Sydney - Coach Mickey Arthur urged veteran Pakistan captain
Misbah-ul-Haq on Thursday to continue playing despite a difficult tour of
Australia, saying he was an "integral" part of the team.
Misbah went back on comments he made after last week's
series-losing Melbourne Test that he intended to retire and is leading Pakistan
in this week's final Test in Sydney.
Pakistan's most successful skipper, who has scored a total
of 20 runs in four innings in the series, said his remarks after the innings
and 18 runs defeat in Melbourne were triggered by frustration.
Misbah is expected to make a decision on his Test career
upon his return home, but Arthur said the 42-year-old skipper remained an
integral part of Pakistan's team-rebuilding plans.
Arthur said he had spoken to the captain after the Melbourne
Test and that Misbah had been "shattered".
"Misbah is a guy with such high morals and high values
and high standards. He was shattered he hadn't contributed," Arthur told
the Australian Broadcasting Corporation at the Sydney Test.
"But we said we would discuss it the next two days and
we had a day off and had the chat and never mentioned it again.
"From that time he was totally committed to certainly
playing this Test.
"I'm hoping he continues as I think he is integral -
him and I in terms of our working relationship, in terms of building the team
in the next phase."
It has been a difficult series for Misbah, whose fielding
has been badly exposed along with questions over his field placements and
bowling changes.
"We can't work any harder at our fielding," Arthur
told reporters.
"We catch balls continuously and (fielding coach) Steve
Rixon works the guys hard and fielding has been a massive frustration for
us."
"We set ourselves a helluva high standard and we are
falling short in the fielding department by a long way. We have just got to
keep on plugging away and make sure we get better at it.
"We certainly don't want to be labelled as a poor fielding team, certainly in my duration with the Pakistan team."