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Younis says Murali is no threat to Pakistan

Pakistan coach Waqar Younis has dismissed Sri Lanka’s record-breaking offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan as a threat to his batsmen in Saturday’s World Cup clash.

“In the past if he had plans for us, we’ve played really well against him,” Younis told reporters on Friday as he prepared his side to face the 38-year-old spin great.

“I don’t think we should worry about him that much, he is not 28 anymore.”

Muralitharan holds the world records for the most wickets taken in both test and one-day internationals, but Younis said “it’s not going to be easy anymore” for him.

Pakistan’s middle order batting came good against Kenya on Wednesday with four batsmen hitting half centuries in a 205-run victory.

Despite openers Mohammad Hafeez and Ahmed Shehzad’s disappointing shows, strong performances from the middle order saw the 1992 world champion race to a 205-run win.

Umar Akmal scored a rapid 71 off 52 balls while Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal and Younis Khan also tuned up with half centuries.

As long as the middle-order batsmen continued to make runs, Younis was not concerned about his opening batsmen’s poor start to the World Cup.

“I’m not worried at all because these two had put on a real good partnerships in New Zealand,” he said. “It’s just one game here that they couldn’t produce the goods.”

Earlier this month, Pakistan won its first one-day series in New Zealand in two and a half years when it defeated the Kiwis 3-2, with Shehzad scoring his maiden one-day international century.

With the top four teams from the two World Cup groups qualifying for quarterfinals, Younis believes it is vital to finish as high as possible on the points table.

“It’s important at which place you end up after group matches,” he said. “If you want to go ahead, you have to build momentum so you treat all matches as big ones.”

Younis did not expect a major reshuffle in the playing XI at the R. Premadasa Stadium on Saturday from the side which defeated Kenya. The newly-laid wickets was also one reason why Younis was cautious of making any major change.

“The wickets are brand new, just 4-6 months old so we’re not really sure how it has been played,” he said. “We’re just going to go with the best combination, what we probably had in the last match,” he said.

It means leftarm spinner Abdur Rehman is expected to be chosen ahead of offspinner Saeed Ajmal, who did not figure in the series victory in New Zealand.

“Right now Rehman is a utility player, he bats a little and is a very good fielder,” Younis said. “From what I’ve seen, he is the best spinner here.”