The 1992🔜 ODI World Cup saw the birth of a promising international career in Inzamam-ul꧋-Haq, who went on to become a legend of the game.
How🐷ever, s❀hortly after a successful multilateral event, Inzamam was scheduled to travel to England for the first time in his career.
The pitches i♌n England are renowned for being a challenging affair for even established batsmen, let alone novices.
Much like all Asian batsmen, Inzy also had issues coping with t🐓he conditions in England and suffered a lean patch.
“I 𒈔went to England after the 1992 World Cup at the back of a tremendous performance in the mega event. It was my first-ever tour to England. I didn’t have any idea as to how should I play on those pitches. I was going through a bad patch as I ꦜwas unable to play short-pitched deliveries,’’ Inzamam recalled on his YouTube channel.
Fortunately, Inzamam had the opportunity to have a chat with Indian batting maestro Sunil Gavaskar who dispensed an 𝓰apt piece of advice, regarding facing short-pitched deliveri𒊎es.
“It was somewhere half of our season that I met him at a charity match in En๊gland. We both had gone to play that match. And I asked him ‘Sunil bhai I’m facing problems to play short-pitched balls, what should I do’?” Inzy added.
“As great are the ways of the great, he told me to do only one little thing, that is, ‘don’t think about short-pitched balls or💞 bouncers while batting because the moment you’ll think about them you’ll get trapped’. He told me that when the bowler would deliver the ball you would automatically understand; so don’t get worried about tha𝕴t.”
As it turned out, Sunny’s advice was as good as gold for young Inzaman and went on to becoꦺme one of the best players of short-pitched bowling.
“While in nets, I started practicing the way he told me. I s𝕴trܫengthened my mind, telling myself not to think about that [short-pitched balls]. The weakness was removed. And from 1992 till the time I retired, I never faced that problem again,” Inzamam continued.
On Friday, the💟 ‘Little Master’ celebrated his 71st birthday. The former PCB chairman of selectors concluded by wishi𝄹ng he could’ve watched Sunil bat live.
