MELBOURNE, Australia: Pakistan Captain Misbah-ul-Haq on Friday said that time had come to think about retirement since he wasn’t performing well, after Pakistan registered its 11th consecutive Test defeats against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
“I’ve always said thatif i can’t contribute as a player then i will retire and it’s something i have to think about before SCG or end of the series,” Misbah said while talking to media in Melbourne.
The 42-year-old Misbah said that it would make decision about his retirement in next two or three days, expressing huge disappointment over such a low performance of the team.
Misbah said that we had put a good score on the board but couldn’t bowl well while Australia was batting. “We should have played well”, he added.
Misbah-ul-Haq had been Pakistan’s most successful Test Captain and under his Captaincy, Pakistan recently grabbed top spot in ICC Test Rankings. Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had also asked him to lead the Side till 2018 but it seemed now that Misbah-ul-Haq might announce his retirement from Test Cricket even before the third Test against Australia at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), starting from January 03, 2017.
In two Tests Pakistan played so far against Australia during the current series at Brisbane Cricket Ground and MCG, Misbah’s scored remained 4, 5, 11, and 0.
Earlier on the final day of second Test match at the MCG, Australia bowled out Pakistan for just 163 runs in its second innings, winning the three-match series by an innings and 18 runs.
With the Boxing Day Test victory, Australia also upheld its record of never losing a Test match at the MCG against Pakistan since 1981. It was Australia’s 11th Test win over Pakistan on its own land.
In reply to Pakistan’s first innings score of 443, Australia scored 624 runs for 8 in its first innings before Captain Steven Smith announced declaration. However, Pakistan was bowled out on 163 runs in its second innings, losing to Australia quite easily even in a rain-affected Test.
In second innings, Australian Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon were the leading wicket takers with 4 and 3 wickets respectively whereas for Pakistan, Azhar Ali and Sarfaraz Ahmed scored 43 runs each.
