Pakistan lost first T20I due to poor planning: Tauseef

KARACHI: Former Test and ODI cricketer Tauseef Ahmed has said that Pakistan lost the first T20 match against South Africa by 11 runs due to multiple reasons including poor planning and captaincy.

On Wednesday, while talking to The News, he expressed surprise over changing the batting position of Saim Ayub to accommodate Baber Azam. “It seems that some players are trying to adjust in this format T20 due to income-generating importance of T20 cricket globally despite the fact that they do not fit in the squad,” Tauseef said.

He said that Pakistan team management has failed to understand the demand and requirements of T20 cricket. “That’s why they did not resolve the issue of strike rate of batters,” he added.

Tauseef said that South Africa were playing with a number of new faces and still Pakistan lost. “When Rizwan Ahmed came as an opener and batted for a long period he should himself have batted fast and scored rapidly instead of asking the new batters to hit big,” he said.

“Rizwan who faced the first ball in Pakistan’s innings was there in the final over as his team went down fighting. In the first half of his innings he managed just 36 off 44 deliveries. It caused the defeat even if he did finish with 74 off 62,” Tauseef said.

He said that Pakistan team management needed to understand the requirements of T20 cricket. “Pakistan need such openers who could score 60 plus runs during the power play. Pakistan needed such batters in middle order who do not play dot balls,” he said.