DHAKA: Waqar Younis is a naturally aggressive man even when the chips are down. That’s why one seldom hears him uttering any defensive remarks in spite of a series of setbacks. But Pakistan’s under-fire coach finally seems to be willing to admit that there is a serious problem with his team following a humiliating ODI series defeat against Bangladesh. In an interview following defeat in the second ODI on Sunday night, the former Test pacer agreed that the misfiring Pakistan team was in trouble. “I accept what the critics are saying: Pakistan cricket is facing problems,” the coach said on Monday. “We need to change the way we play cricket. We have been playing defensive cricket for too long; it will take time to get out of this (mindset),” he said. He blamed a lack of fitness for the team’s disappointing performance on the Bangladesh tour. “Our biggest problem is fitness, over which no compromise can be made,” he said. But he added that there was no need to look back “if you want to move forward with young players”. Waqar’s statements follow news from the Pakistan camp of what appears to be yet another fitness-related setback. Media reports have suggested that pacer Rahat Ali had suffered a hamstring injury and skipped the team’s training session on Monday. Pakistan have faced a string of injury setbacks in recent weeks. Four World Cup squad members – pacemen Ehsan Adil and Sohail Khan, leg-spinner Yasir Shah and batsman Sohaib Maqsood – were earlier declared unfit and ruled out of the tour with injuries. Pakistan lost the three-game ODI series with a seven wicket defeat in the second match on Sunday after by they lost the first game by 79 runs last week. Meanwhile, Pakistani greats on Monday slammed the team’s first ever series loss to Bangladesh, with former captain Javed Miandad terming it the “lowest point” in his country’s cricketing history. Bangladesh thumped Pakistan by seven wickets in the second one-day international in Dhaka on Sunday, their fourth series win over a full-member nation after victories against Zimbabwe, the West Indies and New Zealand. “Losing to Bangladesh is the lowest point but if we do not take big measures our cricket will decline further,” batting legend Miandad said. Miandad, who last year resigned from the post of director general of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) praised Bangladesh. “Bangladesh is not the same Bangladesh they used to be and I think they can now upset any team because they are getting better and better with each day,” he said. “I did a little bit of coaching in Bangladesh and told them of some basics, like they were weak on short pitch deliveries, and praise to them that they adhered to the basics and now their game is improving day by day,” he added, referring to his 2002 coaching stint with the Tigers. Former Test stumper Wasim Bari deplored a lack of planning ahead of the series. “There is no strategy in the Pakistan team, no planning and that is why they were exposed,” Bari said. “Bangladesh have kept their World Cup momentum very well while we have gone down.” Bangladesh ousted higher-ranked England to finish as losing quarter-finalists in the World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand in February-March this year. Another former skipper Rashid Latif feared more such results in the future. “We have played around 90 players in the last five years and worse still we never allowed batsmen to settle on one position. “We had 19 different opening pairs and there were a lot of changes in the bowling pairs as well and that’s why our team is not settled,” he added.
