After Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, Head coach and chief selector, Misbah-ul-Haq came out in support of under-fire batsmen Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal after the two failed to leave a mark in their comeback to national fold at home.

The two have drafted to Pakistan squad for the first T20 International against Sri Lanka, unfortunately, they failed to live up to the expectations in their comeback match, as Shehzad scored only four runs while Akmal registered a golden duck in the defeated series-opening T20I on October 5 in Lahore.

Following their dismal comeback, Akmal, who last featured in a T20I three years ago, and Shehzad, who last played in T20Is last year having failed a dope test last year, have once again come under the scanner, but Misbah urged the critics to show some faith in the comeback players.

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Keeping in mind the next T20 World Cup 2020, Pakistan has made some changes and Test great urged harsh critics to have some patience with the experiments as it takes some time to produce results.

Misbah told the media in Lahore ahead of the second match on Monday, 7 October: “There is no need to press the panic button. I would ask the critics to go easy on the players who fail. When a player makes comeback, he needs time to settle down again and perform.”

He continued, “I think when you experiment keeping in mind next year’s World T20 in Australia, one has to be patient with the recalled players and allow them to perform in order to get positive results.”

The former captain was also confident about the positive results and said they will bounce back strongly in the home series against Lanka. Misbah signed off by saying, “Results will not always go your way but we have to be patient. I am confident that we can come back in the series strongly.”

(With PTI Inputs)