Fear of dismissal cost Pakistan: Jalal

Former Pakistan cricketer lauds Sarfaraz for daring performance.

KARACHI: Former Test Cricketer Jalaluddin pointed out that the fear of losing wickets ultimately led to Pakistan’s defeat as the batsmen failed to come out of their shells with the exception of wicketkeeper-batsman, Sarfaraz Ahmed.

“Our batsmen played very negatively and failed to meet the standards of Test cricket,” Jalal told The Express Tribune.



“Good Test players usually play with strike rates averaging around 60 runs, yet some of our batsmen were playing with strike rates of 30 and 40 runs, which is highly unacceptable and should be improved.”

The former Pakistan player said that in both the Tests, there were hardly any good deliveries from Rangana Herath and the Pakistan batsmen were dismissed due to taking too much pressure.

He lauded Sarfaraz for playing his natural game and not being afraid to dance down the wicket to outfox bowlers, which resulted in his superb performance.

Jalal added that left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman should not have been in the Test team and Zulfiqar Babar should have been picked ahead of him.

He backed bowling maestro Saeed Ajmal, who had a relatively silent series, to bounce back and do well in the future, terming him a genuine match-winner for Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2014.

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