Imad Wasim denies grouping in team, PM’s phone call

RAWALPINDI (92 News) – Imad Wasim has rejected the impression of grouping in the team and a phone call from Prime Minister Imran Khan. Addressing a press conference with Shadab Khan on Monday, he said that had there been grouping in the team he would have not been playing the game. “Sarfaraz’s decision to resign will be personal. We staged a good comeback after losing the match against India. No team wants to return with pleasure. There is no player like Sarfaraz. All players are disappointed over the defeat,” he maintained. Imad Wasim said that the performance of the spinners had been good. Shadab Khan said that overall performance had been better. “We want to come up to expectations after receiving the orders,” he maintained. He was of the view that they admit the fact that performance was not good some matches. “We are pleased whenever the team wins. We would have been much pleased had we won the World Cup,” he said. Earlier, Pakistan lived up to their billing as international cricket’s most unpredictable side during their World Cup campaign, narrowly missing out on a semi-final spot and leaving coach Mickey Arthur to ponder what might have been. “It’s been a World Cup of ifs and buts, a tournament of two halves and that’s disappointing,” Arthur told reporters. “We’ve ended very strongly and it’s nice to know we’ve beaten two of those semi-finalists, which shows we are not a mile off in terms of ourselves as a cricket team. “When you lose the first game the way we did against the West Indies, it’s really hard to get your net run rate back and that has ultimately cost us,” added the South African. “I think the nerves got the better of us that day, something that won’t happen again in four years with this team. We froze but I was so proud of how we bounced back and how much we’ve learned.” The 1992 champions went into their World Cup opener against West Indies on the back of 10 straight losses and were bundled out for 105 inside 22 overs en route to a humiliating seven-wicket drubbing. The Jekyll and Hyde specialists backed that up in typical style in their second match, though, by spectacularly turning the table on hosts and pre-tournament favourites England with a 14-run victory. Four more wins followed but the magnitude of that opening loss ultimately proved their undoing when the final calculations were made. Sarfaraz Ahmed’s men were tied with New Zealand on 11 points from nine matches but their inferior net run rate meant the Black Caps went through and Pakistan headed home. Pakistan also went down tamely to arch-rivals India in Manchester and lost a match against Sri Lanka to the rain but finished the tournament on a high with wins over South Africa, New Zealand, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.