Malik defends his captaincy

LAHORE: Putting the onus on the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to decide his future, skipper Shoaib Malik lambasted those who have been critical of his captaincy after Pakistan suffered its worst defeat in India losing the three-match Test series (1-0) after 28 years.
  
''My job is to display my abilities on the ground as captain and I don't want to say anything about the criticism over my captaincy from certain quarters. As it is, only the PCB, who has the authority to retain or discard a skipper,'' he said.
  
According to Malik, the overall performance of the Pakistan side was disappointing, but the silver lining was provided by some outstanding individual performances which bode well for the future.
  
Defending the showing in the first Test at Delhi, Malik stated that the team could not play well in just one session which ultimately cost them the match and the series.
  
''But after that I thought we played competitive cricket in the last two Tests,'' he was quoted as saying by 'The Dawn'.
  
''Scoring over 500 runs against India on their turf, under extremely tense situations is not an easy job but we achieved it during the tough tour and held on to a draw,'' Malik said while referring to the last Test in Bangalore.
  
The 25 year-old batsman from Sialkot also denied that the team was low on fitness stating that certain players were sufering from a viral infection.  
  
The Pakistan team arrived here on Thursday evening after their disastrous tour of India.