Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed has taken full responsibility for their Asia Cup exit but admits there’s no need to “press the panic button” with the World Cup just seven months’ away.
The Men in Green missed out on reaching Friday’s final after suffering a 37-run defeat to Bangladesh in their crucial winner-takes-all Super Four clash on Wednesday.
It was their third loss in five matches in the UAE having earlier been on the receiving end of eight and nine-wicket thrashings by arch-rivals India.
It capped a disappointing campaign for Sarfraz’s side with a number of key players failing to play to their potential after a dominant 5-0 series whitewash against Zimbabwe.
Among those were Fakhar Zaman, who could not replicate the form that brought him 545 runs in the ODI series with a top-score of 24 in the UAE, while Mohammad Amir went wicketless in his three outings.
Sarfraz disappointed with 68 runs in four innings and while he accepts the criticism, the skipper blamed himself for the team’s elimination.
“I know I didn’t perform well. I needed to do much better, which I couldn’t. I take responsibility for the team’s performance,” he said.
Sarfraz has allowed the game to drift...rated him highly as a skipper post the Champions Trophy success. He’s looked a patch of that in this #AsiaCup
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) September 26, 2018
“There’s always pressure on the captain of the Pakistan team. When the team does badly, obviously the pressure increases. If I tell you that I haven’t slept properly for the last six days, you won’t believe me. But yes, I want to stress that we shouldn’t panic. There should be criticism for our performance, but give us a little time.”
While he reiterated the importance of not panicking, he hinted that it maybe time to scout for new talent although he is convinced when they do arrive in England next May they will be a competitive force.
He added: “There’s no need to press the panic button. Yes, we have made mistakes as a team, and as a captain, I know that I didn’t do well. But no need to panic, we need to back the players, look at the positions and see if there are people outside the team who can come in.
“I still believe we have a lot of talented players in the team. Look at Fakhar Zaman. Though he didn’t have a good tournament, we have to back him. Babar Azam too. Imam has, thankfully, done well, but there’s also Shadab and Hasan. We have to back them and take them along with us. We have to look at our bench too. We have a pool of players, and by the time the World Cup comes, we’ll have a good team.”
