Mickey Arthur: “The difference between that team and the team now is that in the middle, we had Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Mickey Arthur said Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik were the difference for Pakistan as they brought a lot of experience and stability to the middle order.
With Hafeez having retired from international cricket and Malik already being 40 years old, the selectors have opted to inject some youth into the middle order.
However, the problem has continued to persist, even though a lot of experimentation has been done.
Having seen this, Arthur, who used to coach Pakistan, conceded that the men in green are probably missing the services of Hafeez and Malik.
“The difference between that team and the team now is that in the middle, we had Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik,” he said on ESPNcricinfo’s T20 Time Out programme.
“In the middle now, they are a very young outfit, they don’t have much experience, and when you get them three wickets down early, I think they are going to struggle.”
Pakistan are playing in the T20 World Cup and began with back-to-back losses against India and Zimbabwe.
They avoided a hat-trick of defeats by beating the Netherlands by six wickets.
The will now take on South Africa in Sydney on Thursday.
Pakistan’s 2022 T20 World Cup squad: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan Masood
Reserves: Mohammad Haris, Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir