Asia Cup 2022: Coach Saqlain Mushtaq says Pakistan cricket team is in fine form ahead of T20 World Cup

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We played nine overs of good cricket. They [Sri Lanka] dominated the rest 30-31 overs in all aspects. They played brilliant cricket. Credit goes to all of them.

– Saqlain Mushtaq, Pakistan coach

More worrying should be the paucity of decisive knocks from middle-order stalwarts Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed and Khushdil Shah, but Mushtaq doesn’t see it as a failure. “We should look at the overall scene. We made the World Cup semifinals, the Asia Cup finals and a whitewash in the West Indies series. Evidence indicates you’re doing something right. In some games, we made some small mistakes which look bigger,” he said, adding that it’s not a concern since the lower-order takes over when the middle-order fails.

The Pakistan coach harped on the need to show faith, trust and belief in the players and strategies. “If you keep shuffling, it sends a message that you don’t trust them. After the second match itself, there was talk about our batting order. I don’t follow social media, but you do hear the chatter. You need to give time. It’s not good to shuffle a lot. It sends a wrong message,” Mushtaq said.

Referring to the social media chatter critical of Rizwan’s slow scoring, he said: “Every team and player has their own style and methods. It’s not mandatory to do what the rest of the world is doing [about scoring rate]. We want to focus on the small things we aren’t doing right and improve instead of looking at what others are doing. His [Rizwan’s] method is not bad and works for him.”

Mushtaq refused to blame the Pakistan team for the Asian Cup defeat in the final, saying that they were outplayed by a Sri Lankan side playing brilliant cricket. “We played nine overs of good cricket. They [Sri Lanka] dominated the rest 30-31 overs in all aspects. They played brilliant cricket. Credit goes to all of them. The way they played against India and got momentum against Afghanistan, they deserve a lot of praise,” he said.

The Pakistan coach singled out Rajapaksa for praise. “The way Rajapaksa played, and No 6 and 7 played around him; they took the game away. It should be the best innings of his [Rajapaksa’s] life.”

Mushtaq had said ahead of the final that a champion side should win irrespective of who wins the toss. He reiterated that after the final saying that Sri Lanka have done just that. “In the previous [Super 4] game, they asked us to bat first and won. In this game [final], we batted second, and they still won. The way they played in both games, it’s well-deserved.”