Misbah brushes aside Mani's ultimatum

Pakistan’s head coach-cum-chief selector Misbahul Haq, in a press conference at the National Stadium in Karachi on Tuesday, brushed aside the one-year ultimatum given to him by the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Ehsan Mani in an exclusive interview with CricketPakistan.com.pk.

The head coach-cum-chief selector claimed that there was no pressure on him and that he would devote the time he had in the position for the development of the players.

“There is no pressure. There is no bigger pressure on an individual than life being a temporary thing. Whoever assumes a post, they try their best. I want to apply the entire time I have on the betterment and development of the players,” said Misbah.

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Misbah highlighted the importance of the series against Sri Lanka and revealed that the side was focused on winning the second Test in Karachi.

“It's an important series and we're thinking of winning the match, as we were thinking in the first match,” he said. “The performance was satisfactory, in fact excellent, Abid's hundred and the way Babar is batting but we need to do better with the bowling."

The head coach-cum-chief selector hinted about the immediate future of batsman Fawad Alam who does not seem to be part of the management’s plans in the second Test against Sri Lanka.

“When you bring any player in the squad, you do it to strengthen the squad. Whenever we feel that we need Fawad, we will play him. It's not necessary that it will be in this Test or the first Test but we will look at how we can make our best combination,” he said.

The 45-year-old revealed that the management would try to develop policies that ensure that players would give preference to the national side.

“We will hopefully make a policy soon about this because this can be a problem for Pakistan going forward. When you invest in players and they should give preference to the country and they leave and go here and there, I don't think that's right,” he said.

Misbah praised the performances of batsman Babar Azam and pointed out young pacers Shaheen Shah and Naseem Shah as the positives for the country going forward.

“The most important thing at this point is that if we look at our batting, the way they batted in those conditions in Australia. Babar Azam's batting is the biggest plus, the way he stepped up in Australia and also made a hundred here. There is a big shift in his batting, we knew about white ball cricket but he is dominating in Test cricket which is a big plus for Pakistan. At the same time we have a young bowling attack and I think it's a big positive, the way Shaheen and Naseem bowled. Consistently hitting 140+ in good areas,” he concluded.