Coach Arthur concerned over Pakistan's middle order

CARDIFF: Pakistan’s Head Coach Mickey Arthur said on Tuesday that he doesn’t want Pakistan to end its Champions Trophy journey in Cardiff and players are eager to play the final in London.

Talking to media ahead of Pakistan’s semi-final against England at Cardiff, the Pakistan coach said that England have played good cricket in this tournament and Pakistan needs to be at its best to beat them on Wednesday.

He, however, did not look satisfied with the manner Pakistan won against Sri Lanka on Monday and wanted the boys to do even better.

“Clicked? I mean, we won ugly yesterday. We can't sugar coat that fact. We've got nothing to lose, yes, but we've always said we're in it to win it,” he said when this correspondent asked if he believes that Pakistan clicked at the right time.

Coach Arthur added that he want players to do more, instead of being complacent after reaching the semi final.

“The last thing I want is for us to go away now thinking that we got to a semifinal, we're okay, we've achieved, because that would be a copout in my mind. We certainly want to come out and put our best game forward and win, and we want to go to London. We've always said that. That's been our mantra right from the start of this competition,” he said.

Arthur further said Pakistan did not want to be just making up the numbers in this competition and the team has showed that it wasn’t.

“Now we need to go one step further more and never be satisfied. That's a mantra of ours. We want to keep improving every day,” he said.

The coach also expressed his concerns over Pakistan’s out-of-form middle order and suggested that Sarfraz or Malik may get promoted in the batting order.

“Middle order has been exposed just a little bit. Ideally, we'd like to probably get Sarfraz and Malik maybe in a little bit earlier, but that's something that we need to discuss. Whether it happens now or whether it happens at the end of this competition will be debated later,” he said.

“Funny thing is they are all working extremely hard. At times they've showed flashes. I think, had we finished at Edgbaston, hopefully, there would have been big innings in there for Babar, who was 30 not out, and Malik was about 15 not out and playing consistent,” Mickey added.

Replying to a question, Mickey said that he doesn’t want Pakistan to be an unpredictable side, and instead want more consistency from players.

“I don't want us to be unpredictable. As a head coach, you want the team to have structure. You want the consistency levels to be good. Unpredictability as a coaching staff, we don't like. We'd like us to do the basics a lot better, day in and day out, and that's what we train for every day. So we're getting better. We're making strides in that area,” he said.