The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has appointed former players Umar Gul, and Saeed Ajmal as Pakistan’s fast and spin bowling coaches, respectively, for the men’s team.
Pakistan cricket is going through a phase of change these days. After the team's shameful performance in the ICC ODI World Cup 2023, everyone from coach to captain has been changed. In this sequence, new fast and spin bowling coaches has been announced. Umar Gul has been made the fast bowling coach and Saeed Ajmal has been made the spin bowling coach.
Recently, Shan Masood was made the Test captain and Shaheen Afridi was made the T20 captain. On the other hand, former cricketer Mohammad Hafeez has become the cricket director and Wahab Riaz has become the chief selector.
Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal are members of the Pakistani team that won the T20 World Cup in 2009. Gul will replace South Africa's Morne Morkel as fast bowling coach. He, along with Ajmal, will start working with the team before the Australia tour. Pakistan has to play three Test matches in Australia between December 14 and January 7. After that, they have to participate in the T20 series in New Zealand from 12 to 21 January.
Before this, Umar Gul had worked with the Pakistan team. He was the team's bowling coach during the three-match T20 series against Afghanistan and the home series against New Zealand. Gul has been the bowling coach of Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).
Apart from this, Gul was the bowling coach of Afghanistan during the 2022 T20 World Cup. He played his first international match for Pakistan in 2003. The former Pakistani cricketer participated in 47 Tests, 130 ODIs and 60 T20 matches. Gul has taken 163 wickets in Test, 179 in ODI and 85 in T20. He played his last match in 2016.
Talking about Saeed Ajmal, he has been the number-1 bowler in ODIs. He played his first international match in 2008. Ajmal took a total of 447 wickets in 35 Tests, 113 ODIs and 64 T20 matches for Pakistan. He has been the spin bowling coach of Islamabad United in PSL.
