Waqar Younis, the former Pakistan captain and ex-coach, feels that the national team seems to be lacking unity at the moment after a disastrous Test series against South Africa and said that the senior players must start to play selflessly.
Over the last two and a half year, the Green Shirts have performed reasonably well in all formats of international cricket. Their performance is rated even higher especially because Pakistan have not played any international fixture at home soil since the terror-attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore in 2009.
However, Misbah-ul-Haq and company failed to live up to the expectations during the recently-concluded three-match Test series against the Proteas as the visitors were whitewashed. Pakistan’s performance was such that they failed to drag a single Test into the fifth day.
Waqar, who resigned as the coach of the national team after the tour of Zimbabwe in 2011, wants the senior players and the team management to reunite the team. The former Pakistan captain is of the opinion that every player must put the team’s benefit first and there should be no room for selfish cricketers.
“It is a very difficult time for Pakistan team and they look like a disjointed unit. Their capitulation against South Africa is very alarming,” Waqar expressed. “The team needs some direction and it can only be done by the coaches. During my tenure as Pakistan coach I always tried to convince players to put the team’s interest ahead of everything.”
The 41-year-old former player represented Pakistan in 87 Tests and 262 One Day Internationals, picking up almost 800 wickets at the highest stage of the game.
The Green Shirts comprehensively won the only T20 played in the on-going tour but Waqar thinks that Test cricket should be the priority of every cricketer.
“Pakistan were struggling to find fast bowlers for the Test series on the tour as we saw a number debuts by fast bowlers but as soon as T20 arrived we found many quickies ready to have a go at it. Test cricket is the ultimate and we have to pay attention to it,” said the former great.
