DUBAI – Pakistani coach Mickey Arthur has hit out at own team players overpoor performance against India in Asia Cup 2018.
The Pakistan coach admitted that his batsmen played out of characteragainst India in the Asia Cup game, and said they needed to take moreresponsibility.
After all the build-up, the India-Pakistan game ended up being a one-sidedaffair, with India dominating proceedings in Dubai on Wednesday, 19September. They first bundled Pakistan for 162 in 43.1 overs, and thenchased that down in 29 overs, with Rohit Sharma, the captain, scoring a39-ball 52.
More than the result, it was the batting that disappointed Arthur. Afteropting to bat, Pakistan were reduced to 3/2, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar sendingback the openers within five overs. That put quite a bit of pressure on themiddle order early, and they couldn’t really fight back.
“We sort of batted outside our roles, which was very disappointing,” saidArthur. “Imam-ul-Haq, it’s not his role to be running down to BhuvneshwarKumar in the third over. It’s not Sarfraz’s (Ahmed) role to be hitting overthe top and getting caught out there. We’ve got X-factor guys whose role itis to do that.
“If Fakhar (Zaman) gets out playing that way, it’s OK. If Asif (Ali) getsout like that, it’s OK, because that’s his role. But the other four batsmencertainly need to take responsibility.