Former Australia pacer and current Pakistan test team coach Jason Gillespie.
Credit: DH File Photo
Karachi: Pakistan's new red-ball head coach Jason Gillespie is in no mood to waste time in adapting to the challenging job as he seeks to make the national team a force to reckon with in Test cricket.
Gillespie told Geo News Network that he will be arriving in the country soon to meet with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officials and hold a pre-season training camp for the red-ball specialists.
"I want to get a feel of the domestic structure in Pakistan and the players involved and performing in domestic events", Gillespie said.
"I'll be spending a bit of time in Pakistan and observing players in a domestic environment."
"I'm looking forward to getting over to Pakistan. We're hoping to have a camp coming up that will incorporate some fitness work, and then some build into our skills, which leads into the two Tests against Bangladesh." He identified consistency and discipline as key to success and said he wanted to make the Pakistani cricket fans proud of their team in all formats.
Gillespie, who accepted the job last month said he would also coordinate with white-ball head coach Gary Kirsten to manage the workload of players who are required in both formats.
"Workload management is my priority because it is important to not burn out the players", he said.
The Australian pacer said that he will try to identify which player is perfect for playing against a particular opposition and specific conditions.
He also made it clear that there will be a rotation policy for players to avoid burnout.
"We'll also make sure that we're looking after all our players, particularly our multi-format players, we need to be really careful that we don't burn them out because we want them playing at their very best for Pakistan each and every time they step out onto the park."
"If that means that players from time to time are going to be rested then we need to do that", he said.
"We can't rely on the same 11 players to play day in and day out all year, we need to make sure that we've got a squad mentality."
"I don't want players going in 70 per cent ready for a Test match. I'd rather want them to be at their very best to give them the best chance to perform well for Pakistan, which is really important to me", Gillespie added.