Pakistan hope to overcome ‘crisis of confidence’ ahead of BD clash

DUBAI: Mickey Arthur has seen it before. His players turning their switch off and then when everybody would be ready to reject them, they just turn it on, writes Khalid Hussain.

But that hasn’t happened in the Asia Cup, at least not yet. Barring a comfortable win against minnows Hong Kong, Pakistan have struggled to find their feat in the sweltering heat of their cricketing home here in Dubai.

Twice they have taken the field against old rivals India and twice they appeared completely switched off.When asked what was going on with his team, Arthur stressed that his team will bounce back from the back-to-back defeats against India.

“(Saying that they) switched off is a bit harsh. They didn’t certainly turn their switch on. Our strike rates weren’t good enough with the bat. With the ball we needed to strike early against these guys. We had a few chances we didn’t take it. We needed to get into their middle order which we couldn’t,” said Arthur after his team was beaten comprehensively by India in their Asia Cup Super Fours game here at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday night.

Pakistan haven’t just struggled against India. They almost fell to Afghanistan in a Super Fours game in Abu Dhabi last Friday when their fielders dropped a series of catches.Arthur puts it down to a “crisis of confidence”.

“They’re suffering a confidence crisis at the moment, there’s a little bit of fear of failure in the dressing room, there’s a bit of a reality check for exactly where we are as a cricket team,” he said.

Sunday’s night’s triumph was India’s biggest against Pakistan in terms of wickets. Asked whether it was Pakistan’s worst defeat, Arthur was speechless for a while before accepting it was certainly one of them.

“In terms of the worst performance, nine wickets, it’s got to be up there but we’re on a journey, we’ll get better and stronger than this,” he said.“India have very good players. If we give them an inch, they are going to make us pay and they did that.”

Arthur cited Fakhar Zaman’s example saying that the big-hitting opener is doubting his own game.“We know cricket is a confidence game,” he said. “Look at Fakhar Zaman, he’s an incredible player, he’s an X-factor player and we expect him to take the game on at the top of the order, but he’s doubting his game a little at the moment. We’ve got to just ride the wave with him. If we do that, when he comes out, he’ll be a better player for this. We’ve banked the work, the work is all done.”

Arthur also stressed that his players were unable to execute the game plans handed to them.“There was inconsistency in lines and lengths, and it’s disappointing,” he said. “We went into panic mode. Once they got in, we started searching for wickets. The way you get wickets is, you’ve got to build pressure. We didn’t stay with our plans long enough. Our plans was to hit the hard lengths, hit top of off with our seamers, and then have the ability to put them under pressure in the middle. We’ve got to attack to take wickets, it didn’t happen and we weren’t patient enough. There were plans but they weren’t executed for long enough.”

Arthur stressed that his charges should learn from the work ethics of the Indians especially their pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah who has become a scourge for Pakistani batters.“We had an optional session the other day,” the coach said. “We sat there for 20 minutes and I watched Jasprit Bumrah at the nets next to us, executing yorker after yorker after yorker, and he put that into practice here. In our review, we definitely will be showing our young bowlers his execution in the death overs, it was very good.”

Pakistan shoed marked improvement in their fielding ahead of the Asia Cup but their catching has been miserable in the tournament so far.“It’s a confidence thing. Certainly in terms of the amount of work these guys have put in, it’s second to none,” Arthur said. “These guys work every day on their catching, but the minute one goes down, it’s kind of like a disease. It catches off and catches on. It takes one good catch, one good innings or a five-for to turn it around and we will get the confidence back then. We’ve got to trust the skills to come out in the end. We’ve banked the work. It’s time for that to pay off.”

Pakistan next face Bangladesh in a virtual semifinal in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. They’ll be out of the race for the final if they lose it.“It’s a semi-final now. We have to find a way to dig ourselves out of the hole we are in at the moment. We will come back from this. We are at our best in must-win matches. That’s when we come to the party,” said Arthur. “I believe in our players. I think they are a fantastic bunch of players.”

Pakistan won toss

Pakistan

Imam-ul-Haq lbw b Chahal 10

Fakhar Zaman lbw b Yadav 31

Babar Azam run out 9

*†Sarfraz Ahmed c Sharma b Yadav 44

Shoaib Malik c Dhoni b Bumrah 78

Asif Ali b Chahal 30

Shadab Khan b Bumrah 10

Mohammad Nawaz not out 15

Hasan Ali not out 2

Extras (lb 5, w 3) 8

Total (7 wickets, 50 overs) 237

Did not bat: Mohammad Amir, Shaheen Shah Afridi

Fall: 1-24, 2-55, 3-58, 4-165, 5-203, 6-211, 7-234

Bowling: Kumar 9-0-46-0 (2 w); Bumrah 10-1-29-2; Chahal 9-0-46-2; Yadav 10-0-41-2 (1 w); Jadeja 9-0-50-0; Jadhav 3-0-20-0

India

*R Sharma not out 111

S Dhawan run out 114

A Rayudu not out 12

Extras (w 1) 1

Total (1 wicket, 39.3 overs) 238

Fall: 1-210

Did not bat: D Karthik, K Jadhav, †M S Dhoni, R Jadeja, K Yadav, Y Chahal, B Kumar, J Bumrah

Bowling: Amir 5-0-41-0; Shah 6-0-42-0; Hasan 9-0-52-0; Nawaz 7-0-35-0 (1 w); Shadab 8-0-54-0; Malik 4.3-0-14-0

Result: India won by 9 wickets

Man of the Match: Shikhar Dhawan (India)

Umpires: Rod Tucker (Australia) and Ruchira Palliyaguruge (Sri Lanka). Tv umpire: Gregory Brathwaite (West Indies). Match referee: David Boon (Australia)