Follow UsFollowing a massive defeat against England in the first Test in Multan, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) made some drastic changes to their setup. They appointed a new selection committee featuring Aleem Dar, Azhar Ali, and Aaqib Javed, and also removed head coach Jason Gillespie and skipper Shan Masood from the panel. Moreover, they also dropped Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah from the last two Tests.
Following that call, Pakistan bounced back with a resounding 152-run victory in the second Test. Ahead of the third Test in Rawalpindi, Gillespie says he is not too fussed about the tough calls made by the PCB.
"The PCB came out and made some changes after that Test match, and it was decided that a new selection panel would come in and they would be making the decisions," Gillespie said.
"I was not involved in the decision-making. I am just a coach on match day strategy. So, I keep out of things now and just focus on players and getting them ready for cricket."
When asked about the change in dynamics, Gillespie said it was not his place to discuss the issue, calling himself a match-day strategist.
"It's not for me to talk about now. I am not a selector. I am a match day strategist [gestures air quotes]. As a head coach, I am all about players and my focus is on them. I will let the selectors do their job and we will go out there and play the best possible cricket we can play. I'm getting splinters in my ass for sitting on the fence here," Gillespie, who took over as Pakistan's Test head coach in April, said.
Gillespie also hopes that his batters make the best of England's inexperienced spin bowling attack, referring to Shoaib Bashir and Rehan Ahmed.
"We have spoken about how we can get the best out of our batting and put them under pressure. We feel it will be important because England are going to rely heavily on spin in this Test match. And it sounds like we're probably going to do something similar. They might not be necessarily experienced, but they're very good bowlers and you must respect that. Although I say, 'ignore youth at your peril' - if you're good enough, you're old enough," he said.
"Experience has a lot of value, and there is no question about that. But there is no reason why players who don't have 100 Test matches next to their name cannot have an impact. So, you just need to respect what they can do, and England have two young spinners in the early stages of their careers and Leachy [Jack Leach], who is a much more experienced bowler.
"So, they have got good options, and we need to make sure we're at our very best. Our batters are really clear on what their plans are. With all the discussions that they are having. And we just have to go out there and play the ball on merits and hopefully we can put the England bowlers under pressure and post up some really good totals in this Test match."
A win in the Rawalpindi Test will see Pakistan win their first series since their 2-0 win against Bangladesh in 2021 and the first under Masood.
If you’ve not downloaded the Cricket.com app yet, you’re missing out on our content — big time. Download the App here