“There are talks around spin, obviously, for obvious reasons,” Tait told ESPNcricinfo. “But I think, you know, you [Pakistan] might be the team that changes that for sure. I mean, maybe Sri Lanka doesn’t want to create spinning wickets against Pakistan. It’s a sort of what they did against Australia, and Australia bowled really well. So you’ve got to be a little bit careful with opposition coming with good spinners and creating turning tracks that can also favour the opposition.
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Pakistan’s fast bowlers are still “excited” about playing in spin-friendly Sri Lanka and will come prepared to “bowl some more overs” regardless of the nature of the pitch in the series, Tait said.
“I’m looking at a fast-bowling group, we’re just going to come in positive and maybe we’re going to bowl some more overs. We’re going to change a few things and change a few people’s minds and bowl really well there and take some wickets as well. That’s all in my mind at the moment. The boys are pretty confident about where they’re at with the bowling. You look at the guys like Hassan Ali or Shaheen Shah [Afridi], they had [an] excellent last season. Naseem Shah’s coming off a great series against Australia and the way Harris Rauf is so excited to make your claim in Test cricket. So these guys have played a lot of cricket, so I have not noticed anything that would tell me otherwise that they’re really confident and keen to go Sri Lanka and play well.
“If you can get a team together that can play in any condition or a squad together that you’ve got players available that can both spin and bat in certain conditions and also have great fast bowlers, that is the key. Right now I would say Australia probably has that.”
Shaun Tait
“I think obviously it’s not a place renowned for fast bowlers go and take bags of wickets usually. But I think as a pace bowler you’ve got to go in with a positive mindset. You know, when you get your opportunity to bowl your spell, get it right, take a breakthrough. Obviously, with spinners, Sri Lanka will do their job anyway. We’re just going as positive as we can. We’ve got a good fast-bowling group. There’s no reason for us not to be excited about the contest.”
Tait said Pakistan are “close” to being as good as the current Australian team in finding success with the same group of players in any condition around the world.
“I think it just probably comes down to if you’ve got enough good players and enough good areas in your team, you can play in any conditions,” Tait said. “Obviously losing to Australia in Test series has made this Pakistan group really hungry. I think Sri Lanka has just found out the quality of Australia at the moment, the way they’re playing and they are on the top of their game. That’s, what I would say is probably the challenge in world cricket.
“If you can get a team together that can play in any condition or a squad together that you’ve got players available that can both spin and bat in certain conditions and also have great fast bowlers, that is the key. Right now I would say Australia probably has that. If we can go with a squad that can play in any condition, which to me we’re pretty close right now by the look of it.”
When asked about Hasan’s fluctuating form, Tait said: “There’s never, never a shortage of hard work, personally, that’s for sure. I think that’s it’s a bit of an illusion, too, because I think I’ve sort of just got a bit of time, obviously, with the boys recently, and I’ve watched them pretty closely, and I think he’s bowling quite well. So it’s just a matter of taking wickets, right, so if he runs it and takes wickets, the media and the public all of a sudden they’re like, ‘Oh, he’s in great form’. So now we don’t want to think about that too much. They’re all bowling well, so there’s no pressure there.”
Umar Farooq is ESPNcricinfo’s Pakistan correspondent
Source: ESPN Crickinfo