AUS vs PAK | Pakistan's plans against David Warner failed, admits Azhar Ali

Australia is never an easy place for a young Test side to perform, let alone for a newbie skipper to score a victory. Following Pakistan’s whitewash loss, skipper Azhar Ali admitted that the side's plans against the Australian batsmen did not work, which made them play catch up for the entirety of the Test Series. 

"It is very disappointing how we lost the two Tests. The defeats in Australia have hurt our cricket pride and it is hard to accept," Azhar was quoted as saying by Times of India.

Further, Azhar admitted the side had prepared well for the series and had made all the right plans to make history in Australia, but pointed out that the team eventually failed to execute the plans correctly. 

"We had gone there with all the right preparations and with a positive mindset. So the two innings defeat is not acceptable and I will offer no excuses for this,” added Azhar. 

One of the biggest plans that did not come off for the away side was their bowling to the out-of-form David Warner. Azhar commented that they had made a perfect plan to thwart Warner’s influence, similarly to what England did in the Ashes series, but failing to execute the plans meant that Warner instead went on to score a triple century against a weak Pakistani attack. He also admitted that playing catch-up in Australia was not easy.

"We didn't get wickets with the new ball, we didn't forge big partnerships, we didn't build on good starts and our plans against David Warner also didn't work as he countered them well. He (Warner) had a very bad Ashes series and our bowlers needed to capitalize on that and they didn't,” concluded Azhar.