Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur on Thursday identified two key reasons for his team’s poor tour of Australia.
The visitors lost the Test series 3-0 Down Under followed by a 4-1 defeat in the ODI series. And Arthur pointed out two reasons for his side’s capitulation. The first was the embarrassing display in the fielding department, while the second was David Warner’s opening.
Talking about the fielding, the South African said that despite their hard work, fielding mishaps were quite common which shows Pakistan are “way behind the pack”.
“Believe it or not, we’ve worked extremely hard at our fielding,” said Arthur “Me and my support staff have been around for about seven months, and that’s been a focus and priority. But we’re way behind the rest of the pack. So, fitness and fielding again are going to be a total priority before we go to the West Indies.”
Regarding the heroics of Warner, Pakistan head coach said Pakistan’s inability to deal with the left-handed opener really cost them the series.
In the seven Test innings, the Australian vice-captain scored 356 runs with quick-fire centuries in Melbourne and Sydney. And in ODI series, he blasted 367 runs from five innings, concluding with back-to-back hundreds in Sydney and Adelaide.
“We saw the difference here, Warner gets in and gets 130 the other day [in Sydney] and 170-odd [in Adelaide],” said Arthur. “And he gets it very, very quick. That’s the difference between chasing 310 and chasing 370-odd. And at 370-odd, we’ve got to play out of our skin to get anywhere close.”
He added: “So, Warner and our fielding has probably been the key difference between the teams.”
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