Pakistan’s batsmen have let the team down time and time again

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have announced that they will be hiring a batting coach for the national team, and have already posted an advertisement on their website.

As of right now, head coach Dav Whatmore is also the batting coach, but the PCB believe that they need someone who specialises in the trade to join bowling coach Mohammad Akram and fielding coach Julien Fountain.

The advertisement does have specific conditions, including that the candidate must have a Level III coaching accreditation and five years worth of experience dealing with top batsmen.

The PCB announced that the deadline for applications would be November 4.

In recent months, the Pakistan bowling attack has thrived, while the batting department has been on a slide and are in dire need of help.

The thought of having a batting coach has hung in the air for about three years, but it is only after seeing their batting lineup fail time and time again that has prompted the PCB to take action.

This is the first time the PCB have advertised a post looking for a full-time batting coach since in the past Geoffrey Boycott, Javed Miandad and Basit Ali have all had part-time stints as the national team’s batting coach.

Initially, PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf had planned to have a specialist coach for all three departments, but after getting only the bowling and fielding positions filled, Ashraf entrusted Whatmore with the duties of being the batting coach as well.

But, after watching Pakistan lose by 16 runs to Sri Lanka when chasing a target of 140 in the semi-final of the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Twenty20, Ashraf decided that it was time to bring in a specialist batting coach.

Pakistan’s next series will be against arch-rivals India, where they will play three ODIs and two Twenty20 Internationals in December before they head to South Africa in February.