KARACHI: Batsmen from the Indian sub-continent are considered well-equipped to tackle spinners but Pakistan's bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed says even batsmen from the Asian countries need to work on their game against slow bowlers.
During the national summer training camp in Lahore for the Pakistan team, Mustaq worked not only with the slow bowlers but also with the batsmen on handling spinners.
"I have been talking to the batsmen and giving them tips on how to play the slow bowlers who now a days play an integral part not only in Test but in one-day and T20 formats as well," he said.
"My main task is to help Pakistan develop some good mystery spinners but at the same time having spent so much time with the England team and working with some of their batsmen it is a natural urge in me to also give tips to our batsmen on how best to play spinners," he said.
The former leggie pointed out that in modern day cricket even players from Asian countries needed to constantly keep on working on how to play the spinners.
"Spinners are now becoming very vital cogs in all formats and for each format batsmen have to deal with spinners differently," he noted.
Mushtaq, who remained spin bowling consultant with the England team since 2008 before joining the Pakistan cricket Board coaching panel last month, worked with spinners Zulfiqar Babar, Yasir Shah, Reza Hasan and others during the camp.
"I have told them that spinners now a days need to work a lot on their variations and learn how to make use of the crease which are the two main weapons for them these days."
Mushtaq, 43, said he was already enjoying his stint with the Pakistani players but would also like to go and work at the grass roots level to find some good young spinners for the country.
"It would be great if I can find a few good spinners with potential and then groom them over a period of time for domestic and international cricket. The way I look at it now a days spinners need to have mystery balls and lot of variation in their armour to keep on controlling things," he said.
Mushtaq said he was pleased to see the large number of leg spinners who played in the recent Indian Premier League.
"It was good to see nearly every franchise playing a leg spinner and most of them left an impact. If a leg spinner can do well in T20 cricket and take wickets than he also has the ability to improve and do well in other formats as well," he stated.