Pakistan batting coach Michael Smith has backed the team’s struggling batters to bounce back. Photo: Screengrab
Pakistan batting coach Michael Smith has backed the team’s struggling batters to bounce back, saying the side’s young players are learning difficult lessons on their first tour of England.
Pakistan have failed to pass 200 in their first six innings in England, but Smith said the problem was less about a lack of quality and more about sustaining longer innings.
“I think it’s obviously a bit of a transition phase for the Pakistan team,” Smith told reporters in a press conference. “A lot of our younger players, it’s their first tour of England and they’re learning some tough lessons.”
“England have bowled really well to us and they’ve got a really experienced bowling attack. At stages we’ve showed some real good signs but just not for long enough.”
Smith said Pakistan needed batters capable of staying at the crease for several hours rather than producing only brief periods of resistance.
“We need some of our guys to be playing for hours at times and in certain game plans,” he said.
The coach also backed senior batters including Babar Azam and Shan Masood, who have struggled to produce significant scores during the series.
“Quality is quality,” Smith said. “Some players, a three-match series, yes it’s been challenging but players of that quality will come good.”
Smith said the atmosphere within the camp remained positive despite Pakistan’s difficult run.
“Boys are in a good space. It’s been tough, it’s been challenging,” he said. “We’ve come up against a good bowling unit in home conditions who have been excellent.”
He said the progress of the younger players should be judged over a longer period, particularly when they return to England.
“Hopefully if a lot of these players are back on our next UK tour, we’ll really see an upward trend,” Smith said.
Smith, who has been with the team for only three weeks, declined to offer immediate views on structural changes needed in Pakistan cricket.
“I’ve been here for three weeks. I’d probably like to answer that in six to nine or 12 months’ time as opposed to just three weeks,” he said.
But he described the task of helping Pakistan improve as an exciting one.
“I think I’ve got a bloody exciting challenge on my hand because there’s some serious players,” Smith said. “Potential is exceptionally high. It’s just how quickly can we get them to that level, especially playing outside of Pakistan.”
Smith admitted some of Pakistan’s dismissals had been disappointing but said the squad had enough quality to respond.
“Some players know that they’ve got out softly and that’s the challenge of playing here,” he said.
“It’ll be nice for them to also show the rest of the UK and the people back in Pakistan what they’ve still got because we’ve got no doubt as a coaching staff that it’s there.”
On off-field developments surrounding the squad, Smith said the coaching staff could only focus on keeping players concentrated on their cricket.
“Being professional sports, you’ve got to just adapt as quick as you can and try and get the players focused on jobs at hand,” he said.
“We speak a lot about not living in the past too much and not focusing on the future and just trying to stay as present as we can.”
Smith also praised England seamer Ollie Robinson, calling him “one of the most consistent bowlers in world cricket”.
“He knows what he’s doing with the ball and he sort of wears you down a bit and he’s highly skilled,” Smith said.
Robinson’s consistency, Smith added, had made him particularly difficult to counter.
“He’s bowled exceptionally well and he’s in a little purple patch as a player,” he said.
Smith praised Pakistan’s left-handers for their response to Robinson after the side lost two wickets in the opening over, while highlighting Saud Shakeel’s approach against the seamer.
“Saud Shakeel showed us in those two Tests, he had a real good blueprint against him and some of our players are now sort of leaning into that sort of learning curve there,” Smith said.
