Sarfraz demands support after New Zealand debacle

Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed on Thursday demanded more support for the team in the wake of a 5-0 whitewash in New Zealand, saying there was undue criticism on the team which was hurtful.

Pakistan was blanked 5-0 in the ODIs 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 saying the team looked like a street outfit, blaming Sarfraz for selection shenanigans.

Sarfraz admitted the results in ODIs were not acceptable. “Whatever wrong we did I cannot defend that,” Sarfraz said in an interview to ARY News show “Sports Room.”

“I admit that we did not perform well. Our team was better and should have done well.”

Pakistan lost the first two matches on Duckworth-Lewis method due to rain and captain admitted there were chances to grab.

“I think we got chances in all one-day matches but we could not grab them. We had problems on the new ball, and neither our bowlers got any breakthrough with the new ball, and when we batted we lost early wickets,” said Sarfraz.

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 freshen the team. Then we have Faheem Ashraf, Shadab Khan, Fakhar Zaman who are all maturing well so that’s why we won the Twenty20 series.”

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