Not enough time or matches for Pakistan to prepare for WC: Akram

January 31, 2015 05:25 pm | Updated 05:25 pm IST - Karachi

Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram has expressed concerns over the national cricket team not getting enough matches and time to get acclimatised to the conditions in New Zealand and Australia ahead of the World Cup, starting from February 14.

“When you look at India and how they are still struggling despite being in Australia for the past two months and having played a lot of matches, it does raises concerns whether Pakistan have enough time to go well prepared into the World Cup,” said Akram.

“It takes time to adjust to the pitches and conditions in both countries and I have toured those nations many times in the past. I just think a few warm up games and two ODIs against New Zealand is not the proper preparation for such a mega event.

“We should have played a full ODI series in New Zealand and had some more games in Australia before the World Cup,” insisted Akram, who was a part of the 1992 World Cup winning squad and also captained Pakistan to the 1999 edition final in England.

The fast bowling great told Geo News channel that he was surprised with the way New Zealand today defeated Pakistan by seven wickets with 63 balls to spare in the first One-day International.

“New Zealand team has been in great form off-late and I was expecting them to win, but not expecting them to beat us so comfortably. It became a one-sided clash,” said Akram.

He said both the batsmen and bowlers are yet to adjust to the conditions in New Zealand.

“One could see today the batsmen are still to adjust to the seam conditions in New Zealand and our bowling is not hitting top gear,” said Akram.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.