KARACHI: Test coach Jason Gillespie has started to suffer from the workload of Pakistani pacers, he says that Shaheen Afridi has bowled three times more than Mitchell Starc in a year. He also plays leagues with all three formats, including We have to take care of the workload on the cricketers, we will also give them a chance to rest in relatively unimportant matches.
The former Australian Test pacer expressed these views while lunching with a small group of journalists in Karachi yesterday. Gillespie has recently taken over as Pakistan’s Test coach.
He said that Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah are multi-format cricketers and also participate in franchise cricket. They cannot play every match. We will try to give them a chance to rest in relatively unimportant matches. Shaheen bowled three times as much as Mitchell Starc during the 2016 season, how he will be able to handle such a workload, we have to wonder.
Similarly, we will review the pressure on the batters, we will try to prepare backup seamers, he said that a camp will be set up from August 6 to prepare for the series from Bangladesh. Will announce, haven’t decided who to rest, Shaan Masood will lead the test team, he is playing county cricket in England, we couldn’t meet but we keep in touch on phone.
I had a conversation with Babar Azam and Naseem Shah in Lahore, I told Babar to play his natural game with complete freedom. Gillespie said that I will be with Pakistan Shaheens in both the four-day matches against Bangladesh A in the tour of Australia, after that I will go home for 2 days, I will return to Pakistan again on August 4, Gary Kirsten in white ball. As the head coach, I will join the team before the start of the Test matches in any series, players who play all three styles of cricket will join us after retiring from the white ball matches.
When asked about the ICC Test Championship, he said that it is a long journey to the final, but it is not impossible to reach, there is no secret formula, the team will have to perform 100%, this season we have 9 Test matches. There are a lot of games to play, including the tough tour of South Africa, I’m not thinking that far ahead right now, I’m focused on the series against Bangladesh.
Gillespie said, “When ever possible, I will personally assess the performance of the players by watching the domestic matches, and will also look at the new talent in the training camp.”
