Misbah-ul-Haq hits out at former players for criticising selectors
Misbah told a Pakistani channel that while he didn't want to take names but some experts must think twice before criticising anybody.
Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq has hit out at few former cricketers for criticising the selection of the national team for the ongoing series in Zimbabwe.
Misbah rubbed many former greats the wrong way when, after Pakistan's victory in the first Test, he said that there were some "dirty" people in Pakistan cricket who should think before talking about having more youngsters in the side.
"Even in the first Test it was the seniors who performed or we could have been in trouble," he said.
Misbah told a Pakistani channel yesterday that while he didn't want to take names but some experts must think twice before criticising anybody.
"Those who say we need to replace our seniors with juniors, should first look at their performances in international cricket," he said.
Misbah also insisted that experts should not try to compare Pakistani youngsters with Indian youngsters.
He pointed out that India was playing much more cricket compared to Pakistan and that is why the youngsters were developing and progressing into good players much faster.
He pointed out that even the Indian A team is playing lot of international cricket at the moment and their players were getting lot of exposure.
Misbah said to Pakistan's misfortunate it was short of cricket in many ways as neither did it have an IPL or regular tours for the A teams and international teams were also not touring the country since 2009.
He pointed out that Pakistan had some talented young players in Umar Akmal, Haris Sohail, Umar Amin, Ahmed Shehzad but they were not getting regular exposure and opportunities.
The Pakistan captain also defended his decision to not prefer new spinner, Zulfiqar Babar in place of veteran, Abdul Rehman.
"Zulfiqar Babar is an excellent bowler and I like him very much but we also have Abdur Rehman and he is performing very well, so we can't drop him for Zulfiqar," he said.
Former cricketers, including Abdul Qadir, Mohsin Khan and Moin Khan, had reacted with disbelief after Pakistan's shock defeat to Zimbabwe in the first ODI.