Asif Iqbal opposes Misbah-ul-Haq’s inclusion in Pakistan ODI squad against West Indies
Pakistan’s former Test captain Asif Iqbal has opposed the inclusion of middle-order batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760.
Asif while talking to media said, “I think both Misbah and Younis should be regular features in test cricket rather than in one-days. I am a little disappointed that Misbah is in the one day squad, whereas, really, he should have been excluded.”
Asif believes that it will be unfair if Misbah piles up runs now in the series while on the other hand he totally failed to deliver in the crucial semi-final of the ICC World Cup 2011. The former cricketer insisted that a new player should have been given
an opportunity to show his mettle in place of Misbah in the ODI series against West Indies beginning from 23 April, 2011.
Misbah was blamed for Pakistan’s exit from the ICC World Cup 2011 after the Men in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 in Mohali. Chasing a total of 260 runs Pakistan never looked in command after losing opener Mohammad Hafeez. The
run rate piled up because of the slow batting by Younis Khan and later on by Misbah.
In the end, the tally was just too big for Misbah and the rest of the team to conquer as Pakistan needed almost 13 runs an over in the dying moments of the match.
Speaking on the performance of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 in the ICC World Cup 2011, Asif praised how the team managed to reach the final-four, even when many had written them off before the tournament. Pakistan had a turbulent twelve months going into the tournament where
three of their main players Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif were banned from international cricket for being involved in spot-fixing.
Asif pointed out the fact that the team had remarkably done well in the tournament despite the fact that no team wanted to tour Pakistan after the 2009 terrorist attack on http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 in Lahore.
Praising http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-c89347 Afridi’s captaincy, Asif emphasised that the all-rounder is an inspiring skipper who manages to get the best out of the players. According to Asif, Afridi has shown that he can lead his side under tough circumstances by taking them into the
semi-final of the mega event. The 31-year old Afridi was among the leading wicket-takers in the tournament.
Nonetheless, admitting that Afridi made some errors of judgement as a leader during the cricket world cup, Asif said, “Errors that I suppose, every captain makes while captaining a side and paid penalty for that.”
Commending head coach Waqar Younis, the former cricketer acknowledged the work Waqar has put in to lift the standard of the team. He insisted that the credit for the team’s inspirational performance in the World Cup should be given to the coach and team
management along with the national team.
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