Newly appointed Pakistan head coach-cum-chief selector Misbah Ul Haq is reportedly "disappointed" with skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed and his men who aren't yet falling in line with the training and fitness levels he intends to standardise.
Pakistan just recently suffered a 3-0 T20I series whitewash at the hands of Sri Lanka in Lahore despite being ranked No.1 in the format's ICC rankings.
"What has disturbed Misbah the most in his first assignment as head coach and the chief selector is the reluctance of some players to follow directions of the management and do proper training to keep high fitness standards," a source close to the matter was quoted as saying by PTI.
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"He is unhappy that some players are just too relaxed and take training lightly and are not working on improving their cricket discipline. He has also not been encouraged by the attitude of captain, Sarfaraz Ahmed whom he feels shies away from taking responsibility when the chips are down."
Behaviour of three senior players - Wahab Riaz, Imad Wasim, and Haris Sohail, another source says, has been under the scanner from Misbah. "Several times he felt they were making excuses to shy away from training and proper nets. He got the feeling they had some sort of excuse ready to go easy on their training."
"Batsman, Haris Sohail has developed a painful habit of making excuses for having some niggling problem or pain when asked to push himself in training," the source added.
"Another problem which confronts Misbah is that most of the players don’t appear to have the cricket discipline to follow and execute plans on the field which are discussed in the dressing room."
With the team in on and off-field troubles, former skipper Misbah has an uphill task ahead as next month's tour to Australia looms large.
"Two players bluntly informed their team’s head coaches that they would reach for the National T20 Championship matches in Faisalabad on the morning of the games," the source added.
"When Misbah came to know about this he told the head coaches they should be more firm with the players and ensure they joined their provincial team a day before the matches."
"It is not a very happy situation now and one can expect Misbah to take some hard decisions as chief selector while selecting the T20 and Test squads for the coming tour of Australia."
It would be interesting to see whether Misbah, who is looking for youngsters to fill the holes that currently exist in the national side, is in support of Sarfaraz continuing as Test captain down under or not.
(Inputs from PTI)
