ISLAMABAD – It seems that Misbah-ul-Haq would take some more time settledown as Pakistan cricket team head coach and chief selector as it is notbeen long since he joined the support staff.
However, he is finding himself surrounded by questions over the currentstate of affairs in his team. Pakistan trounced Sri Lanka in the 3-matchODI series, winning 2-0 after the first game was washed out without a ballbeing bowled. After the ODI series result, many expected that there is acomplete turnaround in the team’s approach.
But all of a sudden, there was an instant turnaround from the team’sapproach which ended up being naive all the way. The 3-0 clean sweep at thehands of Sri Lanka in the T20I series was the main reason why Misbah facedseveral questions as to whether the team management was right to axeexperienced players like Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik.
While addressing the reporters at the press conference alongside skipperSarfaraz Ahmed, Misbah confessed that the entire responsibility of thedefeat falls on his shoulders and he feels that it is completely impossibleto expect change of fortunes in just a span of 10 days.
“Of course, the responsibility falls on me but this is the same team thathas been playing for four years. How much would I have coached in 10 days?”The former Pakistan skipper had rather asked for lessons to be learnt fromthe manner in which Sri Lanka dictated good tempo in all aspects of thegame in all the three matches. “The performance of the Sri Lankan teams isan example for us.
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They outclassed us completely. We did not beat them in any of the threedepartments. All matches and the series were one-sided. We need to find theanswers to a lot of questions. This was disappointing,” he added. “This wasan eye-opener for us and you as well. The way we go after the seniors. Whatwe did in the World Cup.
We forget their performances. These two (Hafeez and Malik) play thespinners so well and we had this problem for the entire series. We wereunable to pick their leg spinner,” Misbah signed off.
