LAHORE, March 8: Pakistan captain and full-back Zeeshan Ashraf on Friday said he was confident that Pakistan will outplay China in the forthcoming five Test-series commencing from the 14th of this month.

“I have set a target for the series and that is 5-0 whitewash although I don’t consider China a weak team as they have beaten us in the recent past,” said Zeeshan while talking to Dawn at the end of the training camp at the National Hockey Stadium.

The series is Zeeshan’s first assignment as skipper after he replaced goalkeeper Salman Akbar recently.

Having represented Pakistan in around 240 matches, Zeeshan, 30, said that the boys had trained hard at the camp and were now in a better position to earn positive results in China.

He was of the opinion that while China’s tour could be a good preparatory series for his men, the real test ahead was the tour of Europe before the Olympic Games. “All our next five months’ programmes are aimed at fielding a strong team in the Beijing Olympics and the tour of Europe in May-June will be our real test in assessing the team’s strength,” he said.

He said full-back Mohammad Ateeq was improving as the main penalty-corner hitter with his deputy Mohammad Imran as the second choice striker. “Ateeq is improving well, both as a penalty-corner hitter and a deep defender, and hopefully he will deliver,” he said.

Answering a question about Pakistan’s defence, Zeeshan said there was a need for further improvement in the area.

About the team’s fitness level, which has remained a grey area for decades now, he said the boys were working with a special trainer and a marked improvement was expected in the fitness standards.

Team’s coach and former Olympian full-back Naved Alam backed Zeeshan’s views and claimed that the fitness levels have improved by 70 per cent as the boys were paying full attention to each and every instruction given to them in that regard. “We will all be seeing a significant improvement in the team’s fitness level till the Olympics, I can tell you with confidence,” Naved said.

Naved said not a single boy received any injury during the training camp which indicated better standards. Zeeshan added that he has been receiving a lot of help from his seniors in building the team for the Olympics. “Obviously, we all are working for a common cause, to bring back laurels to Pakistan, and we have to work together to achieve this goal,” he said.

The 18-member team, along with four officials, leaves for Beijing from Lahore via Islamabad on Sunday. All of the matches are scheduled to be played at Ghangzhou from March 13-23. According to the itinerary, the matches will be played on March 14, 15, 18, 19 and 21.

SQUAD:

Goalkeepers: Salman Akbar, Nasir Ahmed.

Full-backs: Zeeshan Ashraf (captain), Muhammad Ateeq, Kamran Ahmed.

Half-backs: Muhammad Irfan, Muhammad Saqlain, Fareed Ahmed, Waqas Zafar, Muhammad Imran (vice captain).

Forwards: Waqas Sharif, Waqas Akbar, Rehan Butt, Shakeel Abbasi, Muhammad Zubair, Abbas Haider, Shabbir Ahmed Khan, Shafqat Rasool.

OFFICIALS:

Khwaja Zakauddin (manager/chief coach)

Naveed Alam (coach)

Faiz-Ur-Rehman (physio)

Nadeem Lodhi (video analyst).