KARACHI: Former Pakistan coach Mohsin Khan was a disappointed man here on Tuesday after Pakistan’s stunning 0-3 loss to England in the T20 series in the UAE and said that a below par showing on part of the players heavily dented Pakistan’s chances of doing well in the upcoming World T20, scheduled to be held in India next year.
“Pakistan should have outplayed England in all departments of the T20 series but they failed miserably which is greatly disappointing,” he said on Tuesday.
“Afridi’s team literally squandered the opportunity of winning at least two easy matches in well-suited conditions which is quite embarrassing for the home fans,” lamented the former opener.
“Ours is a formidable team in the T20 format but the lack of planning and cohesion have led to destruction in the recent contests,” argued Mohsin who alleged that the players seem to be playing for themselves instead for the country.
“This is the worst possible situation in the lead-up to the upcoming World T20,” he said.
Mohsin pointed out that the performance of the team went downhill during the tenures of Dav Whatmore and now under coach Waqar Younis. “They (Whatmore and Waqar) both failed to achieve anything notable for Pakistan team during all this time,” he observed.
Meanwhile, former captain Aamir Sohail and batsman Ijaz Ahmed said it was incomprehensible why Pakistan did not use spinners on slow turning tracks against England in the UAE.
“Pakistan went into the series with only one spinner (Shahid Afridi) although Yasir Shah was also available,” said Ijaz. “Even Shoaib Malik who can bowl very well on slow wickets was not used properly. The absence of spinners cost our team dearly in the series.”
He added Pakistan players’ fitness level and running between the wickets was also extremely poor and believed that the main reason for this was poor domestic infrastructure and coaching.
“In the past our ‘A’ and under-19 teams used to have frequent foreign tours but for the last three to four years these tour have not happened. This I think is another major cause of Pakistan’s poor performance against the top sides. We also need the coaches to groom players for all kinds of tough situations,” said Ijaz.
Aamir also expressed his disappointment about the manner in which Pakistan lost the T20 matches against England. He was of the view that the choice of batsmen for Super Over was inappropriate.
“There was no planning and poor shot selection at crucial stages which let the team down,” he said.
Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2015
