Head coach-cum-chief selector of the Pakistan men’s cricket team Misbah-ul-Haq has asked his team to deliver their best performance and not depend too heavily on Babar Azam to get the job done each time he is there on the field. Mis bah stated this after his team’s horror defeat to Sri Lanka at home.
Pakistan has lost the first couple of matches already by 64 and 35 runs respectively. Consequently, Sri Lanka have taken an unassailable lead in the three-match series in Lahore.
“We became number one in T20Is but if you dig deeper, our only strength was Babar Azam’s runs and he didn’t score in two games and we’ve been exposed.
“I think we need to find six match-winners, not one,” Misbah was quoted as saying the official website of Cricket Pakistan.
“Until you don’t have that powerhouse in the middle-order and a powerhouse at the top-order for the powerplay, you can’t do well. Similarly in the bowling powerplay if you can’t get wickets and then in the death overs you can’t finish well, you struggle and I think we have failed in all departments.
“It’s an eye-opener. We need to look at these things. If we were doing well, we couldn’t do that here. Our strong points didn’t deliver. We need to find other players, how long can you rely on one or two batsmen?” he further went on to add.
Misbah admitted that he is also responsible for his team’s dismal performances so far. He added that he needed to find solutions to the problems that his team was facing.
“You are seeing problems with the team and I am also seeing them. We need to resolve these. It’s not something that can be fixed overnight. It takes some time to fix these things,” he said.
“Obviously I am answerable but to make a team, you need some time and to do that, you do some experiments. Only then do you get the answers to your questions. A lot of things are in front of us and we need to find solutions,” he added.
Misbah, meanwhile, defended his decision to select opener Ahmed Shehzad and middle-order batsman Umar Akmal for the T20I series.
“Shehzad’s performance in PSL was excellent. Akmal’s performance in all formats in domestic cricket was very good. Unfortunately, in our circuit, we have no other batsman in T20s who gave performances like these,” he said.
“I think that any player who is out of the team should get a chance again, if he performs. We gave that chance on that basis but they didn’t perform. All we can do is to give them a chance,” he concluded.