Pakistan Have Not Played Up to Their Potential so far: Mickey Arthur

Pakistan find themselves in must-win territory or as some might say, in classic Pakistan territory heading into the match against New Zealand at Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Ahead of the fixture, Pakistan’s director of cricket for the men’s team Mickey Arthur felt that the team had not played up to potential so far in the tournament, but felt the Men in Green were peaking as a team.

“I’ll be brutally honest, I don’t think we’ve played to our full potential this tournament yet. I thought the Bangladesh game is the first game where we actually put a complete game together.”

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“We batted beautifully, bowled beautifully, and fielded beautifully, which in all the other games, we’ve done one or two disciplines OK, but our other disciplines let us down. So, I’d like to say we’re peaking, but the preparation of the guys and the attitude of the guys’ will to get better every day, that has been exceptional.” Arthur said on Friday.

Pakistan’s topsy-turvy run in the tournament is not new to those who have watched them play at big tournaments in the past. Arthur, however, felt that he and others would feel more relieved if the Men in Green had a smoother run at big events.

“Yeah, everybody tells me it’s the classic World Cup campaign. And I hate that, because I’d rather, that we were cruising now and things had been really good, it would certainly be a lot less stressful.”

“But again, we got ourselves into a position before the Bangladesh game where it was kind of out of our hands and it’s come back in a funny way into our hands again because albeit we’ve got to win and win big in both our games, it’s still in our control, which it wasn’t before the Bangladesh game,” he said.

Leg-spinner and vice-captain of the side Shadab Khan suffered a shoulder injury in the game against South Africa in Chennai, raising concerns of concussion. Arthur said that Khan went through a preliminary test on Friday, but a decision on his availability would be taken closer to the game.

“The latest update is Shadab went through a preliminary test today, which you’ve got to do as per medical protocol. He came through that OK, but we’re in no position yet to make a decision on him. Concussion is a really important injury, and we’ve got to be 100% sure before we make a decision. No decision has been made on him at the minute,” Arthur said.