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Pakistan need to be ‘high octane’ in ODIs – Arthur
- Updated: September 13, 2016
Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur has said the team playing an outdated style of ODI cricket has endangered their chances of direct qualification to the 2019 World Cup. The top seven countries and the host are automatically chosen to feature in the showpiece event every four years, but Pakistan are ranked No. 9 and the cut-off date is a year away. Arthur has advised the players and the PCB that to move up the ladder they need to play “high risk, high octane” cricket and added he won’t shy away from dropping big names who do not deliver.
“With the brand of cricket they are playing, definitely,” Arthur said when asked if Pakistan were lagging behind in 50-over cricket. “We can’t play that brand of cricket anymore. We have got to be brave. You have got to take the game on.”
There are only 14 ODIs scheduled before the September 30, 2017 deadline. If Pakistan do not improve their ranking, they would have to compete in a qualifying tournament in April 2018. Ten teams would go in. Only two teams would go through.
“I have to be realistic,” Arthur told ESPNcricinfo in a wide-ranging interview in Manchester. “We haven’t got the time, but we have started the journey now. We will have to start again. I have got a really good feel for personnel and the areas we need to improve on. I have looked at people we can work with, people we can bring in and I am comfortable we will be okay. We have got the way to go and it is a journey.
“If we keep picking the same [players] we are going to get the same [results]. And we will be sitting at No. 9 in the world. We have nothing to lose. We just have to invest in some players. I know for a fact that from the first ODI to the fifth [in England] we changed the whole brand and style of cricket.” Although Pakistan lost that series 1-4, they rounded off the tour with a …
