Former captain Wasim Akram has called on the Pakistani openers to seek inspiration and learn from the exploits of Indian senior batsman Sachin Tendulkar. Wasim, who is in Sri Lanka commentating on the World Cup matches, also expressed his frustration over Pakistan's performance against Zimbabwe on Monday.
The former fast bowler called on openers, Muhammad Hafeez and Ahmed Shahzad to learn the art of batting and building an innings from Tendulkar.
The two openers have failed to provide a single decent start to the Pakistan team in five matches of the World Cup and Wasim felt both needed to rethink their approach to batting.
"They should learn from Tendulkar, look at him he is 38 plus and yet he is still going strong. He just plays normal cricket in the first ten overs and does not gift his wicket," Akram said.
"Tendulkar is a role model for many others and the Pakistani openers should learn from him how to build an innings and how to tackle dicey conditions. Look at Shahzad he is immensely talented but the moment the ball does a little movement he either starts shuffling across the line or moving in his crease and is gifting his wicket. Hafeez is also getting out constantly shuffling across," he explained.
Wasim said the Pakistani openers need to learn from Tendulkar that even in one-day cricket one needs to build an innings.
"Even if you have scored 50 odds runs in the first 12 or 15 overs and have wickets in hand you are in a good position. And Pakistan's strength is that if they have wickets in hand they can go for quick runs in the final overs," he said.
He pointed out that Tendulkar was still going strong as he stuck to the basics well and didn't try anything extraordinary.