LAHORE: Batting legend Javed Miandad reckons the Pakistan team is under pressure ahead of their Test series against Australia but has given his backing to Misbah-ul-Haq saying the captain has “loads of experience and knows what he has to do”.

Pakistan face Australia in the first of two Tests from Wednesday on the back of a disappointing run of results.

Having lost to Sri Lanka in both the Test and One-day International series in August, Pakistan lost their lone Twenty20 and the One-day International series 3-0 to the Aussies ahead of the Test series in the UAE.

“The Pakistan team is an unpredictable one but they are currently under immense pressure due to a run of defeats and it will be a challenge for each and every member of the team to come out of their lean patch and perform,” Miandad told Dawn on Monday.

“Test cricket is tougher than ODIs and the team needs to play with a serious approach.”

Test series against Australia

The team’s poor performances have led to pressure building on Misbah as well. The Pakistan captain did not feature in the final ODI against Australia, with Shahid Afridi leading the team, causing massive speculation over the team’s captaincy for next year’s World Cup.

“I don’t understand what the [nine-member] team management is doing there [in the UAE],” Miandad, a World Cup winner in 1992, said.

“Such controversy shouldn’t be raised when the World Cup is just a few months away,” added the former Pakistan captain and head-coach.

“Misbah is going through a bad patch but that too after performing consistently for a very long period. If anyone thinks that Misbah shouldn’t be leading the side, then he must have full confidence in the abilities of his alternate.

“Misbah has loads of experience as a captain and what he needs is just support from everyone.”

Miandad also questioned the need for a nine-member team management, saying it isn’t productive as it is against the basics of Pakistan cricket.

“Instead of doing what has worked over the years, Pakistan is trying to follow the basics of foreign teams who have a totally different domestic structure to what we have,” he underlined.

“There, the domestic structure is quite organised while here cricketers come from the streets and need better coaching at the grass roots level.

“No coach can remove the basic flaws of a cricketer at international level as the coach has to work on tactics and strategy for the match.”

Commenting on the 16-member team which has been announced for the Test series, Miandad said although he wasn’t against the induction of youngsters, he wouldn’t want to see a youngster’s career “spoiled by picking him up after a few good performances”.

“This is a high pressure series and if a youngster flops, his future will be destroyed,” he feared.

“We have a good number of examples in this regard. A case in point is Shan Masood. How many matches has he played in since being selected?” questioned Miandad.

“In my opinion, if you have seniors then they should be preferred over youngsters who will be picked for just a couple of good performances.

“I fail to understand the need to pick youngsters when senior pacemen like Mohammad Irfan and Umar Gul are available and we have experienced batsmen like Imran Farhat and Faisal Iqbal who have performed in the past.

“However, I welcome the inclusion of Taufiq Umar [who has been recalled after two years].”

Miandad said the onus is on the batsmen to perform well in order to give the inexperienced bowling attack some runs to bowl at.

“In the absence of [off-spinner] Saeed Ajmal, the bowling strength has been reduced to half and there will be pressure on the young bowlers,” he said. “That pressure, though, can be reduced if our batsmen give an outstanding performance.”

Published in Dawn, October 21st , 2014