Imam calls for patience as on-field woes continue

Pakistan opener Imamul Haq believes that it is important to give the new management, along with youngsters, time before giving a judgement about the team’s performance.

Pakistan ended up losing the Twenty20 International (T20I) series against Australia by two-nil, after suffering a crushing 10-wicket defeat in the third T20I on Friday in Perth.  

"As the number one side, we were expected to perform well here but Australia is a tough tour. When people come to Australia, they struggle a bit. Considering it's a new management and team, you have to give time to the youngsters. It was disappointing, we have to rethink and regroup and come hard at them in the Tests," said Imam, who played in only the final match of the T20I series and scored 14 runs off 15 balls.

The left-hander also said that losing too many wickets in the first powerplay was the reason behind team’s defeat in the third T20I.  

"Australia had planned so well for the first six overs, we couldn't get to a target we wanted to attain in the powerplay. We always lost 1 wicket extra. If you lose three wickets in the powerplay, how can you score 170-180? So we have to think about it, we're better than that,” he said.

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Ahead of the two-match Test series against Australia, which begins with the first Test in Brisbane on November 21, Imam was excited about the presence of quick young pacers, Musa Khan, Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi, in the squad.

"I'm happy with the fast bowlers in the squad, it's exciting. When we were in SA, I was wishing we had fast-bowlers who can bowl 140+, now we have 3 of them. It's very good. It's a young attack but of course when you play Australia, you have to be mentally tough, they will give us a tough time and we have to be ready. We have to think about what we can do to beat Australia," he concluded.