Asia Cup | There is fear of failure in Pakistan dressing room, reveals Mickey Arthur

09/24/2018

Mickey Arthur has reckoned that his team is going through a confidence crisis following their defeat against India for the second successive occasion in a week. Pakistan lost to India in the second Super Four stage game on Sunday, thanks to brilliant centuries by Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan.

Team India put in a stunning all-round performance as they defeated arch-rivals, Pakistan, for the second successive time in the 2018 Asia Cup by a huge margin of nine wickets. An impressive opening partnership of 200-runs from stand-in skipper - Rohit Sharma and partner, Shikhar Dhawan, ensured that India remained unbeaten in the ongoing tournament.

Pakistan, however, have won two and lost two in the four matches that they have played in the UAE. And chief coach, Mickey Arthur, has reckoned that the team is going through somewhat of a confidence crisis at the moment and needed some time to get their morale back up.

“We are not abandoning them. Yes, they are suffering a bit of confidence crisis at the moment. There is fear of failure in the dressing room. There is a bit reality check of where we are as a cricket team.

“In terms of worst performance, nine wickets has to be up there. India have very good players. If we give them an inch, they are going to make us pay and they did that,” Arthur told PTI reporters.

After they were beaten by eight wickets in the first match against India, Sarfraz Ahmed & Co. set India a target of 238 in the match on Sunday. India raced home in 39.3 overs as Sharma and Dhawan both recorded impressive centuries.

“Our strike rates were not good enough with the bat. With the ball, we need to strike early against these guys. We had a couple of chances, we didn’t take them. When you get these guys chances on wickets like these, they dominate you,” Arthur said dissecting the loss.

“We need to get into their middle order as quick as we can that’s when we can inflict most damage” Arthur added.

The former South African player lavished praise on the Indian team, which is the only unbeaten team in the Asian showpiece so far. Arthur singled out India’s Jasprit Bumrah, whose work ethic in the nets have impressed the Pakistan coach.

“We have to be realistic. We were well beaten by a very good Indian side. They didn’t allow us to play. We are a team that is developing. Sarfraz (Ahmed) and (Mohammed) Amir have 50 or more caps, Shoaib Malik with 200.

“One thing that really impressed me, we were at optional training session the other day and I sat there for 20 minutes. I saw Jasprit Bumrah in a net next to us execute yorker after yorker after yorker. He put that into practice. In our review, we will definitely show it to our young bowlers that his execution and even Bhuvneshwar’s in death overs was very good,” he added

Asia Cup | There is fear of failure in Pakistan dressing room, reveals Mickey Arthur

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