'There was undue criticism which was hurtful'

KARACHI: Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed on Thursday demanded more support for the team from former cricketers in the wake of a 5-0 whitewash in recently concluded ODI series against New Zealand.

Speaking to ARY News on Wednesday, the Pakistan team captain said that he feels that there was “undue criticism” from some cricketing pundits and former cricketer during the ODI series “which was hurtful”.

Pakistan was blanked 5-0 in the ODI series in New Zealand but came back strongly to clinch the three-match Twenty20 series 2-1 and reclaimed number one spot in Twenty20 rankings.

Some former players like Shoaib Akhtar went overboard in their criticism and said that the national team performed like a mohalla (neighbourhood) team , blaming Sarfraz for selection shenanigans.

Sarfraz admitted that the result of the ODI series was not acceptable.

“Whatever wrong we did I cannot defend that. I admit that we did not perform well. Our team was better and should have done well,” said Sarfraz.

The skipper who led Pakistan to an unimaginable Champions Trophy victory last year, added that he thinks the team had chances in all one-day matches but could not grab them.

“We had problems with the new ball as our bowlers couldn’t get any breakthrough with it, and when we batted we lost early wickets,” Sarfraz said.

Pakistan’s best opening stand was 14, with Azhar Ali dropped after the third match while Imam-ul-Haq failed with two and Umar Amin made nought in the single matches.

Sarfraz backed head coach Mickey Arthur’s assertion that there were fitness problems.

“We are professional cricketers and we should have performed well. Mickey cannot run after us all the time to keep our fitness levels high so we have to do that ourselves.”

Sarfraz admitted he tries to control his style of aggressive captaincy.

“I try my level best to control myself but that’s the way I have played my cricket and all my previous captains had done like that,” said Sarfraz.

Sarfraz is confident that the young team is heading in the right direction for the 2019 World Cup.

“I am sure the youngsters are coping well and we are heading in the right direction. There were only two senior players Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik while others were youngsters but they did well and coped with pressure well.

“Look we did well in the Twenty20 because Ahmed Shehzad came in to inspire the team. Then we had Faheem Ashraf, Shadab Khan, Fakhar Zaman who are all turning in to great players,” the skipper concluded.