Summary Pakistan head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed accepts full responsibility for the team’s poor England tour, backs struggling players and says they must improve through first-class cricket.
LONDON (Dunya News) – Pakistan head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed has accepted full responsibility for the team’s performance during the ongoing tour of England, saying he would not shift the blame onto the players despite their disappointing batting display.
Speaking to reporters after the second day’s play in the Lord’s Test, Sarfraz said the players had not performed well but stressed that this did not mean he would put the entire responsibility on them.
“This is our team, and Pakistan’s best players are part of it,” he said, adding that the team’s problem was that when the batting performed well, the bowling struggled.
Sarfaraz said Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel and Salman Ali Agha had delivered performances in the past but were not scoring runs at present. He said he would continue to stand by them as head coach.
He added that the team management would sit down after the series, discuss the performances and then decide which players should be retained and which should be left out.
The head coach acknowledged that the team was facing batting problems but said the players were good individuals who were working hard. He regretted that the results were not going Pakistan’s way.
Sarfaraz emphasized that Pakistan was a professional cricket team and that its players would have to perform if the team wanted to maintain an international identity according to global standards.
He also stressed the need for players to return to first-class cricket and work on their weaknesses.
