Pakistan missed the services of this veteran cricketer in 4th ODI, reveals Mickey Arthur

The dismal run for team Pakistan down under continued with yet another defeat coming their way. The Men in Green lost the fourth ODI of the five-match series against New Zealand recently. After the game, the Pakistani head coach Mickey Arthur tried to reason out the mistakes from the recently concluded game. Throughout the series, it was the Pakistani batting that let them down big time in the first three ODIs.

This included a huge embarrassment of being bundled out for a mere 74 in one of the matches. On the contrary, the bowling had been decent and up to the mark. In the fourth ODI, when the batsmen found their rhythm, the bowlers failed to live up to the expectations. Pakistan conceded the game by five wickets after Colin de Grandhomme hit a whirlwind fifty in the match.

Reflecting back at the game, as per the quotes in brecorder.com, Mickey Arthur cited that the team desperately missed the services of veteran cricketer Shoaib Malik. Arthur noted that Malik often contributed with 10 overs of off spin with the ball, which proved to be very handy to the team.

His absence was certainly felt by the team. Malik missed out the match following fitness concerns. In his absence, Haris Sohail played the role of the all-rounder. The Kiwi batsmen, however, found him easy to negotiate with. Arthur held nothing against Sohail but believed Malik could have done a better job.

“Malik gave us 10 overs of off-spin, which we needed out their because we could have taken the pace of with a lot more overs. Malik is genuinely a good off-spinner, and a proper off-spinner with all due respect to Sohail,” Mickey Arthur quoted.

 Times down under

The Pakistani team has had a terrible time down under. They were beaten 0-2 by New Zealand in the Test series last season. Following the disappointing series, they were tour-washed by Australia in Australia. And now, they have lost the first four matches of the five-match series and are staring at an embarrassment of being whitewashed.

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