Former captains on Saturday slammed the Pakistan cricket team for its inconsistent performance in the 3-2 win over the West Indies in the just concluded ODI series in the Caribbean. After taking an unassailable lead of 3-0, Pakistan lost the last couple of matches to the West Indies without putting up much fight.
Former captain Javed Miandad, who turned down the offer to become a full time batting consultant before the commencement of the West Indies tour, said the result of the series once again highlighted the inconsistent nature of the team. “We can never be among the top teams in the world because we are just not consistent enough. For the last two years we have been losing or winning by close margins. To lose against a weak side like West Indies is unacceptable by any standards,” Miandad said.
He said that the main problem with the team was that the batsmen did not have enough hunger for runs. “Against a weak opposition top batsmen always try to score tons of runs. But surprisingly our batsmen kept on struggling against this attack,” he said. Miandad, however, reiterated that the team does not require a batting coach. “At this level you can have a strategist or planner but not a coach. If a batsman needs to be coached at this level he should not be in the team at all,” the former great stressed. Another former Test captain Zaheer Abbas criticised the team management for blaming Duckworth-Lewis method for their loss to West Indies in the fourth ODI saying, “The way they swept us aside by ten wickets in the last match indicates that our team really performed badly.”
Zaheer said there was a clear lack of aptitude and planning in the national team and the management was not delivering. “We had a golden chance to beat the West Indies 5-0 but we squandered that opportunity. The batting line-up is clearly struggling. Misbah didn’t score in the last two matches and the team lost.” Former chief selector and leg-spinner Abdul Qadir said, “Even Bangladesh beat a much stronger West Indies side 5-0 sometime back. And we could not even sweep the series against a much weaker team. “I have been saying all along that there is a need to now replace the senior players with youngsters and build for the future.
What is disappointing is that the captain, Shahid Afridi couldn’t lead from the front with either bat or bowl and scored just 28 runs and took two wickets,” Qadir said.
Salahuddin Ahmed, also a former chief selector, blasted coach Waqar Younis and Aaqib Javed for team’s unimpressive show with the ball saying, “If the batting woes were not enough our bowlers were also disappointing.” “In the last match even though we were defending a low total we conceded so many extras it is unacceptable at this level,” Ahmed said.
