'Pakistan need to cover a lot of ground'

Pakistan, who were whitewashed in Australia, need to cover a lot of ground in order to have any impact on the tour of India, according to Javed Miandad.

Poor strategy was responsible for the drubbing at the hands of Australia and a low-on-confidence Pakistan team would now have to cover a lot of ground in order to have any impact on the tour of India, according to former Pakistan skipper and coach Javed Miandad.

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"There have been some good individual performances here and there on the Australian tour but overall, it has been a disappointing tour. The confidence of the boys must be down after losing the Test and one-day series," Miandad said on Monday.

Pakistan, who were whitewashed in the three-Test series before finishing as losing finalists to Australia in the tri-series that concluded on Sunday, are to leave for India on February 25 to play a three-Test and five-match One-Day International series.

"It is up to the boys to lift their confidence level and motivate themselves for the tour ahead. It is going to be tough because if victory can take your confidence sky high, it touches its lowest ebb in case of defeat, particularly when the margins of defeat are so big.

"But that is what international cricket is all about. You win some, you lose some and move on," said Miandad, who was the coach of the Wasim Akram-led team on their last tour to India in 1999.

"The basic problem with the Pakistan team is that it has been so badly and regularly shuffled that when the selectors will sit down to finalise the squad for the Indian tour, even they would not know which player to select for which position."

The former captain said instead of shuffling players now and then, the team should have persisted with specialists.