ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Test Skipper Misbah-ul-Haq believes series against New Zealand and Australia will be achallenge for some players to prove their mettle.
Pakistan will play two tests against New Zealand with the first beginning on November 17 at Christchurch. Misbah made his test debut against New Zealand at Auckland’s Eden Park in 2001 and will be expected to bring up his 50th match as test captain in the second test of the current series in Hamilton in what would be his 67thtest appearance.
Misbah said the team is performing well, the players are developing and performing to keep this team at the top.
“So far, the experience and confidence in the team is good and we’re looking forward to these two challenges, playing New Zealand and Australia,” Pakpassion.net quoted him as saying.
He said this will be another challenge for some of the players to prove themselves. “After players do well in these series then they can be confident in themselves and say now we are complete players and we can perform anywhere in the world,” he said adding this is something which every top player has to go through.
He said it is always challenging when you are not playing in the conditions that you are used to. “But I think overall this team has got enough experience at the moment to perform well in these conditions,” he said.
Misbah still had full confidence in bowlers to return the favour and sounded a stern warning to New Zealand’s batsmen.
“Overall I am happy with the performance of the spinners, especially leg spinner Yasir Shah who has been performing very well in all sorts of conditions.
“Our seamers have performed really well in England and I think in New Zealand conditions, they could even be better. It is another challenge to prove themselves and they could be the match-winners.”
Misbah said he is satisfied with the team’s bowling attack. “If they (bowlers) can just bowl to their channels and lines then they could really make a massive difference,” he said.
