Misbah aims high after series win against South Africa

Pakistan head coach Misbah-ul-Haq has his eye on a top-three world ranking for the national side in all formats of the game following their first Test series win over South Africa since 2003.

Pakistan earned a hard-fought 95-run victory in the second Test in Rawalpindi on Monday to claim the two-match series 2-0.

Misbah -- whose position as head coach was in danger after a 2-0 defeat in the preceding series in New Zealand -- said his team were now heading in the right direction.

“The ultimate goal is to be number one in Tests and top three in other formats,” Misbah told reporters on a video call on Tuesday.

“We have been telling the players about this target all through.”

It was under Misbah’s captaincy in 2016 that Pakistan were ranked the number one Test team for the only time. They topped the Twenty20 rankings in 2018, a year after his retirement. Misbah also praised all-format captain Babar Azam, now regarded as one of the world’s best batsmen.

“We are heading in the right direction and this win over South Africa has boosted the team’s confidence under a new skipper who is developing with every game,” said Misbah.

Pakistan next plays three Twenty20 internationals against South Africa in Lahore on Feb.11, 13 and 14.

After that they will tour South Africa for a limited-overs series in April, followed by a short Test and Twenty20 series in Zimbabwe.

They are also scheduled to play the West Indies in an away series and host Australia, England and New Zealand in the next two years.

COVID hit me quite hard: Meanwhile, South Africa captain Heinrich Klaasen says he underestimated the effect of being infected by the coronavirus.

“COVID hit me quite hard,” Klaasen said in an online news conference in Lahore on Tuesday, on the eve of a three-match Twenty20 series against Pakistan.

He’d played two T20s against England in late November, then was withdrawn from the third and last match on Dec.1 in Cape Town and isolated.

Three weeks ago, Klaasen warned fans on social media that COVID-19 was the real deal and he didn’t think it would be “this hard to come back.”

“It’s been a different season for me, I’ve played four games so far which has been very frustrating,” he said. “It’s been a tough two months since I tested positive on Dec.3.

“I’ve been working hard. It’s difficult to tell you how is my form, we will probably see after these three games, but I’m hitting the ball very nicely.”

Klaasen was handed the captaincy for the T20s in place of regular skipper Quinton de Kock, who returned home after losing the test series to Pakistan 2-0 on Monday.

Other T20 regulars in the test team who also flew home included Faf du Plessis, Rassie van der Dussen, Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi.

They had to return home for a test series against Australia, but only last week was that series postponed and by that time a second-string South Africa T20 squad was en route to Pakistan.

Among the Proteas, only David Miller has experience of playing in Pakistan after appearing in the Pakistan Super League.

Agence France-Presse