Pakistan captain Azhar Ali under pressure in fourth ODI v England
Thursday 19 November 2015 11:14, UK
Pakistan captain Azhar Ali admits he may be sacked if his team loses the fourth and final ODI with England in Dubai on Friday.
Pakistan won the first one-dayer by six wickets but lost the next two and are left facing a final chance to avoid a series defeat.
Azhar has had something of a rollercoaster ride as captain since taking over from Misbah-ul-Haq following the 2015 World Cup in March.
He began with an embarrassing 3-0 defeat to Bangladesh, but then led Pakistan to back-to-back victories over Zimbabwe, home and away, and then another over Sri Lanka.
But he admits he will not be surprised if he is axed if they lose 3-1 to England.
"It's a must-win game for us but it won't be easy because England played well in the last two games and won," said Ali of England's 95-run and six-wicket wins.
"But we all realise the importance of this game so we will do our hardest work to win and I am confident that if we play to our ability then we can definitely win this game.
"I don't have control on the future, so I think the best thing is to focus on what you have in your hands. I don't have any fear of losing anything, I do the job honestly and no one in the team management has that fear, so they will accept whatever the outcome is."
Ali said the team was hurt after the defeat in the third game, bowled out for a disappointing 208 which England chased down with the loss of just four wickets.
"All of us were hurt," he said. "We were in a position to score big and on that kind of pitch it wasn't easy to chase so at that time 208 looked good and had we taken one or two wickets then the match could have been in our favour.
"All the batsmen, like the whole nation are hurt, so the message to the batsmen is that we should score the maximum runs," said Ali, expressing his hope that leg-spinner Yasir Shah would be fit again after missing the last game with a knee injury.
"We will assess his progress and hopefully he is ready."
You can watch the crucial 4th ODI on Sky Sports 2 HD from 10.30am,
