Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed has taken the blame after Pakistan failed to qualify in the final of the tournament. Pakistan cricket team was one of the top favourites in the ongoing Asia Cup 2018 in UAE, but hugely disappointed with their poor performances.

Except for the Hong Kong game, Pakistan never performed convincingly in this tournament. While Shoaib Malik saved them against Afghanistan as they clinched a very close victory against them, India thrashed Pakistan twice (first in the group stage and then in the Super Four) and Bangladesh beat them by 37 runs in the final Super Four stage game on Wednesday, which was the virtual semi-final of this tournament.

While most of the Pakistan cricketers hugely underperformed in this tournament, Pakistan skipper and the wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfraz Ahmed scored only 68 runs in this tournament with the average of just 17.

Talking about the poor performances in this tournament, Sarfraz said, “We are obviously not feeling good. As a team, we have not done well. Our performance has been very poor. As a player, I have done really badly too. I should have done better. We were poor in every facet of the game.”

Sarfraz believes their disappointed batting performances were the main reason to fail in this tournament.

Pakistan captain said, “There were lot of batting collapses for us in the tournament. Fakhar is our main batsman, he failed to perform in this tournament and Shadab was hit by injury too. We have to play well to beat good teams. Our batting was the main reason for our defeat in this tournament.”

Sarfraz also praised the 18-year-old left-arm pacer Shaheen Afridi, who made his ODI debut in this tournament and picked up four wickets in three matches.

Sarfraz said, “Shaheen Afridi is a talented youngster, we have given him opportunities to showcase his talent and he has done well too.”