According to Razzaq, Bumrah is heading towards becoming a world-class bowler, who earlier term him a “Baby Bowler”
According to Abdul Razzaq, Indian fast bowler Bumrah is heading towards becoming a world-class bowler, earlier he term him a “Baby Bowler” by comparing him with the likes of Glenn McGrath, Wasim Akram, Curtly Ambrose, Shoaib Akhtar. Razzaq also clarified that his “baby bowler” comment against lead India pacer Jasprit Bumrah was misconstrued. Former Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq says a comparison of Hardik Pandya with legendary players like Kapil Dev and Imran Khan is nowhere near the league and needs to work harder to become a world-class cricketer.
Abdul Razzaq said:
Pandya is a good player but he can be a much better all-rounder. It is all about hard work. When you don’t give enough time to the game, it drifts away from you. He (Pandya) has to prepare better mentally as well as physically. As you have seen, he has been getting injured a lot of late (underwent back surgery last year). When you earn a lot of money, you tend to relax. For every player, it is the same. Mohammad Amir did not work hard enough and his performance dipped. Kapil Dev and Imran Khan are the best all-rounders of all time. Hardik is nowhere near that league. Even I was an all-rounder but it doesn’t mean that I would compare myself with Imran Bhai. Kapil paaji and Imran Bhai were in a different league.
I do not have anything personal against Bumrah. I was simply comparing him with the likes of Glenn McGrath, Wasim Akram, Curtly Ambrose, Shoaib Akhtar. It would have been much tougher to face them. My comments were misconstrued. He is heading towards becoming a world-class bowler. But in our times, the bowlers were of a much higher caliber.
Not many can dispute that. The standard of cricket has gone down. You don’t feel the same pressure facing the current crop of pacers. Overall, there is a bad patch in world cricket. We are not producing world-class players the way we used to 10-15 years ago. You had Tendulkar, Zaheer, Sehwag, Ganguly in the same team. They would have walked into any team. Maybe too much T20 cricket is responsible for this decline.
Pakistan was the stronger team in the 90s but India has enjoyed an upper hand over the arch-rivals in the last decade. India has also extended their unbeaten World Cup record against Pakistan to 7-0. India will continue to maintain that record. It is rare that India and Pakistan play each other in knock-out matches of ICC events. They mostly play in the league stage and India are favorites. Our players are not able to absorb the pressure that comes with this game.
We used to win a lot against India in Sharjah, beat them in Canada twice. I remember the 1999 World Cup, people and media put pressure on the players before the game and we wilted. It has stayed like that, unfortunately. The pressure builds on the players though it is like any other match. The players are not confident about beating India in World Cup, adding Pakistan had the best chance of beating India in the 2011 edition.
