Pakistan Batsmen Face Fire After Asia Cup Defeat
Pakistan's dreams of reaching the final of the Asia Cup came crashing on Wednesday night when they suffered a five-wicket defeat against Bangladesh. Afridi's batsmen failed once again as they were restricted to 129 for seven by Bangladeshi bowlers. Against India in their first match, Pakistan could manage only 83.
Former cricketers castigated the miserable batting performance by the Pakistan team, which was knocked out of Asia Cup after defeat against hosts Bangladesh.
Pakistan could manage only 129 runs on the board in the make-or-break match Wednesday night and failed to contain the Bangladeshi batsmen.
"It is so disappointing to go out of the Asia Cup in this manner. I was hoping our team would motivate themselves to beat Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and set up a final with India," former paceman Shoaib Akhtar said. (Committed Too Many Mistakes, Says Afridi)
Pakistan Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq laid the blame of recent defeats on batting.
"Our bowlers again did a good job but the batting is just not clicking. The selectors have tried everyone who is doing well in domestic cricket so what else can one can do," Misbah said.
Misbah contended that Pakistan had again misread the pitch and situation by playing Anwar Ali and not giving more overs to all-rounder Shoaib Malik.
"The ball was gripping and I would have thought Malik would be a good option early on for a few overs. The pitch was not easy for batting," he said.
'Calculations were wrong'
Pakistan's champion off-spinner Saeed Ajmal also expressed surprise over some of the captaincy decisions.
"Malik should have been brought on in the seventh or eight over. They were other lapses in the field as well. The calculations were wrong," he said.
Former Test captain Javed Miandad, Muhammad Yousuf and Rashid Latif and former players Mohsin Khan and Sarfaraz Nawaz were more forthright in blaming the batting for the poor performances.
Pakistan have lost seven of their last 10 T20 internationals and in their last four matches they have quickly lost their first three or four wickets inside the power play overs.
Even against Bangladesh, Pakistan had lost three quick wickets.
The greenshirts have also tasted defeat in seven of their last 10 One-day internationals increasing concern about where the team is headed before the World T20 in India.