Misbah’s witty take on Pak’s ‘tuk-tuk’ strike rate

Karachi, Sep 26 (IANS) The Pakistan cricket team has faced a lot of criticism over their defensive approach and inability to power-hit across formats. The cricketers have been accused of playing with a slow strike rate responsible for a lot of losses.

Ahead of the home series against Sri Lanka, newly appointed Pakistan head coach Misbah-ul-Haq was asked about the "tuk-tuk" problem -- the strike rate problem of Pakistani batsmen to which he had a witty response.

One of the reporters present during the presser on Wednesday asked Misbah, "There has been more of tuk tuk and less of hard hitting. There have been centuries scored of 235 balls. Even when you batted, there was a notion that you do more of tuk tuk and less hard hitting. As the new head coach and batting coach, do you have a plan to change this approach or will the team continue doing tuk tuk?"

To this, the newly appointed head coach replied: "In my opinion, there is a lot of stress on tuk tuk in your question."

"Looks like you didn't get a car today. Or maybe someone has asked you to try and irritate the coach," he added.

The 45-year-old further said Sri Lanka touring Pakistan was an encouraging sign. "The Sri Lankan team coming to Pakistan is an encouraging sign. Countries need to support every country, not just Pakistan, but any place where there is any such situation, because without this, the survival of cricket is difficult."

Misbah, who is also PCB's chief selector, insisted that he did not perform any magic to get the jobs at the Pakistan Cricket Board. "I didn't make any salary demands, I just asked them to pay me what they were paying the previous coach."

Sri Lanka are slated to play three ODIs in Karachi on September 27, 29 and October 3, and as many T20Is in Lahore on October 5, 7 and 9 during the tour, before returning in December for the Test series that will be a part of the World Test Championship.