Misbah dismisses Kaneria talk

The whitewashers are facing the whitewash in one-day international series. After Pakistan’s performance in the Test series against England the fans had high expectations from the team in the ODI series.

But Alastair Cook, Ravi Bopara and Steven Finn have put the visitors in a commanding position as they have taken a 2-0 lead and the way they are playing they look hot favourites to win tomorrow’s one-dayer in Dubai.

Misbah-ul-Haq has led the team well in the last two years but faces a real test against England in the ODI series. He has won a number of ODI series but needs some planning and guts to draw this series. There was more trouble for him as he is facing criticism for the late inclusion of Shoaib Malik in the team.

During a Press conference in Dubai on Friday Misbah was again bombarded with questions regarding Danish Kaneria’s implication in the spot fixing issue.

“We are here to play cricket and got nothing to do with Kaneria issue. The related authorities will deal with the matter. We are in Dubai and that is happening somewhere else.

“We are concentrating on our job at hand.

“It is really disappointing and I wish these things should stop now.

“Cricket is a gentleman’s game and let it be like that. These type of incidents will put the doubts in the minds of audience, ” Misbah said.

On the field, chasing has always been the problem for Pakistan. They need to address this issue urgently. They appear to have got a one-track batting mind set. Misbah said: “Pakistan struggled in chasing even when they had very good batting line-up. We have to improve our batting if we want to draw the series.

“This series is dominated by the bowlers and batting second on these wicket is not easy.”

England looked a different side in ODIs and they outplayed Pakistan in all the departments.

“In one-day cricket it is all about how you perform on that day. They have performed well in batting, bowling and fielding. Credit goes to them for their disciplined performance,” Pakistan captain said.

Pakistan are sticking with Umar Akmal as keeper which is hurting their cause. He dropped Cook on 29 which proved too costly for Pakistan. “We are in a dilemma to play a regular keeper or carry on with Umar.

It is really a difficult decision for us to keep a talented keeper like Adnan Akmal out of the side. Frailty of our batting has forced us to take such decisions.”

Pakistani fast bowlers have failed to impress in first two ODIs. Wahab Riaz was replaced by Aizaz Cheema but it made no difference. Umar Gul’s performance also has been a worry for Pakistan.

“Gul is match-winner and whenever he faces such situation he comes back strongly. I hope he will come up with a good performance in the remaining matches. Our bowlers have contained well, it is our batting which has let us down.

“It prompted us to keep Shoaib Malik in side. He can bowl 5-6 overs for us and can bat in the lower middle order.

“It is an area of concern for us. We suffered during Sri Lanka series and again we are facing the same problems.

“We took the decision but it did not work and it happens in the game,” Misbah explained.

The fourth match in the series will be played on Tuesday. Both teams will also play three Twenty20 internationals in Dubai (February 23 and 25) and in Abu Dhabi (February 27).

liaqat@khaleejtimes.com