KARACHI: Former captain and newly-appointed cricket consultant of the national team Zaheer Abbas said on Wednesday that his aim is to improve Pakistan batting to the best of his abilities and he will work with the players to remove flaws and deficiencies in their techniques.

“My objective is to pass on my experiences to our batsmen and prepare them for tough contests ahead,” he said in an interview on Wednesday.

“Despite some outstanding performances by the team recently, batting has been Pakistan’s main problems and I will use my vast experience to improve it,” said Zaheer who scored 108 first class centuries during his illustrious career.

“Its a big challenge and I am looking forward to it,” he said.

However, he made it clear he cannot change things overnight and the improvement in batting will take some time. “I don’t want to see the batsmen getting hit on the pads so many times. The batsmen should be able to play most of the deliveries with their bat.”

Zaheer strongly dispelled the impression that he was not well-versed with modern day cricket or Twenty20. “How many coaches who are coaching international teams have played T20 cricket?” he asked.

“This is a modern era of the game and being a former player I know the tricks of the trade,” he commented.

Zaheer said the basics in batting are the same in all brands of cricket like the Tests, the ODIs and Twenty20. “It is the mindset which should change as per the requirement of each version,” he said.

“I will be working with the batsmen on one-to-one basis and in the groups also to advise them,” added Zaheer who played 70 Test matches and 62 ODIs for Pakistan.

He said he will be working closely with chief coach Moin Khan, bowling coach Mohammad Akram and fielding coach Shoaib Mohammad to bring out the best from the team in this month’s Asia Cup as well as next month’s ICC World T20 Championship which will be held in Bangladesh.—APP