Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul Haq has said his side will focus on playing good cricket rather than just entertaining the crowd, ahead of the upcoming series against England in the United Arab Emirates. “The most important thing is to win cricket matches and we are just focusing on winning at the moment. At the moment winning cricket matches is more important than entertaining in Test cricket. Our first aim is to win matches, we want to continue to win matches, build the confidence of the players and the team, then we can look at working on the entertainment aspect in Test cricket,” PakPassion quoted Misbah, as saying.
His statement comes after critics had alleged that Pakistan cricket has become rather dull and boring under Misbah-ul Haq’s captaincy.Misbah said the past year has been satisfying for Pakistan taking into account four series wins against New Zealand, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. “It was a good year for the Pakistan cricket team, the performances have been good. Starting from the tour of New Zealand at the beginning of the year right through to the recent tour of Bangladesh, it’s been a very good show from every player,” he added. He, however, described the World Cup semi-final defeat to India and a Test series draw at the West Indies as low points of 2011.
Misbah, however, feels his side needs to work on fielding and catching, and stressed on the need to develop slip fielders. We need to continue to develop specialists in key fielding positions particularly in Test cricket. Fielders at silly point, short leg and in the slip cordon have to be specialists as these fielding positions are key to your chances in the field in Test cricket. I feel that it’s very important that we develop fielders who can field in these positions, particularly developing youngsters who can do a good job fielding in these key positions,” he added.