Pakistan cricket team captain Misbah-ul Haq has branded his side's 2-0 series victory over Australia as his country's 'best ever' considering that his squad was missing three important bowlers.
Ace spinner Saeed Ajmal and frontline pacemen Junaid Khan and Wahab Riaz were all missing as Pakistan inflicted a 356-run defeat on Australia, their biggest win in Test cricket, in Abu Dhabi.
It was Pakistan's first series win over Australia in 20 years, and it prompted Misbah to rate the win as the 'best ever', slightly ahead of Pakistan's 3-0 rout of then world number one England, also in United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2012, The Dawn reported.
Misbah said that it's really tough to rank both series, but added that considering the fact that Pakistan had far better bowling combination for England and this time despite having an inexperienced bowling line up nobody could have thought his side could turn around and beat Australia.
Ajmal was suspended due to an illegal bowling action while Riaz and Junaid were injured.
The win also put Misbah equal with Pakistan's most successful Test captains, Imran Khan and Javed Miandad, with 14 wins. He credited the turnaround, after losing the preceding one-day series against Australia 3-0, to team effort.
More From This Section
The skipper, declared man-of-the-match for his splendid 56-ball ton, said that he thinks they got the belief to win that's why they delivered and everyone performed. He added that the way Pakistan played as a batting unit one could say there was belief and this could be the reason they performed the way they did.
Misbah also said that it had looked a difficult proposition without their frontline bowlers. He said that it obviously looked difficult without Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Riaz and Junaid but everybody performed well and it was remarkable.