Pak poor in fielding because 'bowling coach acting as fielding coach': Rana Naved

The main reason for Pakistan’s poor fielding is that the national team has a bowling coach acting as a fielding coach, Pakistani pacer Rana Naved-ul-Hasan has said.

“I have noticed that most of the fielding coaches for Pakistan have been former bowlers. A few series'' ago, Ijaz Ahmed was appointed as the fielding coach and there was an improvement in the team''s fielding. Now, Aqib Javed is in charge of the fielding. I don''t think any other team has a bowling coach acting as a fielding coach. This is the main reason for our team''s poor fielding,” PakPassion.Net quoted Rana, who is representing Sussex in this English county season, as saying.

“Another major reason is that most Pakistani cricket grounds have hard surfaces. It is very difficult to dive on such surfaces. Changes have been made and the upcoming players from the U-19 level have had a chance to play on better grounds… Players from South Africa, Australia, and England are very good fielders because they are used to diving around as they have been practising on excellent grounds,” he added.

Rana also found fault with the way Pakistani cricketers train in fielding, and called for an upgradation in the prevailing training methods and fielding drills.

“We haven''t changed and improved our system over the years. I have played in various countries, including Australia and England - they all have advanced training methods and fielding drills. Everyone else has developed their cricket, but we are stuck in the same place,” he pointed out.

When asked whether he thought the Pakistan team needs a specialist batting coach, Rana said it is a necessity because the squad needs to improve its batting skills.

“Our batting has been inconsistent over the past few years. A lot of our young players are a bit immature. They don''t know how to build their innings. So Javed Miandad or any other great batsman would really help the young players. All our present coaches are former fast bowlers. Our bowling has always been great. We need to improve our batting and fielding and for that we need good fielding and batting coaches,” he said.