Umar Gul As Bowling Coach: Former Pakistan star pace bowler, Umar Gul has been signed by Afghanistan to serve as the bowling coach for the country’s national cricket team. The upcoming limited-overs series that will be played against Zimbabwe will have him in charge as the coach.
Umar Gul is regarded as one of the most accomplished fast bowlers in Pakistan’s history, notably in Twenty20 Internationals, due to the fact that he has amassed 427 wickets throughout the course of his 237 appearances for Pakistan in international competition.
Gul was eventually appointed by the Afghanistan Cricket Board to serve as a bowling consultant for a preparation and training camp that will take place in the United Arab Emirates in the month of April. The Pakistani specialist operated with the pace bowlers on the national squad. Due to his success in training as well as the requirements of the position, he was given a permanent position as the bowling coach for the Pakistani national side.
Thursday afternoon saw the departure of the Afghanistan National Cricket Team for Zimbabwe, where they will compete in 3 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and 3 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) between June 4 –14.
“I wanted to stay close to the game, be in the field, so I told myself: why not a coaching? I gave myself a long, hard look, and thought about my temperament and I realized I have always been generous about helping my colleagues when working in the nets – giving them tips, listening to others, and chipping in with my knowledge. I wasn’t just bowling but learning a lot around the art of bowling”, he said when questioned on his approach to coaching.
“It’s basically working with the psyche of the player. You have to go into his mind to figure out the problem. I have been through so many phases in my career and I know what a player expects from a coach and what a coach should be doing to lift up a player”. Since it is the year of the Twenty20 World Cup, Gul would want to offer as much of his expertise as he can to his teammates.