Pakistan’s Test and ODI captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, has backed his teammates to do well in the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, despite a thumping loss against Australia in the final Twenty20 match in UAE.
Although Pakistan won the T20 series 2-1, their loss to Australia in the dead rubber in Dubai was their biggest yet and hardly the ideal send off that they needed before the ICC event.
Misbah, however, urged the Pakistan players to learn from their mistakes in the Australia series and also threw his weight behind T20 skipper Mohammad Hafeez.
“One thing should be clear that the captain alone is not responsible for a defeat or victory,” he said.
“One individual's bad performance or mistake should not be singled out, the entire team must be focused upon.”
Misbah, who is no longer part of the national T20 squad, sounded confident of Pakistan’s prospects at the World T20 and believed his teammates had all the bases covered but needed to overcome only one major battle; the one in the head.
“In cricket we need to learn from any situation as we have quality players in batting and bowling. It is all in the mind and nothing else.”
Pakistan are strong contenders for the World T20 crown but will need mercurial players like Shahid Afridi, Umar Akmal and Umar Gul to step up and perform consistently over the course of the next few weeks.
Pakistan open their Group D campaign on September 23, when they meet New Zealand at Pallekele. The third team in their group is Bangladesh.
Before that, they face India in a high profile warm-up match in Colombo on September 17.
