Pakistan team once again has been under the hammer after their disappointing loss to mighty Australians at Perth during the First Test. Australia humiliated Pakistan to win the test match convincingly by 360 runs after bundling out Pakistan for a paltry of 89 runs in the second innings. Team director Mohammad Hafeez was quite optimistic despite receiving the drubbing. Mohammad Hafeez was impressed with the bowling unit.
Such was an impact of Australian bowling attack that the Pakistani batters hardly took stance and showed some kind of intent against the likes of quicks Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and captain Pat Cummins. To add to their worries , Australian spinner Nathan Lyon spun a web of bowling across helping Australia to bundle Pakistan to a meagre total, in the process to become only the second spinner from Australia to complete 500 Test wickets after the legendary Shane Warne.
This performance from the Pakistan National Team led by Shan Masood of surrendering and not even putting up a fight has raised severe turmoil’s in the minds of the former players about the inability of the team to perform at the highest level. In the second innings No Pakistani batter even showed the courage to withstand the hostile Australian bowling. Batters failed like mere chips in front of the mighty Australian bowling showing their inability to adjust to the swing and seam offered on the bouncy Australian tracks.
After the fielding debacle on first day of the test ,and losing advantage to Australia in the first innings, Pakistan always had to play a catch up game which resulted into the insulting defeat within 4 days against Australia who in turn bought up their A game in the match. However former Pakistan player and now Team director and coach Mohammad Hafeez has came up in defense of his teams performance.
Pakistan needs to execute skills – Mohammad Hafeez supports team Pakistan
Pakistan coach and team director Mohammad Hafeez has backed the national team to turn the tables around in the remaining two Tests of the series against Australia Down Under. The former opener said that Pakistan made detailed plans but fell short when it came to execution.
At a press conference after the game, Hafeez underlined the importance of execution and trust they have in the team to beat Australia in their own backyard.
As quoted by ESPNcricinfo, Hafeez said:
“I said to you earlier that the vibe I got from the preparation and the amount of talent these guys have. There’s no doubt the guys can beat Australia in Australia. But obviously execution-wise we couldn’t do that,”
“The plan was there. We prepared things accordingly, and I still believe as a team that Pakistan can beat Australia here in Australia. Obviously, as a team, we need to execute our skills whenever it requires,” he added.
Mohammad Hafeez also underlined the inefficiency of the players to execute their plans on the deteriorating pitch exclaiming how the team showed resistance in the first innings of the test match.
He said that the debutants Aamer Jamal and Khurram Shahzad were impressive, praising the passion they showed. Backing them to come harder in Melbourne.
“There are a lot of positives in this game. The two debutants. The way they bowled, the way they showed the passion to represent Pakistan. That is very special and heartening to me. I really enjoyed personally the way they did, and they were presenting themselves for every challenge, and they are the most positive side we had during this test match,” said Mohammad Hafeez.
“Unfortunately, our premier fast bowlers couldn’t do well in this game, but this can happen to anyone. But I’m sure these guys will come harder in the next game.” he added
The Boxing Day Test in Melbourne is scheduled to take place on 26th December and it will be interesting to see how Pakistan turns out as a unit in this test match.