Pakistan bats first against adamant England
Coach and captain working things out to avoid ignominious defeat
© AFP
Pakistan coach Mohsin Khan stated his squad will need to elevate their benchmarks in all 3 departments to cease England from achieving a clean sweep of the one-day series in the fourth match here on Tuesday.
Pakistan have been on the loosing end in the one-day series after blanking England 3-0 in the former Test series, with Khan forcing his team required progress.
"We have not played well as we did in the Tests. I will not take any credit away from England but we have to look at ourselves and we need to raise our standards in all three departments to avoid defeat," Khan said on Monday.
Paceman Steven Finn has taken 11 wickets in three matches to eliminate Pakistan's batting.
England have whitewashed Pakistan in a 3-0 series once, on their 1987 tour.
Khan criticized fielding as the major distinction between the two teams.
"We give away 20-30 runs in every match while England save 20-30 with their fielding, so it comes to a 40-run difference. Our batsmen have not been able to capitalise on the good starts while England's batsmen did that," said Khan.
Asked if he was unhappy at the possibility of being substituted by former Australian batsman Dav Whatmore next month, Khan said: "There is nothing to be disappointed. I will be there to help Pakistan cricket in any capacity."
Employed on an temporary basis after Waqar Younis leave in September last year, Khan led the team to series wins against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh (Tests and one-day) and England (Tests).
"I don't need any coaching qualification or need to do courses because I helped the team with my experience, so I have no disappointments," said Khan, who is about to gain back his post as chairman of the selection committee.
Eoin Morgan, at the same time, accepted England have a good chance to clean sweep Pakistan.
"There's certainly an opportunity to do that. We do want to win 4-0 and if the opportunity arises, we could give players (reserves) a bit of experience, but the priority is to win the game," said Morgan.
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