Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal appointed bowling coaches of Pakistan Team

Lahore: Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal, players of the Pakistan team that won the T20 World Cup of 2009 and 2012 Asia Cup, have been appointed as the fast bowling and spin bowling coaches of the Pakistani cricket team respectively.

The first assignment of both of them will be the Test series in Australia and T20 series in New Zealand.

Umar Gul has previously held the role of bowling coach in the three-match T20 series against Afghanistan. Besides being the bowling coach of the Afghanistan cricket team in T20 World Cup last year, he has also been the bowling coach of Quetta Gladiators in Pakistan Super League (PSL).

Umar Gul took 163 wickets in 47 Test matches, 179 wickets in 130 One Day Internationals (ODIs) and 85 wickets in 60 T20 Internationals in his brilliant international career which started in 2003.

Considering his appointment as an honor, Umar Gul thanked Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Management Committee Chairman Zaka Ashraf and said that in the light of his previous experience with the Pakistan team, he would use his coaching skills to take the team's bowling to new heights.

While, former world number one ODI bowler Saeed Ajmal will also perform his duties in the tours of Australia and New Zealand.

He started his international career in 2008 and took a total of 447 wickets in 35 Tests, 113 ODIs and 64 T20 Internationals in his international career. He has also been the spin bowling coach of Islamabad United in PSL.

Saeed Ajmal said that he is grateful to Zaka Ashraf for providing an opportunity for this responsibility. “I feel happy to contribute to the development of spin bowling in the Pakistan team and hope that my career and experience will help in the development of spin bowling in the team”.