PSL is a perfect platform for young talent, says Imad
dubai — The Pakistan Super League (PSL) T20 tournament provides a perfect platform for identifying young talent for Pakistan team, says Karachi King captain Imad Wasim.
He opined that young players imbibe vast experience of seasoned foreign as well as national players while playing along with them in the PSL. “We learn their behaviour, routine, training, work ethics. We look up to Shahid Afridi in our team (Karachi Kings),” he pointed out.
He also said that youngsters were at ease at international level on the back of the PSL experinece. “After playing PSL the youngsters don’t feel any pressure while playing international matches for Pakistan,” believes the left-handed all-rounder.
Talking about the teenage sensation of the third edition of PSL - Ibtisam Sheikh, Imad praised the boyish looking spinner but cautioned that it was too early to say anything. “He is young but you can see his confidence,” he pointed out.
On the match against Peshawar Zalmi on Sunday, Imad felt that his team left it too late. “We should have won with 3-4 overs to spare,” he reckoned. However, he conceded that the Zalmi bowled well while his team dropped intensity a bit.
He also agreed that the pitch at the Ring of Fire was not conducive for the batsmen. “It isn’t easy to score runs on this wicket, I think it should be slightly better than what it is now,” he said but was quick to add that as the tournament progresses the wicket would ease out and grass would be less. “There are not big runs being scored now but in the later stages of the tournament will see that too,” he hoped.
He also felt that Mohammad Amir’s injury put them back. “In his absence our plans slightly went askew and we ended up conceding 30-40 more runs than we would have liked,” he said.
He revealed that the injury to Amir wasn’t serious but if he is not available for the next match, “we have replacements ready.”
For Peshawar, Man-of-the-Match Dwayne Smith felt that had Zalmi boys taken their run out chances of and not dropped catches the result could have been different. “We didn’t take our chances,” he rued.
He gave credit to Karachi bowlers for keeping the Zalmi team on a leash. “Pitch did contribute but they bowled very well and that was the difference.”
“Life is not over there are more games to go,” he said with a chuckle while taking the defeat in his stride despite scoring a well-paced 71 off 51 balls.
Smith felt that they lost wickets at the crucial stage in the match and that slightly put them behind in posting a bigger total.
The West Indian all-rounder said that PSL was getting bigger and helped unearth young Pakistani talent.
sunilvaidya@khaleejtimes.com