Abu Dhabi: Pakistan skipper Azhar Ali, after his side’s 3-0 series whitewash over West Indies with a convincing 136-run win in the third and final ODI at the Shaikh Zayed Stadium on Wednesday, asserted that victory was “very important” in their ambition of making it to the 2019 World Cup directly.
“It was an important series and it’s just the start of more challenges. We have to keep this improvement with one year to go for the (World Cup 2019) deadline. But to do well and to get there to the World Cup, we have to play well and win more matches and series. We have to keep moving forward,” said Ali, who also scored a brilliant century to prove his critics wrong.
There were calls for his ouster after Pakistan had lost the series against England 4-1 but that would have been put to rest with this knock. Ali felt that the major difference between the team that performed in England and here was that they “executed” the plans better.
“England team was a good ODI side and we had three tough games against them which was neck-to-neck. Their batting has a lot of depth and we unfortunately couldn’t post a big score despite getting starts. Had we finished on scores above 300, we could have challenged them,” said Ali, adding that restricting the England batting to scores under 300 was a tough ask on that tour.
“The major difference here was that our bowlers really improved. Their execution was perfect and that was the major difference. We now have to look consistently to score 300 plus and for that we have to improve on our finishing,” said Ali, who was pleased with the performance of the youngsters for rising up to the challenge and grabbing the opportunity with both hands.
“We have good players who have gelled well. We have to try and improve on our combination. Young players’ confidence has also risen and they have the hunger to perform and that’s a huge thing to move forward,” said Ali, who also hailed the way Babar Azam batted for his three successive hundreds — 120, 123 and 117 in three matches to become only the third Pakistani and eighth batsman in ODIs to hit three successive hundreds.
“Babar stood out in this series and to score consistently with back-to-back hundreds shows that he has that hunger. He has given a world class performance. He just kept working hard and never gave up. It takes a lot of effort to score three centuries in a row but he showed he can,” said Ali, who also was all praise for head South African coach Mickey Arthur.
“Mickey has an important role. It’s a full team and the credit also goes to the selection committee, fielding coach Steve Rixon, physio Grant Luden and batting coach Grant Flower who have really worked hard with us. They have all contributed a lot, so it’s full teamwork well-led by Mickey Arthur,” said Ali whose team will be taking on the mighty Australians in the next ODI series early next year. “We can challenge Australia as well because we have new players who have a lot of potential. In New Zealand conditions we played two good matches that was neck-to-neck. It shows we can perform in those conditions. We will have to keep executing the plans and the signs are good.”
Azam, speaking about his phenomenal run of form said,: “I had confidence in my abilities that I’ll deliver and break records. The plan was to bat till the end. Shoaib Malik told me hundreds don’t come everyday, so that gave me the motivation to bat till the end and get to three figures. I want to continue finishing games and bat long for the team. I don’t have any problem in playing in any position. Whatever the team demands I will be ready to do that.”
