A week before Pakistan’s opening Test against Bangladesh, Shaheen Shah Afridi and his wife, Ansha Afridi, welcomed their baby boy, Ali Yar.
Shaheen went on to play the opening Test despite doubts over his availability. Gillespie felt he shouldn’t have played the 24-year-old pacer and should have allowed him to spend time with his family.
“I learnt a pretty good lesson as a coach in the first Test match when Shaheen’s wife was due to give birth. My initial thought was for him not to play and to spend time with his family. However, Shaheen, to his credit, was so keen to play. In hindsight, I should have made that call to allow him to have that important family time. It’s a lesson I’ve learnt as a coach,” Gillespie said, as quoted from Geo News.
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Pakistan lost the opening Test, and Shaheen and Naseem Shah were dropped for the second and final red-ball game of the series. Pakistan once again landed short and suffered a Test series defeat against Bangladesh for the first time in their history.
In their upcoming three-match Test series against England, Pakistan announced their squad for the opening Test, which bears similarity to the team that lost to Bangladesh.
Gillespie emphasised the need to show confidence and faith in the current squad. He believes they have the quality to pull off performances that will help them sail to victory.
“We picked a squad that is not too dissimilar to what we had against Bangladesh. I’m really keen to show our faith and belief in our players,” Gillespie added.
“We don’t want to have knee-jerk reactions after every bad game or a result that hasn’t gone our way. We want to show faith and belief in these players because they’re very good players, and we showed glimpses of good cricket in both the first and second Test against Bangladesh in Pindi,” Gillespie noted.
Another aspect that the former Australia pacer shed light on was the fitness aspect within the team. The fitness level of Pakistan players has been heavily criticised by fans and former cricketers since last year’s ODI World Cup in India.
After having a conversation with white-ball head coach Gary Kirsten, the fitness of players’ is controllable.
“Fitness has been well-documented in the press. That’s certainly something, as far as I’m concerned, and having spoken to Gary Kirsten is controllable. It’s something that we can control. We can continue to develop and work on that because, as we know, Test cricket is a challenge,” Gillespie remarked.
Pakistan will play the first match on October 7 in Multan, and the second Test will kick off in Multan on October 15. The final Test will be played from October 24 to 28 in Rawalpindi
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(With inputs from ANI)
