Despite losing the first game convincingly, Pakistan Director of Cricket Mohammad Hafeez believes that the team still has enough quality to overcome Australia on their home turf. The Men in Green were no match for the Baggy Greens on the home soil in the first game.
The Men in Green were bowled out for 89 runs in the final innings of the 1st test, leaving them with the challenging task of snapping a 15-match losing streak in Australia. Pat Cummins-led side has performed exceedingly well on home conditions giving no real chance to the visiting side.
Speaking to the media, Mohammad Hafeez said that Pakistan Players have the talent to beat Australia on their home soil and believes that the team lacked the execution in the first game against Baggy Greens and wants to execute their skillset in the remaining games.
“I’ve seen during our preparation the amount of talent these guys have. There’s no doubt that they can beat Australia here in Australia, But obviously, we couldn’t do that execution-wise. The plan was there and we prepared accordingly. I still believe that as a team, Pakistan can beat Australia here in Australia, but we must execute our skills when required.”
“We couldn’t execute our skills. We made plans for the team, but unfortunately, as a team, we couldn’t execute our plans. Obviously, the guys wanted to, but they never applied themselves, to be honest.
“As a team, we made a couple of tactical errors. There were certain situations where we could have dominated. We were prepared, but our execution wasn’t great,” Mohammad Hafeez said.
In the first test, Pakistan’s batters surrendered meekly without putting up a fight in the difficult chase against Australia. Mitchell Starc (3/31), Josh Hazlewood (3/13), and Nathan Lyon (2/14) put on an outstanding performance to dismiss the visitors for 89 runs in the last innings.
Pakistan will play Victoria XI in a two-day practice match ahead of the Boxing Day Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). The practice match was not originally scheduled, but the Men In Green’s concerns about adapting to the circumstances caused the Men in Green to request an extra warm-up match.
In terms of the World Test Championship table after the first test, Australia is presently seventh with a 41.67 win-loss %, while Pakistan and India are tied at the top with a 66.67 percentage.
