Pakistan former skipper, Inzamam Ul-Haq exhibited a stellar show in the 1992 World Cup. However, he endured a horrendous run in the England tour which followed thereafter. Oblivious about the conditions, Inzamam suffered low scores in the series. In what was his first tour to England, the Pakistan former skipper struggled, especially against the short pitch deliveries.
“I went to England after the 1992 World Cup at the back of a tremendous performance in the mega event. It was my first-ever tour to England. I didn’t have any idea as to how should I play on those pitches. I was going through a bad patch as I was unable to play short-pitched deliveries,’’ Inzamam said in his YouTube channel
Reflecting back on the tour, Inzamam Ul Haq recently revealed the advice he got from Sunil Gavaskar in the middle of the series which helped him tackle short-pitch deliveries. The former Pakistan skipper said that Sunil Gavaskar told him to never think about short-pitch deliveries while batting and life will become much easier.
“It was somewhere half of our season that I met him at a charity match in England. We both had gone to play that match. And I asked him ‘Sunil bhai I’m facing problems to play short-pitched balls, what should I do’?
“As great are the ways of the great, he told me to do only one little thing, that is, ‘don’t think about short-pitched balls or bouncers while batting because the moment you’ll think about them you’ll get trapped’. He told me that when the bowler would deliver the ball you would automatically understand; so don’t get worried about that.”
Inzamam Ul-Haq applied the technique in the nets and fortunately, it worked for him. The Pakistan cricketer never faced any problem facing short-pitched deliveries after that till his retirement.
“While in nets, I started practicing the way he told me. I strengthened my mind, telling myself not to think about that [short-pitched balls]. The weakness was removed. And from 1992 till the time I retired, I never faced that problem again,”
Pakistan veteran cricketer, Inzamam Ul-Haq played 120 Tests and 378 One-Day Internationals in his ODI career, scoring 8830 and 11,739 runs respectively.
