SYDNEY, Jan 17 Pakistan medium-pacer Sohail Tanvir remains a pin-up boy of crash and bash cricket but for the cricketer Test cricket remains the pinnacle of the game.

“I would like to consider myself that I'm a good Test cricketer and not just a Twenty20 or a one-day player. I think I'm a better player of Test cricket,” the left-arm swing bowler was quoted as saying by The Australian.

“The real cricket lovers and the real cricket fans still believe that Test cricket is the real format of cricket. I also consider Test performance at a high level,” he added.

Sohail is keen to add more to his two Test matches for Pakistan after doing well in the Twenty20 World Championship and last year's Indian Premier League (IPL).

In the IPL he topped the bowling aggregate with 22 wickets at just 6.47 per over — a miserly rate for Twenty20 — for Shane Warne's triumphant Rajasthan Royals. His 6-14 against the Chennai Super Kings remains the best haul in the short history of Twenty20.

The 24-year-old Sohail this week cut short his stay with South Australia's Twenty20 team to fly home to prepare for Pakistan's One-day series against Sri Lanka.

He left with no regrets and plenty of intelligence for Pakistan's scheduled tour of Australia next summer.

“I'm really pleased and I'm going back really happy. I signed with South Australia because I wanted to play in Australia because I heard about the standard of cricket. It's considered the number one in the world,” said the young pacer.

“It's good. I enjoyed it. Playing in a different scenario, different conditions, different players. So when I come back here it won't be new for me. I will be used to which pitch helps me and which pitch is a batting pitch. I think it's really good experience for me and has given me some lessons that you can't be a hero all the time.”

On his Royal's captain Warne, Sohail said “I really enjoyed playing with Warne. He is a really good leader. He has very unique ideas, and luckily for him his ideas work for him. If it doesn't work everyone is asking 'why do you do that?' It is risky but it has worked for him. Credit goes to him, but credit also goes to his team because we delivered what he wanted.”

“He gave real confidence to the players. This is the main thing. 'You are the man, you can do it'. And the other thing is self-belief. He had faith in me, so I believed in myself that I could do it. A guy like Warnie the legend saying 'you are my man', will definitely boost your confidence from here to here,” Sohail said. — Agencies