Former Zimbabwe cricketer Grant Flower is currently the batting coach of the Pakistan cricket team a role he took on from May 2014.

The 45-year-old talked about his journey as Pakistan’s batting coach to ESPNcricinfo. He sounded ecstatic about Pakistan’s recent success in Test cricket but also expressed his disappointment regarding poor limited-overs performances.

He said, “It’s been varied. Success with the Test team, I really enjoyed that part of it, as we had a settled side with a good captain and we got some good results. My point of view regarding the batsmen has been really good and we had victories against very good teams. But as far as one-dayers and T20s go – we struggled, and looking at the stats, the guys’ performances had gone down.”

It has been almost two years since he was appointed as the batting coach and Pakistan’s recent record in the shorter versions of the game has been extremely poor with the bat. The Zimbabwean added, “Our performance with the bat. The averages and strike rates of quite a few players have actually gone down since I’ve been with the team, so I have to ask myself some questions. But I don’t have all the answers.”

Flower, who has more than 10,000 international runs to his name, praised the technique of the Pakistani batsmen but also pointed out major problems in their recent failures. According to him, fitness is a major problem for the Pakistani batsmen and they don’t work hard enough on this aspect.

“At the international level most of the guys’ techniques are fairly sound. With Pakistan, it’s more trying to get the routine right, but it’s also about the preparation off the field regarding fitness. You not only need that in fielding and bowling but equally in batting. If you are physically fit it, will definitely lead to a good lifestyle and better judgment at the crease. In practice, if you are using the same routine, that surely will lead to consistency.”, the coach added.

The Harare-born former cricketer explained further about the inconsistency of the Pakistani batsmen. He said, “Our players are very inconsistent with the way they practice. Of course, there are a few exceptions, and it’s not surprising that have better records and have been more successful over a long period of time.”