Internet Desk: Young England left arm spinner Zafar ansari is in complete awe about ex-Pakistan off spinner Saqlain Mustaq who is with the team as a spin bowling consultant. Ansari is full of praisesd for saqlain in a pre-practice press conference Ansari said, “He has made it specific that he wont come and change anything. He doesn’t have enough time to change the action. There are little things — spending time in the crease, thinking about your trajectories as much as your pace. But its more about the bowling approach, the bowling intent — how you maintain your composure with the batsmen coming at you. He acts as our cheerleader to some extent. He is positive, kind of boosts us all, makes us feel good about ourselves. As someone who has been so successful to come and say ‘I think you are a good bowler, I think you can take wickets at this level’ gives a lot of confidence which is important for Test cricket.
Ansari who has played only his 2nd test against India in Rajkot took 3 wickets in the match but was resilient and competitive throughout the match. Regarding the first Test match of the series at Rajkot he said, “I bowled well in the first innings in general. They are good players so it always makes your margin for error smaller. Even your best balls don’t get to feel perfect. In the second innings, with the field in, trying to rush things I lost my rhythm a little bit.
Former India left-arm spinner Murali Kartik has shared a dressing-room with Ansari during his county career. Kartik played the role of an unofficial mentor to a young Zafar, who also opened the batting during his one year for Surrey. First four games with Pragyan Ojha in 2011 was quite formative. Because he just came and took wickets in England which is very difficult as a spinner. And the way he bowls, his action — I watched that closely and learnt a lot from. And then Kartik was similar. His approach, the way he spent time in the crease, the subtle things that he does — again I watched and tried to learn from.
In Pakistan we played on concrete slab in the back garden when I was growing up. People used to bang in the tennis ball and batting. The other relevant person obviously is Gareth Batty. Him in combination with the brief stints with Kartik and Ojha — those are the elements that have come together.
On Michael Vaughan saying that Moeen Ali is role model for British Asians Ansari said, “I think as a collective for British Muslims, there is something in it we are proud of. Lot of people outside the group clearly care about that. And that’s a good thing in the society. From the personal point of view I wouldn’t call myself too much of a role model, at least in that way. im from a privileged background. I don’t necessarily challenge norms in an obvious way. I don’t characterize myself someone as breaking boundaries. But I think Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Haseeb — all of them are doing a wonderful job representing their communities. That’s not always the easiest thing to do. I think they are doing that very well.