Lahore
Pakistan cricket team’s chief selector and head coach, Misbah ul Haq has come down hard on his players after the T20 international series loss against Sri Lanka, saying it is an eye-opener for the national team.
“It is failure of the team in both the T20 matches and I take full responsibility of this downfall,” he said ahead of the third and last match of the T20 series on Wednesday (tomorrow).
“We have one last game remaining and still there is a chance for the players to reunite and to rethink what went wrong and to develop a spirit and confidence to perform better,” he added.
“Losing is never good, especially against a team that is without their major players, and it’s an eye-opener.
“We can see deficiencies in every department: bowling, batting and particularly the way we got out against spin, and also our death bowling,” he said in a serious tone.
“There was a clear difference between the two teams. Despite being inexperienced, they were disciplined and did everything right, while we completely failed to implement our plan,” he added.
Misbah admitted that Babar has had a huge role to play in making Pakistan the number one side in T20Is and that his failures have left the side exposed. “We earned number one ranking in T20s but if you dig deeper, what has been our strength mostly – it’s been due to Babar Azam’s runs and he didn’t score in two games and we’ve been exposed,” said the former captain.
Commenting on the performances of recalled duo Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal, the head coach said: “Both the recalled players have performed well wherever they’ve played in the last one year including the Pakistan Super league and they were among the best.
“It’s unfortunate in our circuit, there is no other batsman in T20s who had performed better than them. Players, who have performed in domestic, surely deserve a chance, and that’s why we offered them,” he added.
Explaining his stance to continue with recalled players, who failed to perform in both the T20s, Misbah said: “If they weren’t able to perform what can be done? Obviously I am answerable and it is a part of the rebuilding of the team to re-test.
“At the same time I openly accept the failure of team in all departments of the game and I take its responsibility as I am answerable,” said the chief selector. Misbah said his prime goal is to come up with a balanced combination for next year’s World Cup and to ensure its preparations on strong footings.
He said reliance of the team on a specific player (Babar Azam) and always consider him the backbone and a winning factor based on his run making factor is not fair, other players should also take responsibility to lessen the burden and to justify their inclusion and to be known as the match winners.
Pakistan cricket captain, Sarfraz Ahmad, on the eve of the third and last match was optimistic of his teams fight back to regain lost confidence.
“With one game remaining, we have to prove ability of a match winning team which is only possible with a quality display of good cricket and I expect everyone in the field to show full potential to best of ability,” he said.
“Obviously after winning two back-to-back matches, the touring side will be more keen for victory and we have to overcome all the hurdles for aiming for a win,” said the home captain.
Sri Lankan captain Dusan Shanaka said he is optimistic about his young teams success in the third match because of its superb display of quality cricket in previous two matches.
“We will be going into the match with enhanced confidence and all the young players in the side have greater passion and will to demonstrate competitive cricket to strike a win,” he said. He said Pakistan after two defeats in a row will definitely be looking to make a came with full force to defy them.—APP
