Grant Flower: “He’s good enough to bat in the top four, but I also think he’s versatile enough to play lower down”
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
Pakistan batting coach Grant Flower has admitted that he was extremely impressed with Mohammad Rizwan, Haris Sohail and Abid Ali’s performances during the recent ODI series against Australia.
Rizwan scored 231 runs in five matches, which included two centuries, at an average of 57.75.
“It was always going to be difficult to beat Australia given how many players we were resting, so in that sense the series result appears worse than it perhaps is,” Flower told ESPNcricinfo. “Rizwan’s been playing well, but he looked more in charge of his own mind this time. Less frenetic and paced his innings better.
“He’s good enough to bat in the top four, but I also think he’s versatile enough to play lower down. He doesn’t have the power-hitting, but he can still find the boundaries and the odd six and do a job. His running between the wickets is among the best of our players.”
Haris was the second-highest scorer in the series with 291 runs, which included two hundreds, at an average of 72.75.
“Haris is a class player and he showed that,” Flower said. “His knee’s getting stronger now, and he’s working a lot harder at his fitness. He’ll be the first to admit he didn’t put in the hard yards quite as much earlier in his career, but he’s seeing the benefits of the work he’s putting in now.”
As for Abid, he scored a superb century on debut in the fourth ODI in Dubai.
Even though he was dismissed for a golden duck in the fifth ODI, he still finished with 112 runs at an average of 56.
“Abid’s century was of course brilliant to see,” Flower said. “I wasn’t expecting it, since we hadn’t done much work with him before the series. I’d been told how good he was, but to see him timing the ball as beautifully as he did was very encouraging. Front foot, back foot, offside, legside, you name it. The Australians were very impressed by him. Just that his fitness [issue] showed at the end, otherwise I’m sure he would have won the match for us.”