Pakistan’s tour of South Africa is a mouthwatering prospect – Richard Pybus

Pakistan’s former coach, Richard Pybus, is keenly waiting for the upcoming series between South Africa and Pakistan and believes that the Green Shirts are going to pose a threat for the home team’s batting line-up.

The three-match Test series begins from February 1, 2013, at Johannesburg, which will be followed by a couple of T20s and five One Day Internationals (ODIs).

South Africa are presently the number one ranked Test team of the world, having the services of some extra-ordinary cricketers in all departments of the game. Graeme Smith and company will surely start the Test series as clear favourites.

However, the hosts will make a huge mistake if they underestimate the Green Shirts, who have been playing consistently well over the last couple of years. Since their disastrous tour of England in 2010, Pakistan have lost just one Test series, that too by a narrow margin of 0-1 in Sri Lanka last year.

In his article for Pakpassion, the former Pakistan coach expressed that Misbah-ul-Haq and company will have to perform well regularly in all departments to dismantle the Proteas. Pybus also praised Misbah’s hand in the resurgence of the Green Shirts, who have struggled to deliver the goods in international cricket consistently since the retirement of Imran Khan, one of the greatest captains of the history of the game.

Pybus states, “Consistency will be central to any ambitions they have of success on this tour; it is something they have sought but found difficult to sustain since the end of Imran Khan’s career. In Misbah-ul-Haq they have wisely supported this calm and understated captain.”

He further added that Pakistan have an extremely potent bowling attack in the presence of some brilliant pacers like Mohammad Irfan, Junaid Khan and Umar Gul. On top of that, Misbah has two world-class spinners up his sleeves in Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman.

“For Misbah to be able to choose between Ajmal and Rehman and to have the Pakistan equivalent of Joel Garner is quite a thing, that allied with Junaid’s pace and swing and Umar Gul with orthodox and reverse swing, this will present South Africa with their most serious batting challenge for quite some time,” the former coach added.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=37749

Posted by Yasir Hashmi on Jan 29 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.