On Saturday, Inzamam-ul-Haq, the former Pakistan skipper said that Misbah-ul-Haq was a defensive captain in their entire cricket World Cup crusade and lacked aggression like the legendary Imran Khan.
Inzamam expressed his view in a column for International Cricket Council’s (ICC) website saying that for Misbah, it was a disheartening ending to his One Day International (ODI) career. He remained a defensive skipper and rarely demonstrated aggression. He took too much time to take decisions like ignoring Sarfraz Ahmed for the first four consecutive pool games.
On Friday a spirited Australian team beat Pakistan by 6 wickets to secure a place in the semis and will face India at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Thursday.
Inzaman said that the only comfort for Pakistan was a remarkable spell of pace bowler by Wahab Riaz who bowled one of the most deadly spells of left-arm fast bowling he has seen for a long time in international cricket.
He wrote that the way Wahab bowled Shane Watson with a bombardment of short-pitched balls, it reminded him the fiery days of Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar. Who knows what the output could have been had Rahat Ali caught Watson and Sohail Khan did not drop Maxwell.
The 45 years old pointed out the fact that if a side’s batting line-up collapses on a batting paradise, do not expect bowlers to bail him out in big games.
The former Pakistani captain said said that it was painful to see the careless attitude of Pakistani batsmen. After playing so many years of international cricket, they still do not understand the meaning of ‘rotating the strike’. Pakistani batsmen play so many dot balls that in utter frustration they did not go for ground shots and good fielding units like Australia does not miss out on its catching opportunities.
He was quoted saying: “I feel sorry for Shahid Afridi playing in his last World Cup. Afridi seemed to have lost bite in his bowling and those leg-spinners, which used to trouble batsmen around the world when he was at his best, were hard to spot out in this World Cup.”