LONDON: The second ODI between Pakistan and England will take place in Lords today.
Both teams have practiced hard for this face-off expected to take place at 2:30 pm.
Pakistan Coach Mc Arthur said that there was no room left for mistakes. “Whoever performs will be part of the team.”
Pakistan are languishing at number nine in the One-day International (ODI) rankings and the way they fell tamely against England in a rain-hit ODI at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton on Wednesday night aptly underlined the fact that Arthur’s toughest job will be to resurrect the team’s fortunes in white-ball cricket.
Wednesday’s game — Arthur’s second ODI as Pakistan’s coach — was another reminder of how much work the coach will need to do to bring the team at par with other leading sides in the two shorter formats of the game.
Pakistan consumed too many dot balls and then failed to capitalise on a reasonably good platform. They didn’t hit a single six while even fours were few and far between as the tourists inched to 260-6 — a total that was way short against an attacking England team on a good batting track.
The problem with Arthur is that the 15-man squad he has for the ongoing ODI series doesn’t give him much room for experimentation.
But he promised on Friday that Pakistan will begin a rebuilding process as soon as they arrive home after the current series which ends on September 7.
“We are going to build a team that we think can compete in a year or two,” he said.
Arthur, who has had coaching stints with South Africa and Australia in the past, said that once the team lands in Pakistan after the current series, he will go through the archives of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to find new players who can perform the role of pinch-hitters in limited-over formats.
“I will go through the archives in Pakistan to see if there are some guys who can do it.”
