The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is mulling on sending a group of players to the United States of America for a significant period of time to hone their power-hitting skills. While the Pakistan cricket team recently won the ODI series against Australia, they were whitewashed by Bangladesh in the two-match Test series, and were defeated by the same team in the ODI series that took place in March. In the backdrop of the lack of power-hitting expertise and injury management facilities in the country, the PCB has decided to send a handful of players to the USA to hone their skills and train under a different learning environment.
Pakistan to fly players to USA
Speaking to Cricinfo, Hesson confirmed that Pakistan will be sending some players to the USA where they will train to improve their power-hitting skills. The former New Zealand coach said that there were some players with long-term injuries, and others whom the team management want to be exposed to different methods of power hitting under a different learning environment for a period of four months.
“We’re sending some players to the US. There’s some power-hitting expertise over there, and we’re exploring some options. We’ve got some players who’ve had some longer-term injuries, and players we want to expose to different methods of power hitting and just a different learning environment, spending four months in one place to get some new fresh ideas,” Hesson said.
Hesson claimed that sending Pakistan players to the USA was more about more than just fitness. While the report claims that the final arrangements are yet to be made, Hesson indicated that the change in stance of the PCB to send players abroad was largely attributed to Dr Javed Mughal, a UK-based physiotherapist, who was appointed Director Sports and Exercise Medicine.
“There’s a bit of a collaboration. It’s certainly not just strength and conditioning. We’ve got Javed Mughal who’s come in here and changing the way players are training and assessing them in a different way. So he needs time to plan it out as well,” Hesson added.
