KARACHI: It was a short but fiery press conference by Shaun Tait, the bowling coach who was once again thrown into the deep end with Pakistan struggling. There were one-line answers, no elaboration by the former Australian pacer who said during the T20 series against England last year that he’s sent in to face the press when Pakistan lose.

Pakistan are facing a third straight Test series defeat at home, needing 319 runs to win with eight wickets in hand on the last day of the second Test against New Zealand on Friday. Losses to Australia and England in this bumper home season had raised questions over Pakistan’s bowlers’ ability to strike at regular intervals and it has been a similar story against New Zealand — the first game of which ended in a draw.

Across four innings, Pakis­tan’s most successful bowler has been spinner Abrar Ahmed with 11 wickets for which he’s had to toil through several overs, bowling at a stretch. The fast bowlers have struggled. Naseem Shah, who only came in for the second Test, is the leader with four wickets. Mir Hamza has one in two, while Mohammad Wasim Jr, who played the opening Test, got just one. Hasan Ali also got just one wicket over two innings in the second Test.

When Tait was asked the reason behind Pakistan’s poor bowling performances, he replied with a straight face: “That’s your opinion.” Asked by another reporter whether he was satisfied with his performance, the answer was: “Yes, I am satisfied.”

Tait, though, did talk about managing the workload of Pakistan’s pacers, many of whom like Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf, have been laid low by injury after playing non-stop cricket across all formats. “Yes, there has been too much cricket,” he said. “This is an important year [with the ODI World Cup to be played], so yes I believe player management will be crucial.”

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2023