The soft-spoken Pakistan captain was literally hounded by his country’s media with a host of uncomfortable questions following the team’s heavy defeat against India here on Sunday.
Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed has reconciled to the fact that they “were a better team than India in the 90’s” and now the tables have turned. The soft-spoken Pakistan captain was literally hounded by his country’s media with a host of uncomfortable questions following the team’s heavy defeat against India here on Sunday.
Asked if the Indo-Pak rivalry has fizzled out over the years, Sarafaraz said: “We are not handling pressure well. The team that handles pressure in these games win. The Pakistan teams of the 90’s, used to enjoy upper hand but now India is better than Pakistan. That’s why they win matches.”
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s advice was “bat first even if the pitch is damp” but Sarfaraz ahmed Khan doggedly defended his decision, saying the reason for defeat was “failure in all three departments”. The Pakistan Prime Minister and an iconic World Cup winning captain, in a series of tweets on the marquee clash, had spoken about the right approach for the high-pressure game.
“The whole team is not performing well in all three departments. If you talk about fielding, even Virat Kohli had said that he would have fielded. We haven’t seen the pitch for two days. There was some moisture and hence I decided on fielding. We won a good toss but didn’t hit the right length,” said Sarfaraz. A defeat against India inevitably gives rise to conspiracy theories and the post match media interaction was no different.
“Why is it that the players’ body language is so negative?” asked one of the scribes. The manner in which Sarfaraz kept his counsel was remarkable. “May be you guys have seen something in the body language but players are trying their best. Their has been fielding lapses. Rohit could have been run-out twice and had we availed those chances, it could have been a different result.”
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