Shoaib Akhtar shares his legacy with Pak national team, emerging bowlers

• He claimed that Naseem Shah has the potential of becoming the next Waqar Younis, Shaheen Shah Afridi can become the next Wasim Akram.
• Shoaib spoke about the importance of bravery for any player, he feels that bravery is what sets people apart and lets them fight back and re-emerge in the face of adversity and challenges.

LAHORE: One of the fastest bowlers in the history of the game, Shoaib Akhtar conducted an online session with Pakistan national team and emerging bowlers here on Wednesday.

Shoaib stressed the importance of aggression and attitude for a fast bowler and told the players that they must compete hard with the batsman and see him in the eye to make an impression. Shoaib spoke with his usual passion to the players as he asked them to assert their presence on the opposing batsman in a match situation.

Shoaib added that the world tends to remember fast bowlers by their spell that cast a spell on opponents and fans, he claimed that Naseem Shah has the potential of becoming the next Waqar Younis, Shaheen Shah Afridi can become the next Wasim Akram and Mohammad Abbas had the potential of becoming the next Mohammad Asif.

However, to achieve these goals these bowlers needed to assert their presence in no uncertain terms on their opponents and have clarity of mind and thought. Shoaib added that there was no substitute to pace, the current crop of national and emerging players had the talent and pedigree but they need to win games on their own to gain popularity and earn recognition around the world.

Shoaib spoke about the importance of bravery for any player, he feels that bravery is what sets people apart and lets them fight back and re-emerge in the face of adversity and challenges. Shoaib asked players to build relationships with players who are better than them; Imran Khan was the inspiration that brought Shoaib to the game while he modelled his bowling action on Waqar.

Shoaib Akhtar meanwhile asked the players to keep working on their mental and physical fitness and asked them to maintain their focus in order to ensure that they return at their absolute best once the Covid-19 pandemic ends.

Shoaib who started his international career in 1997 appeared in 47 Tests and 163 ODIs taking 178 and 247 wickets respectively, the right-armer also collected 19 T20I wickets.

Before Shoaib’s lecture Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram, Rashid Latif. Mushtaq Ahmed and Mohammad Yousuf also spoke to the players.