Mickey Arthur expresses disappointment over team's poor performance against Australia
Mickey Arthur said a lot of struggle is required on Pakistani one-day team.
ADELAIDE (Web Desk) – Pakistani coach Mickey Arthur has expressed disappointment over bad performance of team against Australia in fifth one-day international, reported cricket.com.au.
Talking to media, Mickey Arthur said that we came to Australia with the winning spirit but due to poor fielding and fitness issues of the players, we lost both series.
He has identified two key reasons to carry a bulk of the responsibility for his team’s underwhelming Australia tour. The first was incompetence in the field with an embarrassing display of misfields. The second was Australia opener David Warner.
He said a lot of struggle is required on Pakistan ODI team.
"Believe it or not, we’ve worked extremely hard at our fielding," Arthur said.
Mickey Arthur has also appreciated the performance displayed by Sharjeel Khan and Babar Azam and termed them as future stars.
He said that the team players need to focus more on the game for clinching the victory.
"Me and my support staff have been around for about seven months, and that’s been a focus and priority – fitness levels have improved dramatically in terms of our day-to-day reports. But we’re way behind the rest of the pack,” he added.
"We’re ranked eight (on the ICC ladder) at the moment, and I think you could see the gap between eight and one (Australia)."
Earlier, Australia had beaten Pakistan in 5th and last One-Day International (ODI) by 57 runs on Thursday.
The green shirts have lost the series 4-1 to the Aussies.
Chasing Australia’s 369, Azhar Ali got out in third over after scoring just six runs.
Sharjeel Khan and Babar Azam kept the innings composed and constructed a wonderful partnership of 130 runs. Sharjeel was dismissed on 79 in 25th over by Mitchell Starc who took the wicket of Azhar Ali as well.
