LAHORE, July 14: Pakistan’s Test and one-day captain Misbah-ul-Haq has expressed satisfaction with the performance of young players despite losing the Test and one-day series on the tour of Sri Lanka.

“We lost the Test series after winning a good number of matches in the past and obviously it is a disappointment, but we bounced back in the Test series by ending the last two matches in draw,” Misbah said here after arriving from Sri Lanka with the squad on Saturday.

Pakistan ended the T20 series 1-1 under Hafeez’s captaincy.

However, the national team lost the five-match ODI series 3-1 under Misbah.

Hafeez led the national team in the first Test, which Pakistan lost, since Misbah faced one-Test ban for slow bowling-rate.

In the next two Tests, Pakistan showed improved game, ending the successive matches in draw.

“The players, especially juniors made great efforts that resulted in our comeback in the last two Test matches,” Misbah commented.

Shedding light on the reasons behind the team’s failure to win the Test series, the Test captain argued that shortcomings in batting and fielding departments are two main reasons behind defeats in the Test and ODI series.

Fielding has always been a troubling area and though fielding coach Julian Fountain is working hard to bring improvement, it is the problem which should be rectified at the grass-roots level, he commented.

Misbah was all praise for young batsmen Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq and fast bowler Junaid Khan, saying they all showed good potential at crucial junctures of the game.

The skipper said though the performance of some seniors remained under par, it wouldn’t be a right step to oust them for just one bad series. He however said that the most essential changes should be made.

To a question, Misbah said that Pakistan took a chance to win the last Test, but it was not an easy task to bowl out the rivals so quickly since the wicket was too slow.

T20 captain Mohammad Hafeez also showed his satisfaction with the performance of his team in the shorter version of the game.

“We lost the first T20, but staged a comeback in the second match by winning it to end the series in draw,” Hafeez said.

He admitted that as a captain his performance was not good, but that was not due to any pressure from which, he said, he came out of by making 196 in the second Test.