Monitoring Desk
Johannesburg: The head coach of Pakistan cricket team Mickey Arthur once again backed Sarfraz Ahmed as a good leader but said that the team needs some more time get a hold on the things in Test cricket.
Arthur, while talking to the presser after South Africa whitewashed Pakistan winning the third and last Test by 107 runs at Wanderers, said that batting was the main blow for them which led them down miserably throughout the whole series.
“It was expected that our batsmen will face problems here due to immense bounce on these pitches,” he said. But he thinks that still, team’s batsmen showed courage and commitment playing some worthy knocks for the team in crucial situations.
The head coach had all praises for right-handed batsman Babar Azam, Shan Masood, and Asad Shafiq who did something valuable for Pakistan in tough situations. He was quick to add that Babar has transformed his batting techniques in Test cricket and took it to another level while Masood fulfilled his responsibility quite brilliantly a couple of times in the series.
“A few positives for us in this series were that our young batsmen underrated the critics and showed progress with the bat,” he said.
To query about Azhar Ali’s performance, Arthur said that there no doubts on his ability as a batsman but he struggled while tacking the short ball.
“I think Azhar will gain his form back as he is going to play for Somerset in English County which also contain such conditions as in South Africa and Australia,” he said.
Arthur stressed upon the need to prepare themselves strong in Test as they will now play their next match in the long format in September which will be a part of ICC Test Championship. “This team has the strength to be on top and we will be back strongly,” he said.
