Waqar Younis contradicts Wasim Akram’s statement on Virat Kohli

Pakistan bowling coach Waqar Younis believes that he would have made life difficult for Indian skipper Virat Kohli, if he was bowling to him during his career.

Waqar comment contradicts Pakistan’s fast-bowling great Wasim Akram’s, earlier, statement where he said that if he was young and playing against Kohli, it would be a bit difficult to bowl at him.

“I won’t give such a statement because it will be wrong to say that we did not have a player like Virat Kohli during our playing days. I bowled against few of the best batsmen in the world such as Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Martin Crowe and Viv Richards. I made a name for myself by bowling to such great players,” said Waqar. “I will put a question mark on this statement because I had some skills about getting batsmen out, back in the day, and it would not have changed even if I was playing these days as well.”   

The 48-year-old also spoke former Pakistan bowling coach Azhar Mahmood statement, where he related Hasan Ali’s injury troubles with excessive gym work.

“As far as I know, I don’t think any such thing [injury from excessive gym work] happened. Hasan Ali was injured while bowling,” he said. “I don’t think we need to panic over his injury because fast-bowler tend to get injured. I remember Wasim Akram missing a major chunk of the year, during the 1990s, due to groin injury. I also suffered major back injury [while I was playing].”

“These injuries show your character and we just need to stay strong and positive. I think he [Hasan Ali] will be fit to play soon,” he added.   

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The Vehari-born also brushed aside allegations regarding regional bias in Pakistan cricket.

“There is no truth in the allegations of regional bias against me. It hurts to see people come up with such statements about me with regards to preferring players from Rawalpindi and other areas of Punjab,” he said. “I have played cricket for almost 25 years and I have never thought about such a thing. I coached Pakistan for four years and during that time I tried to pick the best players for the betterment of our cricket.”

He also questioned the use of social media by Pakistan players without naming any particular player.  

“These days cricketers are insecure and they use social media as a tool to showcase their reservations which makes me extremely unhappy,” he said.