Disappointed Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq saidTuesday his team faces an alarming situation after losing both its test andone-day series to South Africa.
Misbah was booed by a handful of cricket fans as the teamarrived in the eastern city of Lahore early from South Africa on Tuesdaymorning.
"The series was disappointing," a tired-lookingMisbah told reporters at the airport. "In one-dayers the performance was abit better, but in the test series we couldn't do anything. It's a veryalarming situation for us and we need improvement in lots of things."
Pakistan won just three of nine matches in South Africa,including a 3-0 test whitewash and a 3-2 ODI series loss. Pakistan's only otherwin came in the Twenty20 match when it was led by Mohammad Hafeez.
Fast bowlers Dale Steyn (20) and Vernon Philander (15)combined for 35 wickets in three test matches and bulldozed Pakistan's battinglineup at Johannesburg, Cape Town and Centurion.
Only Younis Khan and Asad Shafiq scored centuries at CapeTown, but even their double century stand could not prevent a four-wicketdefeat.
"If we look at our batting, we struggled throughout theseries whether its test matches or one-dayers," Misbah said.
Pakistan tried to redeem itself in the one-day series, butits batting let the team down in the decisive ODI at Benoni last Sunday whenthe team was dismissed for 205.
"We were 40-50 runs short on a wicket where I thinkbatsman like (Hashim) Amla also struggled, but yes ... we played someirresponsible strokes too," Misbah said.
During the ODI series, local media reported of differencesbetween T20 captain Hafeez and Misbah, and alleged the rift hampered Pakistan'sperformance.
Misbah said there was no truth in the reports.
"It's rubbish news, there was nothing like it and itwas not the reason that the team performed badly," he said. "Weshould accept that they were the better team, played better than us and wecouldn't perform as we would have liked to."
Critics have raised questions over the inclusion of agingplayers in the 50-over team with of Pakistan's ODI XI aged over 30 years ofage.
Former captains Rashid Latif, Moin Khan and Waqar Younishave urged the cricket board to think about the future of players like YounisKhan, Misbah, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal and Imran Farhat.
Misbah agreed that it's the job of the selectors and thePakistan Cricket Board to decide when the team will be picked for June'sChampions Trophy in England, where it faces the West Indies, South Africa andIndia in its group.
"Everyone has seen who has performed," Misbahsaid. "To gauge a player's performance there is a cricket board andselection committee, and I think they will look into it in the future. As aplayer we can't gauge the performances of players."
Flamboyant allrounder Afridi could be in the firing lineafter he showed his best just once in the third ODI when he scored his firsthalf century in 13 months. But his 88-run knock off 48 balls could not savePakistan from a 34-run defeat in a high-scoring game at Johannesburg.
Chief selector Iqbal Qasim said prior to the ODI series thatit was Afridi's last chance to perform in international matches and he wasselected purely as a bowler. However, Afridi remained wicketless, conceding 210runs in the 37 overs he bowled in five matches.