KARACHI: When Pakistan ascended to number one in the ICC Test rankings last August following their emphatic series-equalling victory against England at The Oval, Mickey Arthur conceded that he was too new to take any credit for the team’s rise.
He was absolutely right. After all, Arthur took over the team’s charge just days before the tour of England last summer.
But it’s been six months since he succeeded Waqar Younis as Pakistan’s head coach and his charges are now playing their 12th Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground with the South African at the helm.
Since their heroics in England, Pakistan have slumped in the Test arena following a shock defeat against lowly West India in Sharjah, crushing series defeat in New Zealand and now embarrassing losses against Australia.
Despite a remarkable fight back from Younis Khan and Azhar Ali, there is a big possibility that Pakistan will crash to their six consecutive Test defeat.
This time, however, Arthur will have to take responsibility.
He can’t just blame poor fielding, bad shot selection or a toothless display by his bowlers. He will have to come out with answers.
But on Wednesday, after Australia took a firm grip on the third and final Test, Arthur did little more than showing his frustration over yet another below-par display from Pakistan in the field.
Arthur was pictured with his head in his hands after one of the many, sometimes almost farcical, slip-ups that studded Australia’s first innings of 538-8 declared.
“It’s very, very, very frustrating, we can’t work any harder on our fielding,” he told reporters at the SCG.
“We catch balls continuously, (fielding coach) Steve Rixon works the guys continuously hard.
“We set ourselves hell of a high standards, I make no apologies for that, and we’ve fallen well short in the fielding department.”
Pakistan’s failure to create pressure for the batsmen and David Warner’s explosive start to the test with a century inside the first session were other contributing factors to his team’s parlous position in the match, Arthur said.
One glimmer of light was the batting of opener Azhar Ali, who backed up his double century in the second test in Melbourne with a 58 in an unbroken third wicket partnership with Younis Khan that got the tourists to Wednesday’s close on 126-2.
“The amount of time he has spent in the field is almost beyond belief,” said Arthur. “For him to keep going and going and going shows a lot of resilience and shows a pretty tough mind.
“To see the resilience and character and intent that has been shown by Younis and Azhar has been a real example to the rest of the dressing room.
“Batting is all about intent... It gets you into right positions and allows you to score and these two guys have shown that.
“We’ll carry on with the same intent and see where that gets us tomorrow.”
Another reason Pakistan need to keep batting for as long as possible is the state of the bowling unit with spinner Yasir Shah carrying an injury and seamer Mohammad Amir on his last legs.
“Yasir has a hamstring strain I think. I don’t think it’s too bad. I think he’ll be able to bowl again at some stage in the game,” Arthur said.
“Over the last six months (Amir’s) played a massive amount of cricket and he just keeps going and keeps going. Even though he’s showing a lot of niggles, he hasn’t shirked his responsibility and he keeps running in for us.”