Pakistan‘s difficult tour of England has exposed plenty of problems with the bat, but batting coach Michael Smith believes the team’s young players need time and exposure to the Test environment before they can be judged.Pakistan’s struggles continued on the second day of the ongoing Test in Birmingham, with the visitors reaching 52/2 in their second innings before persistent rain brought an early end to play. They remained 268 runs behind England.Pakistan’s batting has been horrendous, to say the least. They have managed scores of 171, 135, 110, 194 and 133 all out in their five innings so far. They have not once crossed the 200-run mark.With Pakistan already suffering heavy defeats in the first two Tests at Headingley and Lord’s, the team has undergone a significant transition during the tour. Seven players, including wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan, opening batter Imam-ul-Haq and T20 captain Salman Ali Agha, were sent home midway through the series.Only Babar Azam and Shan Masood among Pakistan’s current top seven have previously toured England.
Smith urges patience with Pakistan’s young batters
Smith acknowledged that Pakistan are going through a period of change but insisted there is enough talent coming through to eventually strengthen the side.“For me there’s a lot of quality in Pakistan. We’ve seen it for many years and lots of countries go through slight changes. This is one where we’ve got some younger players with some experienced players but it’s the learning and how quickly we can get them to learn and get comfortable in the Test environment to really help them from a long-term point of view,” Smith told reporters following the second day’s play.The batting coach admitted that one of Pakistan’s biggest shortcomings has been their inability to convert promising starts into long stays at the crease.The visitors have shown flashes of resilience during the series, but those moments have rarely lasted long enough to alter the course of matches.“We’ve shown some real good signs but just not for long enough and I think that’s probably the biggest lesson is that we need some of our guys to be playing for hours at times and in certain game plans,” Smith said.Smith pointed to Saud Shakeel, Azan Awais and Shan Masood as players who have already demonstrated that they can handle the demands of Test batting, but stressed that Pakistan need them to sustain that level for much longer.“I think Saud Shakeel has shown us at times, Azan Awais has shown us and Shan too, but we need that for hours and not just for half a session or so. Some of the players, it’s their first tour of England and they haven’t got a lot of Test experience so they are learning some challenging lessons along the way and they have to learn on the Test circuit which is a challenging one.,” he added.The challenge has been particularly pronounced in England, where several members of the current batting group are experiencing English conditions for the first time.Despite Pakistan’s results, Smith said the mood within the camp remained positive and urged people not to make early judgments about the younger members of the squad.He also acknowledged that Pakistan have been up against a strong England bowling attack operating in familiar home conditions.“It’s been tough, it’s been challenging but let’s not take away the fact that we’ve come up against a really good bowling unit in home conditions who’ve been excellent,” Smith said.The batting coach believes the more telling assessment of this group will come when Pakistan return to England in the future, provided many of the same players remain part of the side.“I suppose we might not see the sort of success we want to see now but hopefully if a lot of these players are back on our next UK tour we’ll really see an upward trend and I think that’s the time to really judge them – especially some of the younger players who get their first taste of the English type of conditions,” said Smith.
