Inexperience cost us the series: Rizwan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan white-ball captain Mohammad Rizwan blamed lack of proper exposure for youngsters at the Australian wickets as the main reason for suffering a clean sweep against the host nation.

In a post series talk, Rizwan said he was not surprised at the results considering the fact that they were playing with a new-look team having no or little experience and exposure of playing at fast bouncy surfaces. “We are carrying fresh faces in Jahandad, Sufyan, Irfan, Usman and a few others. They lack proper experience of playing at bouncy tracks hence are not in a position to make the best use of their talent.

I am hopeful that with time they will get a chance to improve their capacity of playing on such surfaces.” Rizwan said that the team missed Mohammad Iftikhar, Shahdab Khan and Fakhar Zaman. “They provided the backbone of the batting. But now we have unsettled batting that requires time to get accustomed to such conditions.”

Rizwan said youngsters were inducted in an effort to give them international exposure. “But it will take time. There is no quick fix.” He praised Babar for playing a good knock Monday, a marked improvement.

When asked about the disappointing results in the T20 series following creditable performance in the ODIs, Rizwan said that was more because of the nature of wickets. “I am disappointed but there are solid reasons for that.”

He praised bowlers, especially Haris Rauf, for showing tremendous courage. “He knows how to bowl at these wickets. He was brilliant in ODIs and also bowled well in T20. He also shows other bowlers how to bowl in Australia. It was batting that required consistency.

From 60 for 1 in six overs we slumped to 118. The total was never threatening as it turned out to be.” He backed Jason Gillespie as a coach. “He is still the red-ball coach. But such decisions are in the hands of the think-tank. I have no say in such matters.”