Injured Pak pacer Gul advised three weeks rest

Published Wed, May 05 10 01:36 PM

Karachi, May 5 (PTI) Pakistani pacer Umar Gul, who was ruled out of the Twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies due to shoulder injury, has been advised complete rest for three weeks. "The doctors have given me three weeks complete bed rest so I am not playing cricket at all. But I am definitely following the progress of my team in the World Cup," Gul said. He had picked up the injury during team''s training camp in Lahore for World Cup preparations. Gul has been Pakistan''s leading bowler in the shortest form of the game and many former players and the present captain and coach have admitted his loss to the injury as a big setback for the team in the world cup. "It is a big disappointment not to be part of this World Cup because I like the challenge of bowling in T20 cricket. But one can''t do anything about injuries," he said. Gul said he felt disappointed after watching his team losing to Australia in the league encounter. "We dropped crucial catches and our fielding was sloppy. The fielders didn''t support the bowlers. In T20 cricket, fielders have to take even half chances to turn the tide in their team''s favour," he noted. The fast bowler from Peshawar said Pakistan had paid dearly for dropping Shane Watson and David Hussey while they were still settling down. "I felt sorry for the bowlers because the pitch was good for batting and as it was in T20 cricket the odds were loaded against the bowlers." He pointed out that if Pakistan had got rid of Watson and Hussey early, they could have put the Australians under severe pressure. Hussey who smashed Mohammad Sami for four sixes in one over had only scored five runs when he was dropped on the long off boundary by Salman Butt. Gul also felt that Pakistan should have had a plan B against the Australians. He said it was a good move to open the bowling with Muhammad Hafeez given the fact that Australian opener, David Warner was suspected to be weak against spin bowling and struggled against them in the IPL. "But once Warner had settled in and we didn''t get an early breakthrough we should have employed a Plan B instead of allowing them to dominate the match. "When Hafeez started to get hit around, then the plan should have been altered straight away. But it seemed to me that there was no alternative plan," he added.

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