Mickey Arthur Clarifies The Major Difference Between England And Pakistan During The ODI Series
May 29, 2019 at 7:17 PM
After losing the recent five-match ODI series against the host side England by 4-0, Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur has opened up his disappointment about their fielding.
Pakistan began this English international tour with one-off T20I defeat against the host side. After the first ODI mostly suffered rain washout, Pakistan lost all other four ODIs of this series.
During this ODI series, Pakistan players hugely disappointed at their fielding. Mickey Arthur believes that it was a massive difference between the two sides in this series.
According to ESPNcricinfo, Arthur claimed after the end of this ODI series, “Our fielding has been very disappointing. That has been a massive difference between the two sides.
“At Southampton and Nottingham, it was anybody’s game going into the last five overs. We competed really well. The one difference has been our fielding and that’s a real worry for me.”
Our batting has gone to another level – Mickey Arthur
Talking about their positive side in this ODI series, Mickey Arthur pointed out Pakistan’s batting performances.
Pakistan batsmen mostly impressed in this ODI series as they put three consecutive 340+ totals on the scoreboard. Among the top three batsmen of this series, two were Pakistan batsmen. English opener Jason Roy (277 runs in three innings with an average of 92.33) and Pakistan star batsman Babar Azam (277 runs in five innings with an average of 55.40) both finished as the leading run-scorer of this series, but Roy played fewer matches. Meanwhile, the Pakistan opener Imam-ul-Haq finished as the third most run-scorer in this series as he scored 234 runs in four innings with an average of 117.00.
Also, another Pakistan opener Fakhar Zaman scored 200 runs in five innings (average 40.00).
Arthur spoke about their batting, “We sit here and take a hell lot of the positives out of this series. Our batting has gone to another level and we have batted extremely well. That’s given our dressing room a massive amount of confidence. When we were coming to England, people were saying we were a 280 team. I am taking a fair amount of positives certainly in that department out of this series.”
Our bowling and fielding has been average at best – Mickey Arthur
Though Arthur felt disappointed about Pakistan’s bowling and fielding in this ODI series, he believes that they have prepared well for the upcoming Cricket World Cup by playing against the no.1-ranked ODI team and that too on their home soil.
Arthur added, “Our bowling and fielding has been average at best. Another thing is that we played against a team which is number one in their own conditions. I don’t think there are too many other teams around in England as prepared as we are in terms of the competition we played against and match fitness, which is something very important.”
We need to sharpen up on a couple of disciplines – Mickey Arthur
Pakistan national cricket team is now focusing the 2019 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup. England and Wales will host this tournament from 30th May to 14th July.
Ahead of this Cricket World Cup tournament, Pakistan will play two warm-up matches against Afghanistan (24th May) and Bangladesh (26th May).
Pakistan has won only three ODIs (out of 18 ODIs) since the Asia Cup 2018. However, Arthur is very confident about this Pakistan side. He feels that they need to sharpen up on a couple of disciplines to get ready for the Cricket World Cup.
Arthur claimed, “We’ve got a couple of days now to regroup, two warm-up games and then we’ll go. I’m very, very confident with the players we’ve got. We need to sharpen up on a couple of disciplines but we’ll certainly get there. We’ll be good.”
Pakistan will begin their new Cricket World Cup journey on 31st May when they will face Windies at Nottingham.