My Specific Mandate To Blend Pak Team In An Attacking Mode: Misbah

The newly appointed Pakistan head coach and chief selector, former Pakistan cricket captain Misbah-ul-Haq said on Wednesday his specific mandate is to blend Pakistan team in an attacking combination capable of demonstrating aggressive play to attain success

LAHORE, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Sep, 2019 ) :The newly appointed Pakistan head coach and chief selector, former Pakistan cricket captain Misbah-ul-Haq said on Wednesday his specific mandate is to blend Pakistan team in an attacking combination capable of demonstrating aggressive play to attain success. "I want to mould the Pak team to demonstrate aggressive and attacking cricket to win," he told the reporters at his maiden press conference after his appointment in double role of Pak team Head Coach as well as the Chief Selector here at the Gadaffi stadium.

He said he would lay special emphasis to help the team to exhibit attacking game according to the need of the match and face the opponents with a needed mind set to get desired results.

To a question, the former most successful test captain of Pak cricket history said Pakistan Cricket board has assigned him a big and huge responsibility by appointing him as Head Coach and the Chief Selector and he would utilize his experience and expertise to live up to the expectations.

He expressed his delight that people related with the administrative control of cricket in Pakistan have faith in him and vowed to fulfill his new responsibilities with sheer commitment and responsibility. " My target is to go all out to deliver on both the fronts with utmost responsibility and honesty," he said, adding that whatever he has achieved today and whatever he is today, it is because of his country (Pakistan) and he is very grateful for that.

When asked would he be under pressure while dealing with two duties as head coach and chief selector, Misbah said nothing is easy in this world, as I have played cricket and brought good name for my country, I will serve the new assignments with the same spirit and undying professional approach. "Besides I want to bring necessary professionalism in the team in its every department from top to bottom to make it a winning combination while playing against top notch of cricket," said the former test batsman.

To a question, he clarified that aggressive cricket and attacking game does not mean that Pak team should always remain in the same mode, it must have the ability to adjust according to situation to adopt a game plan which is suitable as a coach he would endeavour that team must play quality cricket to win.

"There should be variety in the performance of the team to exhibit good cricket in different situations and to play attacking and aggressive cricket and to decide in certain situations the type of cricket team needs to play," he maintained.

He agreed to a questioner that the captain of the team should have a say in the selection of final playing XI. "I think the team captain has an important role and his opinion and recommendations regarding team selection should be given due important ", he said.

Misbah said he is not afraid of criticism as he has experienced it in the past as a captain and he always welcome the positive criticism with aim to make teams performance better. "I know all about criticism and I know how to deal with it and it is important to listen to the positive points and to make improvement and I also know how to handle the irrelevant points (criticism), he underlined.

Misbah termed the newly appointed bowling coach Waqar Younis "a better choice and option" because of his standing in the game saying he does not see any problem in working with him and he has already worked with him in the Pakistan Super League. "Waqar does not interfere in my domain nor I do in his part of job ", he added.

He said he would utilize his past experience to make teams performance better in test cricket and advocated his point of view that if the team performs better in test cricket, it will also perform to a required level in other formats of the game.