KARACHI: Fast bowler Sohail Khan has attributed his ‘shock’ inclusion in Pakistan’s World Cup squad to former national team skipper Rashid Latif.

The 30-year-old fast bowler, in Rashid’s own words, virtually gate-crashed the 15-man party last week despite not being part of the 30-probable group of players picked by chief selector Moin Khan and his team.

In an exclusive interview with Dawn, Sohail said on Monday it was Rashid who played key role in the revival of his chequered international career which consists of just two Tests and five ODIs between 2009 and 2011.

“Rashid has been a huge influence on my career. It was on his insistence that made me join the Port Qasim Authority team last season. Initially, Rashid just told me to concentrate on cricket,” the Malakand-born Sohail said. “But this season Rashid paid special attention on me. He taught me how to use the crease while bowling and did a lot of work on my outswinger.

“He used to stand behind me during nets and told me how to use the new ball and when to reverse swing it, apart from teaching me when to bowl the outswinger and which is the opportune moment to use bouncer.

“The reason why outswinging deliveries have become my forte is because of the great effort put in by Rashid behind the scene. Rashid now openly says my away-swinging deliveries are lethal for all left-handed batsmen because for them, the ball would dip in at sharp pace,” he explained.

A modest character, Sohail described his World Cup selection as the biggest moment in his cricketing life.

“When I heard of it [inclusion in the World Cup squad], naturally I was lost for a while. It was something I can’t describe in words. For me it was a dream come true,” he spoke in an emotional tone.

“All my family members, friends and well-wishers were very happy for me. In fact, they were so overjoyed that I was not required to give them a special treat or something, because it was they who celebrated my selection by preparing special dishes [biryani] and distributing sweets after offering prayers.

“Without Allah’s blessings I don’t think nobody would hope for so much happiness as I, my family and friends experienced when the team for the World Cup was announced.”

He added: “The selectors were impressed what they saw when they came to watch me bowling this season. They appreciated my performance [highest wicket-taker in the Quaid-i-Azam Gold League with 64]. The last time I played for Pakistan, I was bowling close to 149kmph, something like 148.5 or just above it.

“This season I played 11 first-class matches for PQA and then this one-day tournament. I’m confident that in the next 15 to 20 days before the World Cup I’ll be bowling somewhere near that pace.”

Sohail, a good exponent of reverse swing bowling, was confident of doing well in the unfamiliar conditions he would find in Australia and New Zealand.

“Usually in limited-overs cricket I try to experiment by using slower deliveries as well as focusing on reverse swing. On hard pitches we will get in Australia there is every chance of getting reverse swing if one side of the ball is kept consistently shiny. So there one can get the ball to swing it other way even though these days two new balls are in use from each end.

“I’m also aware that the ball generally doesn’t reverse swing in New Zealand because the pitches and conditions are quite different to those in Australia. But I’m not worried since I’m also capable of seaming the ball while at the same time relying more on swing and pace variations,” he added.

Sohail stressed physical fitness was a key factor to become a consistent performer at domestic level.

“I have always trained hard from day one of playing career. My fitness level has improved over the past three years to such an extent that I’ve been able to play continuously without breaking down. “Rashid bhai here also emphasised the virtue of remaining in top physical shape. During off season, I paid a lot of attention to my fitness,” the tall pacer remarked.

On playing offers, the fast bowler added: “I used to get lot of offers to play in English leagues but I preferred not to be away from home and spent that time on training. But lately I have started going to the Dubai T20 league just to remain match-fit. It was Khalid Latif [PQA captain] who encouraged me to play there.”

A late-order batsman who is renowned for big hits, Sohail admitted that he has been taking his batting seriously.

“I have been getting regular tips from some of my team-mates at PQA. Khalid, Shahzaib Hasan and Khurram Manzoor are ever ready to help there,” he said.

A big fan of former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, Sohail said his other cricketing heroes are compatriots Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.

“When I was growing up Waqar, to be true, was one bowler I used to watch a lot but my ideal always was Shoaib because of the fear he created in batsmen. I’m fortunate that Waqar is our coach. I’ll talk to him in the coming days to learn more from a legend that he definitely is,” he commented.

“My heroes are Wasim Akram, Waqar and Shoaib as well as Aaqib Javed. Whenever I watch them bowling in videos I get inspired. Other than these I don’t know about the rest. People may talk about Mitchell Johnson, Dale Steyn etc when they speak to me but I only think of my real heroes.”

Published in Dawn January 13th , 2014

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