Follow UsOn Saturday (November 11th), Pakistan, for the third consecutive 50-over World Cup, failed to make it to the final four of the competition and in the aftermath of the Men in Green’s defeat against England, the team’s Director of Cricket Mickey Arthur conceded that his side did not deserve to make it to the semi-final.
New Zealand’s thrashing of Sri Lanka meant that Pakistan entered Saturday’s clash needing a miracle to go past the Blackcaps’ net run rate and seal a top four spot. They needed a 280+ run victory on paper, but, on the day, the Men in Green ended up losing by 93 runs to bow out of the competition.
Arthur, in Pakistan’s final post-match press conference, was honest about the fact that his side were not at their best in the tournament.
“I don't think we played our best game here. I think I really believe the best four teams in the competition are now playing the semifinals,” Arthur said.
“I think what we've seen is that, and it's something that we've continually tried to push is that we're behind the eight ball. Our game needs to go to another level.“
One of the reasons Pakistan are always behind the eight ball, Arthur believes, is their inability to seamlessly rack up 330+ scores like some of the other sides do. The Men in Green batted first four times in this World Cup but failed to post a 300+ total even once.
The 55-year-old said that, currently, Pakistan are too over-reliant on the explosiveness of Fakhar Zaman to take them to a massive total.
“Batting-wise, we have to become a 330-350 team. The teams that are doing that and doing that consistently are the teams that are in the semifinal. And I don't think we've done that consistently enough. We do that when Fakhar Zaman comes off and we can't just be relying on one-on-one player.”
Arthur said that he and the coaching staff have been ‘challenging the batters everyday’ to be aggressive, insisting that there has been no paucity of effort.
“It wasn't through us not challenging our batsmen every day to grow, not challenging our batsmen to be a 330 or 350 team. We challenge them every day to do that because that's where the game's gone to.
“As I said earlier, the top four teams in this competition are all playing that way. We have to be able to play that way in order to compete. The players know that, we know that as coaches, we give those messages every day. We challenge them in the nets to do that every day. So, it hasn't gone unnoticed, Usman, and we're certainly, certainly trying to do that,” Arthur said.
Pakistan were struck with a major injury blow prior to the World Cup and Arthur said that the same handicapped the side big time. Naseem Shah, the nucleus of Pakistan’s attack, sustained a shoulder injury that ruled him out of the mega event and the 20-year-old’s absence discernibly unsettled Pakistan.
Arthur said that Naseem’s injury upset the equilibrium of the side but insisted that he and the team cannot hide behind the injury as an excuse.
“Our bowling equilibrium was out of kilter because Naseem Shah provides the consistency, whereas it allows Shaheen Shah to attack, and then you can attack with your leg spinner and you attack with Harris Rauf,” Arthur said.
“So, the equilibrium was upset but that is no excuse at all because quite frankly we haven't played well enough.
“We haven't bowled well enough at times. We haven't batted well enough at times. We haven't been as consistent as we have to be in order for us to progress to a semi-final and a final. And that is the fact of it.”
It’s been a rough World Cup for Arthur, but one man who’s had it even tougher is the skipper Babar Azam. Not only did Babar not produce the results as captain, he also did not fire with the bat, ending the competition with no hundreds and an average of 40.00.
There are currently talks that the 29-year-old could be removed from captaincy and even PCB, in their statement a few weeks ago, hinted that they could do away with the right-hander as captain, once the World Cup ends.
Arthur, though, fully backed Babar and insisted that the 29-year-old will learn from this particular experience.
“I get behind Babar. Babar is very, very close to me. He's a young guy that needs to be taken on the journey with. He needs to be shown the ropes. He's still learning all the time. We know he's a very, very fine batsman. He learns every day with his captaincy. He's growing and we have to allow him the time to grow,” Arthur said of Babar.
“And in order to do that, you make mistakes. Everybody, it's not a crime to make mistakes as long as you learn from those mistakes and as a group, we've made a lot of mistakes this World Cup but if this group grows and learns from it, we've got the core of a very, very good side.”