Something needs to be done about player confidence: Jalaluddin

Former cricketer believes rotation policy not reaping any rewards

KARACHI: Former cricketer Jalaluddin has warned the team management that they need to do something about the players’ confidence, otherwise the team won’t be able to win any match in the series.

The 57-year-old believes that the constant rotation policy by the team management, where a single bad performance can get a player axed from the team, is not reaping any rewards.

“If a batsman is not confident that his place is secure in the team, then he will not play his natural game,” he said. “He won’t be able to follow the plan laid out by the management and thus won’t be able to contribute much. The team management has to keep this in mind and work to improve the players’ confidence. The team is very demoralised at the moment.”

Jalaluddin also criticised the team management for not fully utilising the strengths of the batsmen. “We have to agree that our batsmen are not all world-class; they don’t have the skill and the mental temperament to match the best in the world and the team management needs to realise that. They need to utilise the strength of the batsmen and ask him to play accordingly.”

The former pacer also expressed his disappointment with the bowlers, who just have been extremely poor the entire tour.

The Pakistani bowlers had reduced Australia to 78-5 at one point but were unable to capitalise on it as the hosts ended up setting a strong 269-run target for the visitors.

Jalaluddin, who claimed ODI’s first-ever hat-trick, said that players lack confidence and consistency which is a worry for Pakistan because it can spoil all the good work they have put in. “The bowlers showed some complacency after reducing Australia to 78-5 and that was where the problem began. The just relaxed a little bit and Australia took advantage of that,” he said.