Pakistan cricket team skipper Sarfraz Ahmed said he had not slept for six days since his side’s flop show in the ongoing Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

Pakistan had started their Asia Cup campaign on a positive note by thrashing Hong Kong. Sarfraz Ahmed’s side had also narrowly defeated Afghanistan by three wickets before getting knocked out from the tournament by Bangladesh on Wednesday.

Pakistan lost both their games against arch-rivals India — by eight and nine wickets first at Group stage and then in Super Four.

Speaking about his dismissal show in Asia Cup, Sarfraz said the pressure of captaincy and not scoring runs led to some disturbed nights.

“Look, the pressures of captaincy are always there,” said Sarfraz, adding, “Pakistani captains, whoever they are, always have pressure.”

Sarfraz added: “Obviously when you aren’t performing and the team is losing then there is more pressure. The truth is that if I say I haven’t slept for the last six nights nobody will believe me, but… this is part of life and it will go on.”

The 31-year-old Pakistan captain also urged the authorities not to take any hasty decisions.

“I will say again we don’t need to press the panic button. We need to back the players who have been doing well in the recent past,” said Sarfraz, who captained Pakistan in all three formats.

“My performance isn’t good so the team lost. The team lost because of me. I should’ve performed as a captain but I didn’t and we lost because of that.”

When Sarfraz, who has been playing all three formats since the World Cup 2015, was asked about whether he will take rest, he said, “This is not my job, this is the job of the selection committee and the PCB. Let them decide. I gave you an answer, it is not my job. My job is to play, I will play. I will keep playing.”

Speaking about upcoming ICC World cup 2019, Sarfraz Ahmed said, “World Cup is far (away) and we have to play so many series.”

Before the World Cup, Pakistan will play 20 ODIs against New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and England.

“We have to look at the various mistakes we committed. Our middle order comes on the new ball and that is why it struggled. We should not lose early wickets so we should work on that,” Sarfraz Ahmed said, adding, “It is alarming that we lost confidence during the Asia Cup. If you talk about the Champions trophy of the last year then we lost the first match to India badly, but then we lifted the trophy.”