Mickey Arthur is "extremely" disappointed. The No.1 ranked Pakistan T20I side he left after a significant tenure as head coach has now gone six games without a single victory under the new regime led by coach and selector Misbah Ul Haq and skipper Babar Azam, who took over from the now-discarded Sarfaraz Ahmed.
Since Arthur's departure, Pakistan has gone away from its tried and tested methods and suffered a 3-0 whitewash in Lahore at the hands of Sri Lanka before going down 2-0 in Australia on Friday (November 8).
And this is deeply worrying, less than a year away from the next year's T20 World Cup down under.
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"Extremely disappointing from Pakistan. It showed the amount of responsibility on Babar's shoulders, he didn't perform and we folded like a pack of cards out there," pakpassion.net quoted Arthur as saying after the ten-wicket loss in Perth that finished off the three-match series.
The ugly batting performance in Perth wasn't a one-off, it superseded similarly poor shows in recent times. And Arthur said it is down to lack of properly assigned roles and clarity amid the batting unit.
"You can't have Imam, Haris and Rizwan batting after eachother, you need to mingle it up with an attacking player," he said. "Use the powerplay overs a bit more and that can't be left to Babar alone."
"Iftikhar played well and took the game on, which the other batsmen should've done. They were exposed to the short ball today"
Pakistan has also moved past experienced campaigners like Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez in recent times and given quite a few youngsters their chances. However, that, atleast yet, Arthur believes, hasn't served well a side that must go back to what really worked for it.
"Babar said that Pakistan are learning. A couple of months ago, they were the #1 ranked side and went 11 series unbeaten. I'm not sure that what got us to #1 was worth changing."
"There were some key players who played big roles for us, the likes of Sarfaraz, he's ahead of the game in T20 cricket. Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, bit of experience. Shaheen Shah Afridi and Hasan Ali, these are big shoes to fill," Arthur added.
"Those guys are there, apart from Hasan. Learning is not for me now, we're a year out from a T20 World Cup and Pakistan are still the #1 side. Put the learning away and go back to what's worked for you, because what worked got you to #1."
(Inputs from pakpassion.net)
