Bangladesh currently have a more mature batting line-up than Pakistan, believes former Pakistan pacer Aaqib Javed, who lauded the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) for their tremendous work in developing players with limited resources. His comments also seem to raise questions over the quality of the current Pakistan batting which has been under scrutiny due to constant failure.
Pakistan are still searching for their perfect batting combination in both Tests and limited-overs sides after sacking Sarfaraz Ahmed as captain. Sarfaraz was removed from captaincy last year after Pakistan’s poor show in the 2019 World Cup where they failed to qualify for the knockouts.
Javed, who played 22 Tests and 163 ODIs for Pakistan between 1989 to 1998, recalled his playing days when Pakistan used to dominate Bangladesh and contests between the two teams used to be one-sided. However, that is not the case anymore as Bangladesh have emerged as a successful side in white-ball cricket in the last few years.
“At the moment, if you compare the Bangladesh batting with Pakistan, you can see that they are not behind. Sometimes they look more mature and seems to have more options in their batting line up than the Pakistan side,” said Aaqib in a conversation with Bangladesh daily Prothom Alo Bangla, as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
Javed said Bangladesh have achieved much more than Pakistan despite not having many resources.
“I still remember the time when we use to play with Bangladesh. It was mostly one-sided at that time but recently, Bangladesh has come out with really talented players who actually made their mark at the highest level. The reason behind this is that Bangladesh was very consistent in their development side. They have a very good and consistent development plan under their national academy. If I compare Bangladesh’s progress with Pakistan, I think, Bangladesh has achieved more in their limited resources than Pakistan,” said the former Pakistan pacer.
