ISLAMABAD: Pakistan cricket head coach Mickey Arthur feels that playershave acclimatised well with the conditions in New Zealand, before the teamkicks off its tour with a 50-over warm-up match against New Zealand XI inNelson on Wednesday.
A day before Pakistan’s practice match, Arthur said the team is lookingforward to the game and both batsmen and bowlers are well gelled with theconditions, private news channel reported.
“The team has been really good. We have acclimatised well with theseconditions. We had three good sessions of training in which bowlers bowledenough number of overs and batsmen were able to work on defence,” the coachsaid.
Arthur pointed out that New Zealand are a good side at home and the seriesis going to be a challenging one for Pakistan, but expressed hope thatPakistan will achieve good results in the five-match series against Kiwis.
“I am really confident about better results. We have a very balanced team.We have been consistent and players know their roles. I am confident thatif we play up to our abilities then we will be a very good match for theNew Zealand team and get some success here,” he said.
“NZ in these conditions are incredibly good, the practice match tomorrowwill be full dress rehearsal for what is going to be a really, really toughseries for us.”
Replying to a question, Arthur said that every team is good at its soil butthe key for Pakistan will be being able to win away from home.
“Winning away from home really defines you as a team. So, this is ourchallenge,” Arthur said.
He also confirmed Pakistan’s playing eleven for the warm-up game againstNew Zealand XI.Sarfraz Ahmed, Fakhar Zaman, Azhar Ali, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik,Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Rumman Raees and Mohammad Amir.
The five-match ODI series commences from January 6, followed by athree-match T20I series.