Arif Ali—AFP
Pakistan cricket coach says one-day team for upcoming series is comprised of many newcomers.
Pakistan’s head coach Waqar Younis stressed on Sunday that young players are key to his team’s future, with the Champions Trophy 2017 and World Cup 2019 as prime targets.
Pakistan are lying ninth in the one-day rankings and barely managed to qualify for the Champions Trophy as they look to build for the next World Cup—both events to be held in England. And Younis told AFP: “Youngsters are our future.”
“If we continue to give young players chances then it will have a better impact as we look to build the side for the two main events, Champions Trophy and the World Cup.”
Pakistan will play England in four one-day internationals after the ongoing third and final Test ends in Sharjah. The squad for the one-day series is expected to be announced later this week.
Younis, in his second stint as coach, added: “One-day cricket has changed a lot, now a 300 plus total is very common so we need to adopt this change and I am happy that the mindset of the young players has changed which is very good.”
The current coach led Pakistan to the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2011 before leaving the job that same year. He rejoined Pakistan in June last year on a two-year contract.
Under Younis, Pakistan lost five one-day series in a row before winning in Sri Lanka this year and beating Zimbabwe twice—home and away.
Younis said the one-day team was taking shape with a number of talented youngsters. “We have a number of talented youngsters like Mohammad Rizwan, Sarfraz Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Babar Azam and Anwar Ali around whom we can build the team for the future. It will take time to build but we are in the right direction and we need to give confidence to our young players as they learn fast and are eager to do well in all forms of the game.”