Determined Razzaq says Test career not over for Pakistan

LONDON - Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq, who is currently playing for English County side Hampshire in the Twenty20 competition, has expressed his aspirations for a return to the national Test team in future.

“In English conditions I would have been effective, especially given the nature of the wickets at both Nottingham and Birmingham. I don’t believe that my test career is over, even though I haven’t featured for Pakistan for more than three and a half years,” PakPassion.net quoted Razzaq, as saying.

“I am ready to return to test cricket whenever I am required. Of course it’s out of my hands and down to the selectors and those that select the squads.”

“There seems to be differing schools of thought amongst the coaches as to whether I can do well in test cricket,” he added.

Commenting on the Pakistan team struggling during its tour of England, the 30-year-old said that fielding continues to be a major issue.

“The age old problem of poor fielding has not been eradicated. During practice our fielding is very good but it seems that the concentration slips during a match situation. Some of the boys don’t really enjoy their fielding and that’s a problem too,” Razzaq said.

He further said that the Pakistani batsmen must adapt to English conditions and start putting runs on the board.

“We’ve always struggled against the swinging deliveries and none of our top order batsmen have really been able to get a foothold against the English bowling and make a big score. You need your top order players to make scores of 50 plus to give the bowlers something to bowl at,” he added.

Razzaq is also confident that Pakistan will put on a good show in the ODI series, irrespective of the outcome of the Test series.

“It’s a totally different game isn’t it? The outcome of the test series will have no bearing on the limited over matches, as both squads will have a number of different players included. Our approach will be different in the shorter versions of the game and we’ll aim to give England a tough time in that series,” Razzaq said. (ANI)