Fatima Sana’s Pakistan look to hit India hard with improved power game

Pakistan opened the tournament with a resounding win over Sri Lanka, and are riding a recent wave of success in terms of development, not just results.

Six-hitting comes with a certain mindset that Sana believes is slowly being ingrained into Pakistan’s batting DNA. She believes it wasn’t always that way.

“If you look at the last series of South Africa, a lot of our girls have improved in power hitting,” Sana said. “In the last South Africa series, our team hit six sixes in one match.

“I think the girls believe that even if the fielders are standing behind, if they hit, they can go for six. It’s a good thing that all the girls are confident in this. Personally, I used to bat a lot before, but I didn’t know if I could hit or not. But with that belief now it’s become a lot easier.”

Wasim has had the support of Hanif Malik, whom he worked with at Multan Sultans, to help with the range-hitting. Sana believes that adopting different methods to try and improve – irrespective of results – is a good starting point.

“First of all, we always wanted to play attacking cricket,” Sana said. “I have been watching that whichever team we played against – we’ve [tried to play] attacking cricket. As a bowler, I used to feel that whoever used to bowl against us, used to hit us from the first ball. I wanted our team to have batters who can punish the bowler from the first ball. We have worked a lot on this and you will see the result soon hopefully.”

Ahead of the India match, Sana was among the first in for range-hitting with the coaching staff, spending considerable time on her backswing and head position while striking the ball. These improvements come from a deep desire to be the “number one allrounder.”

“I always wanted to be the number one all-rounder – because obviously bowling is a team sport, but the team wins when you are good at it all – even when you are good on the field,” she said. “So that’s why I was trying to prove myself always in helping the team win. So, I think that was the only challenge for me.

“That I should take my batting along. Sir [Wasim] has played a big role in this. He has helped me a lot. Our power-hitting coach, he has helped a lot of girls. I think all the credit goes to him because he has given us the belief that you can become an all-rounder. So he gets the credit for this.”