Misbah-ul-Haq,
the Pakistan Test and ODI captain, has demanded that his
underperforming batsmen step up and take responsibility after his team
crashed out of the Champions Trophy in England following three
successive defeats.
"I think our batsmen must understand their game, the conditions which
they are facing and then apply themselves," Misbah said on his return
from England. "It's the responsibility of the batsmen. It's not that we
were short on practice. We did prepare well for the tour but conditions
in England were tough and our batsmen couldn't handle them. I suppose
that's been the one area where we've lacked - scoring consistent runs.
We had these same batting problems on the South Africa tour so we now
have to try to sort them."
Pakistan were sorely let down by their batsmen in the Champions Trophy.
They failed to cross 200 - bowled out for 170 against West Indies, 167
against South Africa and 165 in a rain-affected match against India to
get eliminated from the group stage. Only Misbah, the fifth-leading
run-getter in ODIs this year with 548 runs, hit two half-centuries. The
other senior batsmen Mohammad Hafeez, Imran Farhat, Shoaib Malik and
Kamran Akmal performed poorly. Pakistan's batting was also found wanting
on their tour of South Africa earlier this year, where they lost all
three Tests and the one-day series 3-2.
Misbah insisted batting is a serious weakness Pakistan have to overcome
as they look to build for the 2015 World Cup. "The simple thing is that
batsmen aren't able to handle themselves. There are technical faults and
we need to address them. Whenever we go abroad we will face such
problems so we have to address them sooner or later. If we don't
improve, don't learn, then such things will go on.
"We will have meetings in the next two-three days to finalise the team
(for the West Indies tour). Changes are necessary and we have to sit
down and discuss, make changes and plan who are the players to be
groomed for the future. We can rebuild the team in the next two years by
grooming players who are good enough.
"It's not like we are picking the wrong players. We always try to select
players who are good for the team, players who can win us games. These
are the same set of players who have won us games. But now that they
have not performed, you are saying they were sifarshi [unmerited recommendation] players. This is not the issue, they have done well in the past as well."
Pakistan play five ODIs against West Indies starting July 14, the first
two in Guyana and the remaining three in St Lucia. The ODIs will be
followed by two Twenty20 internationals in St Vincent. Misbah was wary
about the challenge in West Indies and believed the onus would be on his
batsmen again.
"We will face slow pitches on the West Indies tour and need to graft our
innings," Misbah said. "If the batsmen give the bowlers a total of more
than 250 then they can win us matches. I think it will again be a test
of our batting in the West Indies."
Umar Farooq is ESPNcricinfo's Pakistan correspondent. He tweets here
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