Zaheer Abbas urges the batsmen to perform well in South Africa

Zaheer Abbas, the former Pakistan captain, believes that the Green Shirts will have to raise their game with the bat if they have any chance of dismantling South Africa in the upcoming series.

Misbah-ul-Haq and company have reached South Africa and will have net sessions for a couple of days before their practice match against the South Africa Invitation XI at East London, which commences on January 25, 2013.

The first Test of the tour is going to begin from February 1, with the home team looking to maintain their supremacy in the longer format of the game.

Pakistan team has been playing good cricket over the last couple of years and is high on confidence, having beaten India recently in the One Day International (ODI) series. However, the tour of South Africa is going to be a different challenge because of the bowling-friendly conditions.

Zaheer, who is considered to be one of the finest batsmen produced by the country, feels that the experienced players must take the responsibility on their shoulders and they will have to score big runs, if the Green Shirts are to dismantle the Proteas.

He expressed, “I would like to see Hafeez, Misbah and Younis Khan to be the batsmen who take charge out there and look to play long innings. This series will not be about the batsmen who score a nice 30 or 40, big hundreds are required.”

The former captain is satisfied with Pakistan’s batting strength in the presence of some seasoned campaigners as well as some talented youngsters. Zaheer thinks that the batting line-up has been doing well over the last couple of years but the upcoming series is going to be the real test of their mettle.

“The Pakistani top six has a nice familiarity about it and a certain degree of stability. There’s the experience of Misbah, Younis and Hafeez, in addition Taufeeq Umar, Asad Shafiq and Azhar Ali have been a regular part of the batting order in Test cricket and that is a good sign,” the former right-handed batsman added.

The three-match Test series will be followed by five ODIs and a couple of T20 Internationals.

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Posted by Yasir Hashmi on Jan 21 2013. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.