DUBAI: Pakistan skipper Sarfraz Ahmed has taken full responsibility of the poor performance of team in Asia Cup 2018.
The skipper said that he takes responsibility of defeats of Pakistan in Asia Cup 2018. He admitted that Pakistan team failed to perform well in all departments of the game. He also blamed his own poor performance behind the failure of team.
“Yes our performance was very poor. Our batting was not good and we dropped many catches. Our bowling was also patchy and these are the reasons we are out of the tournament,” said Sarfraz.
“I did not perform well. I needed to do better, which I failed to perform,” he added. The skipper Sarfraz only scored 68 runs in four innings.
Shoaib Malik and Imam-ul-Haq were best performers for Pakistan who scored 225 and 211 runs respectively in the tournament, while Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Sarfraz Ahmed and Asif Ali heavily failed to perform.
In the bowling department Mohammad Amir, Hassan Ali, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz and Usman Khan also failed to perform well in the tournament. Junaid Khan, who played just one game in the tournament took four wickets, but in vain.
Sarfraz Ahmed said that it is important to back the players despite their poor performance in the Asia Cup 2018. “I still believe that we have a lot of talent in the team. Fakhar Zaman is one of the talented player our team got though he did not perform well in the tournament. Babar Azam, Shadab Khan, Hassan Ali also had bad luck in the tournament. We have to back them take them along with us,” the skipper said.
“The World Cup is a long while away, we have different commitment before that. Australia are coming, and after that there’s New Zealand. So we need to review our performance and see where we are missing the mark.
“We are losing such a large number of wickets early, and the middle order has to manage the new ball, which isn’t simple, and hitting quickly at end isn’t simple on these pitches. We’ll need to get together and settle these issues.”
Sarfraz acknowledged that his group committed errors, however, declined to press the panic button. “Indeed, we have committed errors as a group, and as a captain, I realize that I didn’t do well. Be that as it may, no compelling reason to be panic, we have to back the players,” he said.