Pakistan Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq has come down heavily on former Australian skipper Ian Chappell for advising Cricket Australia to think twice before inviting Pakistan to tour Down Under again, saying the Aussies also don't perform well in the sub-continent or even in UAE.
"It is a very irresponsible and useless statement from him. Does it mean that Australia who have been whitewashed by a young team in Sri Lanka, in India and even in the UAE by Pakistan should not be invited to tour Asian countries," Misbah, who returned home from Australia, said.
"I think he should first give some advice to his captain Steve Smith on how to avoid whitewashes in Asia and then worry about us. Every team faces problems outside their country," he added.
Misbah, who has led Pakistan in Tests since late 2010, also felt that some of the criticisms were not justified.
"One should not forget this team has been doing well for the last six years and every team has to lose or go through a bad patch sometime. It has happened to us, we have struggled in New Zealand and Australia. But it does not mean we don't have a good team or we have not performed well in the last few years," he said.
"I think there are those critics who are genuinely disappointed at our defeats in Australia and with my form. They care about our performances. But there are also some critics who were just not happy with our becoming the number one Test side and are now venting heir anger on the team."
Misbah also he would think hard before taking a decision on his retirement.
"I have two months to take a decision on my retirement. I had reacted emotionally because of the disappointment of losing the Melbourne Test but after a while I thought about it and also played the third Test in Sydney. One thing is for sure I want to go out gracefully and with good memories," he told the urdu website of BBC.
The skipper said he himself was very disappointed with Pakistan losing to Australia and about his own form.
"I felt helpless as I have always believed that a good leader always sets the trend for his players. I couldn't do that in Australia despite my best efforts and that really saddened me a lot.
"I think every player goes through a phase of bad form when nothing goes right for him and this has a bearing on his shot selection which leads to his downfall. But one has to fight through it and live with it. I am very disappointed at losing the Test series in Australia and not performing as I had very high hopes from myself and the team," Misbah said.
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