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How can one defend such a performance: Head coach Misbah perturbed by off-colour Pakistan

Abhishek Singh

Pakistan head coach Misbah-Ul-Haq has been in the firing line of the critics after his team was whitewashed by a second-string England side in the three-match ODI series. The coach in a recent press conference confirmed that he was in no mood to defend himself or the team after such a poor run of form with both bat and ball. 

"I don't know why the team was totally off-colour in this series and lost its momentum but it is a very worrying sign for me as head coach,” Misbah said during a virtual press conference. 

"How can one defend such a performance. No one can defend our performance and I think as a team we are all responsible be it the players, coaches or support staff,” he added. 

The 47-year-old former captain, who has had quite a reputation for playing in England, said that the team couldn’t react to the conditions in the first two games. In the third game, it was fielding and poor bowling that cost the game, according to the coach. 

"We just couldn't handle the conditions in the first two matches and in the third match, we had a total we should have defended but overall it is very disappointing from a bowling point of view and especially our fielding standards. We dropped simple chances," lamented Misbah. 

Another thing that Misbah was not happy about was not being able to afford the luxury of a great pool of players as a bench strength. He said this even as Pakistan didn’t opt for even a single change in the three matches that they played even after losing the series. 

"First of all England has a great backup and the luxury of a strong pool of players we don't have. England had choices for this series and we have limitations at certain positions especially in the middle order spaces where no one has settled down for a while,” he said. 

The Pakistan team would now move to the T20I series with the first string side back after having contracted Covid and being asked to self isolate a week ago. The first match takes place on July 16 at Trentbridge in Nottingham.

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