, but if I come to know about such talented players than would definitely groom them.
“We have been working on some youngsters like Musa Khan and Muhammad Husnain. But it requires a lot of work and long time to develop players like Shoaib and Wasim,” he said and added that they have been looking up to the domestic cricket for new talent.
Waqar, who in the past had also been associated with the team as head coach, was of the view that if upcoming talent was seen which can be groomed then definitely he would be picked up. “When I was the head coach of the national team I preferred giving opportunity to new talent,” he said.
The former pacer, who holds the record for the youngest Pakistani Test captain and the third youngest Test captain in history, said there was need of bowlers like Wahab Riaz and Muhammad Amir in T20 cricket. “Wahab and Amir are very clear that they won’t play test cricket,” he said.
