Former Pakistan batting coach Grant Flower was all praise for the team’s best batsman Babar Azam, who had shot to fame in a very short span of time.
“He’s probably the best bloke I’ve ever coached – certainly the best Pakistani I’ve ever coached,” he said while talking to ESPNcricinfo.
During the 2019 World Cup, Flower had said in a live video that Babar Azam knew everything that any coach could teach a player. He also stated that there was nothing much to teach Azam as he was a ‘perfect’ cricketer.
Not only Babar Azam, but he also rated Haris Sohail highly, describing him as an underrated player who’s a bright and shining prospect for the team.
“I think Haris Sohail is probably an underachiever – I think a lot of people haven’t seen the best of him yet.”
However, he was unsure about Fakhar Zaman’s place in the team due to his technique of playing shots.
“I’ve worked quite a lot with him, but he’s got such a different technique to others. He’s quite hard to work with, even though he’s a lovely guy. There’s a lot of rawness about him, but his results have been very inconsistent. But I think he’s good enough to make something of it, but he’s got a lot of work to do.”
When asked about the future of Pakistan’s top three players – Azam, Sohail and Zaman in the next 5 years, this is what Flower said –
“I’m not sure about Fakhar (Zaman); he’s got to get his technique a bit tighter, but the other two will definitely be there, no question about that.”
He backed Imam ul Haq too, saying that he was the man who was certainly going to make it big.
“Imam-ul-Haq, I think he’s really improved. You’re going to see a lot more of him because he’s very driven. As long as he doesn’t get too far ahead of himself, I think he’s going to have a really good career.”
