SHARJAH: South Africa’s seasoned all-rounder JP Duminy has confirmed that he will be touring Pakistan with Islamabad United’s squad for the playoffs and final.

Duminy, who made his PSL debut this year, said: “I will be coming to Pakistan with Islamabad United’s squad for the playoffs if needed and the final in Karachi if we reach it.”

Meanwhile, talking about the sta­n­dard of cricket being played in PSL, he said that he thoroughly enjoy­ed all the games that he has played so far. “It’s definitely a high standard of cricket. You have seen the matches, the way they end, I thoroughly enjoyed the standard. It shows the success which Pakistan international team had last year,” he said.

“You can see it through the youth that it is coming through within this tournament and it is exciting to see, specially for Pakistan,” he added.

Furthermore, while talking about the leadership skills of Islamabad United’s captain Misbah-ul-Haq, he said that the skipper is not a man of many words but leads through example. “He is a great leader and we definitely missed him in the first few games because of his injury. He is the type of guy who leads from front,” said Duminy.

Talking about the playing conditions in Sharjah and Dubai, he said that they have been really good for batting. “It is not my first tour in Dubai but it has been really good for batting. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it’s good to be able to bat in upper order of the innings with Luke Ronchi and we form a nice partnership,” he said.

The star all-rounder added that he had only played in the Indian Premiere League (IPL) before PSL and believed that PSL is one of the better leagues in the world. “I have only played in IPL, I haven’t played any other league, so it’s difficult to judge it. But so far my experience is that PSL is one of the better leagues in terms of standard of cricket and organization around it,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2018