Jack of all...

A left-arm pacer, spinner, handy bat — Sohail Tanvir has been a decent performer and he is modest enough to admit that

BANGALORE: Sohail Tanvir had never played for his country before the Twenty20 World Cup. He had never been abroad before the crossing the seas for the tournament in South Africa.

Yet, the tall and gangly Tanvir is a find of this season for Pakistan along with irrepressible Misbah-ul-Haq. DNA caught up with him when he was sitting forlorn, listening to gazzals while most of his teammates were partying in the team hotel’s ball room.

Excerpts:
You are not partying.
I don’t like to. I’m happy listening to gazzals. Besides, there has to be a mood to party. You cannot just go like that and dance.

You are suddenly the flavour of the season for Pakistan. Your bowling has been quite a revelation.

But I think I need to perform more consistently. I’ve not done anything that would make me very happy.

You almost ran through the Indian team in Delhi Test...

We should have won that Test. We did not have enough runs on the board. Otherwise we should have come to Bangalore with 1-0 not 0-1.

But Bangalore has been a happy hunting ground?

Yes, everyone in the team knows it. Insha Allah, we should win the Test here.
The weather and luck seem to be in Pakistan’s favour. These should support you than the home team whose top pacers are out with injury...

Yes, the pitch and weather look good for us. But India too have Irfan Pathan. He is a very good bowler.

How do you compare your bowling with that of Irfan Pathan?

Irfan has a good delivery that comes in. I don’t have that in my armoury. My main delivery is the one that goes away from the batsmen.

I need to develop the one that comes in. I bowl that in the nets but don’t have the confidence to do that in the matches.

Irfan had got some good tips from Wasim Akram. Did you try to obtain the help?

Í’m aware of that. I have also got a lot of advices from Wasimbhai. He was a superb bowler. In the team I talk to Shoaibbhai. I’m also from Rawalpindi. So we both discuss a lot of things.

You seem to bowl spin too.

Yes, I started off as a spinner. I bowled a lot of spin in my early days. I took to fast bowling much later in my career. In fact, I’m a very recent player.

I started very late. I have never played for Pakistan at any level before playing the Twenty20 World Cup.

You are no mug with the bat either.

I can manage a few runs with the bat. I was originally a batsman.

Who do you think is the most difficult batsman to bowl to?

All the Indian batsmen. Yuvraj, Dhoni, Laxman are very good batsmen. But Sachin and Dravid are class apart.

How has been the stay so far?

Very much. I liked every place we have visited. This is my first trip to India. I would have liked to go out more often but we can’t go because of the security reasons.

I’ve not toured any country before I went to South Africa and briefly to England. This is my first full tour to any country. I hope it will end memorably for us.