Publications
Partners
Cape Town - Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur is confident that his team will make a strong comeback after having suffered a heavy defeat to West Indies in their opening match of the Cricket World Cup 2019.
Lack of application against short pitched bowling saw Pakistan being bundled out for 105 against West Indies at Trent Bridge on Friday. Arthur termed the performance as "shocking" but insisted that his side will bounce back when they take on the hosts, England, in their second match at the same venue.
"Yes, it was a shocking start - the players did not take the preparations into the the middle," Arthur told AFP. "We knew that we were going to get short-pitched bowling and had prepared very well for it, so was disappointing to see us play like that because we were prepared. But we will dust ourselves off and come back strong."
Pakistan have lost each of their last eleven completed One Day Internationals and were beaten by Afghanistan in their first warm-up game. They lost 4-0 to England in their last bilateral ODI series before the World Cup. Arthur believed that his team has assessed the conditions and their opponents, adding that the players will take lessons from the defeat.
"We know how good England are but we know them and are battle-hardened against them. We have assessed what went wrong and will continue to work on those things." he said.
Pakistan's unpredictability and their ability to bounce back in multi-nation tournaments means their chances of a strong resurgence can never be ruled out. In 1992, they scripted one of the most dramatic comebacks in World Cup history, as they bounced back from series of losses at the early stage of the tournament, and went on to lift the title. They lost their opening game to India in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, but turned it on with three consecutive wins, before beating their arch-rivals with an all-round performance in the finals.
Mohammad Amir's three-wicket haul was the only positive in their seven-wicket loss to West Indies. The Sarfaraz Ahmed led side would seek motivation from this performance, as they take on Eoin Morgan's England at a high scoring venue on Monday.
