KARACHI: Former Test cricketer and chief selector Salahuddin Ahmed Sallu on Tuesday praised Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq for his honest admission about the national cricket team flopping in all three departments of the game — batting, bowling and fielding — in the ongoing World Cup.

In a statement on Tuesday, Sallu lauded Misbah for owning up to his team’s mistakes. “I feel Misbah has made a sensible statement about the team performance where he has not tried hiding behind excuses,” he said. “It is indeed a do-or-die situation for Pakistan now and our boys must put their act together to win the next four games or it will be tough making the quarters.”

Sallu added that Misbah’s plea to his players to shrug off the disappointment of back to back defeats against India and the West Indies was also a very sensible approach from the 40-year-old skipper.

“That is a correct approach from Misbah,” said Sallu while endorsing the Pakistan skipper’s views. “If the defeats keep haunting our players, they will never be able to regroup and win. It is very sensible of Misbah to ask the team to pick itself, both mentally and skill-wise, for the remaining four games.”

Doing an overall analysis of teams at the mega event, Sallu pointed out that some of favourite teams were also experiencing shock defeats which showed that any team could have a bad day in the ODIs.

“Upsets like South Africa losing to India or Ireland’s stunning win over West Indies should provide Pakistan hope to make a strong comeback in the event,” he said. “If we get the combination right and win the next game against Zimbabwe, there is no reason why we can’t turn things around successfully,” argued Sallu.

Commenting on the West Indies-Zimbabwe match played at Canberra on Tuesday, Sallu said the historic onslaught by Chris Gayle in his record-breaking double hundred must have shattered Zimbabwe players’ morale and Pakistan could take advantage of that.

“Our next match is against Zimbabwe on Sunday and they will be psychologically disturbed by what Gayle did to them today,” said Sallu. “Our players must take advantage of that and should play aggressive cricket to put the opponents on the back foot.”

The former chief selector insisted that the telling absence of Saeed Ajmal, Junaid Khan and Mohammad Hafeez was hurting Pakistan’s chances.

“Had these match-winning bowlers been available for us in the World Cup, I am convinced that Pakistan would have beaten the West Indies and had posed a stiff challenge to the Indian batsmen in the opening game,” he reminded. “But all is not lost yet and one good game can resurrect the Pakistan fortunes in the extravaganza,” concluded Sallu.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2015

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