THE 14th Asia Cup is underway in the UAE and Pakistan’s performance in the tournament against its arch rival India has been disappointing so far.

Pakistani cricket fans had expected too much from the national team but the boys failed to perform well in both matches against the Indian team.

Skipper Sarfraz Ahmed led the team and lost the matches to the arch rival by eight and nine wickets respectively. The Indian team has beaten Pakistan in all departments on the field. Our national team’s batting and fielding were just not good.

The Pakistani openers and middle order batsmen, except for Shoaib Malik, failed to give the Indian team a tough time. I believe that the fear of defeat rather than playing fearlessly was one of the causes of the team’s failure.

However, fingers can also be pointed at Sarfraz’s captaincy. The Pakistan Cricket Board should take immediate notice of team management and the captain regarding the team’s recent bad performance.

Imtiaz Junejo

Hyderabad

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2018