There wasn't huge gulf between two sides: Pakistan coach Saqlain Mushtaq
Dec 21, 2022
Karachi [Pakistan], December 21 : Saqlain Mushtaq emphasised that Pakistan was in a position to win two of three Tests against England and the 3-0 series loss is not proof of a wide contrast in talent between the two teams.
"If you look at 3-0, it'll be shocking. But if you decode it session by session, Pakistan played great cricket. The first two matches we could have won. There wasn't a huge gulf between these two sides. If we'd taken the lead we could have won. The second Test hurt me, but we have to respect the umpire's decision, even though the whole world recognised that was not a catch," ESPNcricinfo quoted Saqlain as told to Geo News.
When Saud Shakeel was given out caught down the leg side while on 94, Pakistan was only 64 runs away from victory with four wickets remaining in the second Test in Multan. This is the "catch" Saqlain was referring to. The ball, in Babar Azam's opinion, "had been grounded." The series was whitewashed in Karachi by England, who went on to win a tight Test by 26 runs and take an unbeatable 2-0 lead.
Saqlain bemoaned his team's lack of experience, which, in his opinion, showed Pakistan's flaws in Test cricket. He echoed much of what Babar had said following the defeat in Karachi.
"We played very bravely. We had a vision of qualifying for the WTC final, but we couldn't move that way. But there were a lot of positives in Saud, Salman Agha and Mohammad Wasim.
"Three-nil hurts. I would also like to go hide in a corner and cry, but if you look at the bigger picture, they had a lot more experience than us. These are not excuses, but experience guides you in key situations, especially in long-form cricket. When you don't have experience, you become stuck somewhere," expressed Saqlain.
"Our dressing room had much fewer matches. In the longer version, all your weaknesses get exposed. The tactics, technical, mental and physical aspects can get hidden in the shorter formats, but not in the longer format. This is a part of the game. When you enter professional life, you know there will be good and bad days. If you look at bad days and think it's the worst day of your life, you can't move forward. Of course we didn't expect 3-0, but we'll learn a lot from this," he added.
With Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes serving as coach and captain, England has had a remarkable turnaround, going from losing all 17 of their previous Test matches to winning nine of the last ten.
It has received a lot of attention, especially for the aggressiveness of the team's batting strategy, and the outcome in Pakistan resoundingly dispelled any concerns about its chances of success abroad.
