Former pace great Waqar Younis said it doesn’t make sense that the ICC World Test Championship don’t feature any match between arch-rivals India and Pakistan.
The World TestChampionship features nine top-ranked Test teams, who will play six bilateralTest series against mutually chosen opponents with the top two nations withmost points at the end of the league clashing in the final in England in June2021. “I know it is a difficult situation between Pakistan and India evenat government to government level but I think the ICC needed to play a moreproactive role in this championship,” Waqar said in an interview to theYouTube channel Cricket Baaz.
“The ICC should have intervened and done somethingbecause to me having a test championship without Pakistan and India Testmatches makes no sense,” he said.
Waqar lamented that due to the on and off strained relationswith India, he got to play only four Tests against them in an internationalcareer spanning 14-years, featuring 87 Tests and 262 ODIs.
“It’s always been like this that is why making my testdebut against India is something I don’t forget,” he said.
Waqar also praised the wealth of pace talent coming throughin India. “If you see India has really worked hard in this area and theyare now producing bowlers regularly who bowl in the 140 plus range.
“In the past it was not like this. But things havechanged. (Jasprit) Bumrah, (Mohammed) Shami, Ishant (Sharma) they have takenIndia to the top. That is why India is doing so well in Test and other formatsnow,” he said.
Waqar also pointed out that India had a very clearlyrotation policy for its pace bowlers.
“If you look at their Test side they have more or lessa settled combination of pace bowlers for this format but in the white ball formatsthey keep on changing and experimenting which is good.” Waqar said asPakistan bowling coach he also wanted to experiment with the bowlers in limitedover cricket, while having a settled group of bowlers for Test cricket whocould serve the country for the next 5 to 8 years.
“My policy is to keep on giving chances andexperimenting in ODIs and T20 cricket. Give those bowlers a chance who are inform at a time. It is not that I ignore those who have performed consistentlywell in domestic cricket. Muhammad Abbas, Imran Khan are examples,” hesaid.
The 48-year-old said cricket has changed a lot compared towhen he played and fast bowlers lack aggression now.
“Nowadays cricket is different and as a result I feelpace bowlers are more defensive minded now to counter the changed rules,broader bats and easy pitches. “In my days we always believed thataggression and attack was a must for fast bowlers and we got success.”