KARACHI: Fatigue caused by two back-to-back wins against New Zealand and South Korea may have resulted in Pakistan’s losses against Britain and Australia, hockey legend Samiullah said on Monday.

Pakistan started their Sultan Azlan Shah Cup campaign on an impressive note when they beat New Zealand and South Korea with a similar score-line (4-2) in the first two days of the tournament.

The team then had a day’s break before resuming their campaign against Great Britain on Sunday, a match they lost 3-2. In their fourth match, Pakistan were mauled by world champions Australia by five goals to one.

Former winger Samiullah believes that while the loss against Australia was not unexpected, the losing margin is inexcusable.

“The score-line is very alarming and federation should analyse the team’s performance against Australia.”

“After their impressive performances against New Zealand and South Korea, our players might have been exhausted because this (Azlan Shah Cup) is a very physically demanding tournament,” Samiullah said.

Several members of the squad are approaching the twilight of their careers and the former captain has put the blame on lower fitness levels for the consecutive defeats.

“If exhaustion is the reason then the players have to improve their fitness ahead of key tournaments like the Champions Trophy and the Olympics, which are much more demanding in terms of physical stamina.”

Pakistan have two round-robin phase games to go and wins in the matches against India and Malaysia could take the Asian Games champions to the semi-finals.

“They can still bounce back, because if they could beat South Korea and New Zealand, they can certainly beat India and Malaysia.” —PPI