KARACHI, July 5 The triumphant Pakistan national hockey team returned to Lahore on Sunday after winning the three-Test England series 2-0.

Speaking to Dawn on Sunday soon after reaching his home city Karachi, Chief Coach Shahid Ali Khan said that he was glad that Pakistan was able to beat England on their soil and that too despite poor umpiring.

“This series will be seen as the turning point for Pakistan hockey. It saw us succeeding in our mission of overcoming England, something we had been struggling to do for a very long time now. It also sent a message to other European giants like Germany and Holland that our Asia Cup silver medal was no fluke and Pakistan hockey is now really back on track. We are not to be taken lightly anymore,” said the delighted former Olympian goalkeeper who took over as the national team's coach in February.

Pakistan won two of the three Tests against England. They won the first match 2-1 and the second 3-2, while drawing the third 1-1.

“Another positive point about our winning was that we managed to do it despite poor umpiring. There were too many yellow card decisions which we weren't happy about. And not just us, even the surprised spectators criticised the umpires. But then it also showed the players what to expect and how to keep a cool head in difficult situations. We normally take one Pakistani umpire along with us on our tours but we decided to brave the English umpiring this time around,” he said.

Speaking about his team's performance on the tour, the coach said that he was most satisfied.

“Playing without senior players like Sohail Abbas, Rehan Butt, Shakeel Abbasi and Saqlain, we only had Zeeshan Ashraf, Waseem Ahmed, M. Imran and Salman Akbar lending us the experience and the senior-junior combination clicked perfectly.

“We played with as many as 10 junior players and all of them delivered beyond expectations. Haseem Khan, Mohammad Zubair, Shafqat Rasool, Abbas Haider and Waqas Shareef, our forward line, were all junior players who were used in trying out different attacking strategies and game plans, all of which worked out very well for us. We were also able to emphasise our defence. Young Mohammad Rashid too showed his potential in that department. Sajjad Anwar and Fareed Ahmed too proved their mettle in the middle and I can foresee that with the younger ones doing so well, competition to make the team will now become very tough,” he added.

When asked if the junior players were in any danger of experiencing burnout after playing continuously for the junior as well as senior teams in tournaments such as the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, Asia Cup, the Junior World Cup and now the European tour as well, the coach said “No, not really as they have three week's rest now. Besides, it has done a lot for their morale. The confidence they gained in England will stay with them for a long time to come. They really needed this series after the Junior World Cup result.”

When inquired about the future of Pakistan's reserve goalkeeper Nasir Ahmad, Shahid said “Well, he was tried in the warm-up match and also in the third match which we drew 1-1. We intend keeping him with us as the reserve goalie till the World Cup qualifiers and the World Cup, too, at least if no other goalkeeper comes up from the junior side during this time. Salman Akbar is playing very well right now so he is our main goalkeeper. Earlier, when he was not in peak form, we had him as the reserve with Nasir taking the lead role. It has always been this way.”

Responding to another former Olympian 'Flying Horse' Samiullah's recent comment about his seeing this series win as no major accomplishment for Pakistan as the England side were experimenting with many junior players, the coach said “Samiullah is entitled to his own opinion, of course, but the fact remains that the English side was playing in full strength as they were also training for their forthcoming European Cup. That's why our taking the series turned out to be a major shock for them. Besides, as mentioned earlier, we too were playing with many of our junior players.”

When asked about team's future assignments, Shahid said “We are talking to Germany and Holland for possibilities of having us over to play brief series before the European Cup in August. Let's see what happens.”

About the World Cup qualifiers that Pakistan will have to play now in order to feature in next year's World Cup, the coach said that the situation would become clear after the European Cup as to which team they are to face.

“Let's see how well England fare there. If England fail to qualify in the European Cup, we will have either them or Belgium in our pool for the qualifiers. That is also why beating England on their soil was so important for us,” he concluded.