Former pace spearhead Waqar Younis said that it doesn’t make any sense if there is no match between arch-rivals India and Pakistan in the ICC World Test Championship. The World Test Championship comprises of nine top-ranked Test teams, who will compete with each other in six bilateral Test series where two most points ranked teams play the final at the end of the league in England in June 2021.
“I know it is a difficult situation between Pakistan and India even at government to government level but I think the ICC needed to play a more proactive role in this championship,” Waqar Younis said in an interview to the YouTube channel Cricket Baaz. “The ICC should have intervened and done something because to me having a test championship without Pakistan and India Test matches makes no sense.”
Since the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, India has never toured Pakistan. They have not played a full bilateral series since 2007 because of the not-so-good political and diplomatic relations. Waqar further said that due to the strange relations with India, he only played four Tests against India in his 14-years of international career where he played 87 Tests and 262 ODIs.
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“It’s always been like this that is why making my test debut against India is something I don’t forget,” he said. “If you see India has really worked hard in this area and they are now producing bowlers regularly who bowl in the 140 plus range.”
“In the past it was not like this. But things have changed. (Jasprit) Bumrah, (Mohammed) Shami, Ishant (Sharma) they have taken India to the top. That is why India is doing so well in Test and other formats now,” he said.
Waqar Younis also spoke about India’s pace attack.
“If you look at their Test side they have more or less a settled combination of pace bowlers for this format but in the white ball formats they keep on changing and experimenting which is good,” he shared.
“My policy is to keep on giving chances and experimenting in ODIs and T20 cricket. Give those bowlers a chance who are in form at a time. It is not that I ignore those who have performed consistently well in domestic cricket. Muhammad Abbas, Imran Khan are examples,” he said.
“Nowadays cricket is different and as a result I feel pace bowlers are more defensive minded now to counter the changed rules, broader bats and easy pitches. In my days we always believed that aggression and attack was a must for fast bowlers and we got success,” Waqar Younis concluded.
