‘Strategy to replace goalkeeper failed’

KARACHI: Former Olympian Qamar Zia on Sunday said that the decision of head coach Roelant Oltmans to replace goalkeeper Imran Butt with an outfield player in their Champions Trophy opener against India was a brave one but accepted that it backfired badly.

Pakistan suffered a 4-0 defeat at the hands of arch-rivals India on Saturday. The last two goals came after goalkeeper Imran was replaced with an outfield player.

“The coach wanted to go all-out in the last five minutes and replaced the goalkeeper to conduct aggressive attack but unfortunately that strategy failed,” he said.

The former goalkeeper said that Pakistan are improving gradually and hoped that the greenshirts will come out stronger in their upcoming matches.

“The team showed a much improved performance against top-ranked Australia. However, Pakistan could not maintain the lead due to their lack of experience,” he added.