LAHORE: Fresh from winning a pressure series against Sri Lanka to keep its chances alive for the qualification of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, Pakistan’s ODI skipper Azhar Ali said it is a good sign that the youngsters are gelling well to perform superbly in crucial games.

He, however, negated the impression that the team graph was improving since senior players like his predecessor Misbah-ul-Haq, the flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi and Younis Khan were not part of the winning squad.

Answering a question at the Gaddafi Stadium here on Tuesday after his arrival from Sri Lanka, Azhar said that the team played well under pressure conditions but ousting of Misbah, Afridi and Younis had nothing to do with that. “No, no. All the seniors have been performing well during their era and have served the team well and we will always miss them,” said Azhar in a rather diplomatic tone.

“But it is a good sign that our team has gelled well and quickly after a couple of series for which the credit goes to all the players, especially to seniors Hafeez and Shoaib Malik and the team management,” Azhar added.

“Unfortu­n­ately, we could not play well in the last World Cup, but thank God the team performed extremely well in Sri Lanka, both in Tests as well as the ODIs.”

To a question, Azhar admitted the team was under pressure to qualify for the Champions Trophy. “But the good thing is that instead of taking pressure, we decided to take things match by match and execute the plans given by the coaches. Thanks to the Almighty that all the players performed well and the result is for everyone to see.”

Azhar also denied the impression that the Pakistan team lost the fifth match due to complacency. “We discussed a lot before playing the last ODI and wanted to finish the series with a convincing margin. However, unfortunately we could not achieve the required result.”

He said fatigue could not be a reason for losing any game in this professional era of the game.

Asked if he was keen to play T20s as well, Azhar said he was indeed but it was up to the selectors to select him for any format.

Interestingly, Azhar had not been considered as a good ODI player by the selectors during the last one and a half years and he was not part of the World Cup team for the same reason.

But after the mega event, he not only staged a fine comeback in the ODI format but also earned the captaincy. Since then, he has been leading the team from the front and it shows. Though he lost the first series aagainst Bangladesh 0-3, Azhar and his men bounced back to win the home series against Zimbabwe 3-0 and then against Sri Lanka 3-2 to keep their Champions Trophy chances alive.

Praising wicket-keeper batsman Sarfraz Ahmed for his courageous and hurricane batting, Azhar said he excelled at his new batting spot.

He said Pakistan were also hot favourites to win the two-match T20 series starting on July 30.

Azhar said his first priority is to mould the national team into a fighting unit and to show consistency in their performance.

To a question, Azhar said though so far his team had performed well on Asian pitches, they would have to show more aggression and play positive cricket outside this region in order to make their mark.

He was all praise for the youngsters, especially Mohammad Rizwan and Imad Wasim, and said both bowled and batted well during the pressure moments.

To a question, regarding the proposed series against arch-rivals India, which is in jeopardy due to political reasons, Azhar said: “We all are waiting for the India series and hopefully the PCB will deal with this case in a sound manner. We are looking forward to that series and will measure up to it Insha Allah,” he said confidently.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2015

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