After losing to India by eight wickets, Pakistan return home without a win under their belt in the ICC Champions Trophy 2013. Reflecting on the team’s poor performance coach, Dav Whatmore said, “I don't think it is a true reflection of the team's strength. In this series it hasn't been good. But you don't always have good series.
“We thought we had a pretty decent build-up. Our preparation was okay. But unfortunately these things happen. There are some reasons for that, and I am sure that every effort will be given to put it right the next time.”
The Pakistan batting-line up, for third consecutive time in the tournament, failed to put up a competitive score on the board and were outplayed by the MS Dhoni-led side who have been in peak form. Asked about their batting woes, he said, “We're almost the same team that beat India in the Indian conditions. So it's not a bad team. One series doesn't make the team a bad team. You do have some bad games and unfortunately for us we strung three in a row,” Whatmore said.
“It is a trend in this series only. When we played in India it was a pretty decent trend the other way. We tried hard and weren't able to do well. We are one ODI victory from having a good series. I think it's easy to be critical on the surface of it. But from our point of view we're looking to be objective and to improve things.”
With their CT 2013 campaign coming to a disappointing end, the Pakistan coach said that they would be analysing their performances and working towards rectifying their mistakes as they move forward.
“Let's not be emotional about this. Games are won and games are lost and series are won and series are lost. I'd much rather be here talking to you, at least, after a win today, but that's not to be,” he said, adding the most disappointing match of the tournament was against the Proteas.
“If you look at the three games, the one that sticks in my mind is the first one. We had a good look at the pitch because we had a practice match, and we did well in South Africa. We knew what we need to do after winning the toss. We didn't do that and we were under pressure. We lost wickets in clumps. And despite that we really nearly pulled off a terrific win. But since that game we've been a bit naughty with the bat.”
