DAWN OF A NEW ERA
We can’t take Sri Lanka lightly. They have got some destructive batsmen and good bowling attack. In these conditions, they are a formidable opposition Mickey Arthur
For the first time in seven year, a Pakistani Test team trained without Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan — two legends of the game.
The leading lights of the game were no more in the field to guide the juniors having retired recently. However, Pakistan with a mix of young and old hands are ready for the challenge, said coach Mickey Arthur on Monday after the training session ahead of first Test match against Sri Lanka starting on Thursday at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
The South African has termed the series as the ‘new dawn’ of Test cricket for Pakistan. “Things are shaping up well. This is a real challenge for us. And we had a good chat about it this (Monday) morning. The challenge is there. This is a new dawn and new chapter for our Test team. I think we rank sixth at the moment and we have to work on getting it down. We have set ourselves some realistic goals. South Africa 2019 is our ultimate goal. We want to be where we think we can be with this group of players,” he said.
The coach noted the legends were not missed on the day. “Everybody just went on with their business and got cracking. And that is one good thing with cricket. You farewell two legends of the game but the next training session there are other people in their place and off you go. You are then trying to prepare a team as best as you can again.”
New legs have come in the form of Haris Sohail and Usman Salahuddin but Arthur isn’t seeing replacements in the two debutants and said the onus is on Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq and Babar Azam to ‘step up’.
“It will be very unfair on the two new batsmen that we bring into the team and to say they are the replacements. I think it is now people like Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq and to an extent Babar Azam as well to stand up and take the bulk of the runs now. The other guys are going to be young and inexperienced players, who are now where Babar Azam and Shafiq were a year ago.”
The coach pointed out that there will be shuffling in the team order and either Sohail or Salahuddin will make a debut this Thursday.
Meanwhile, the spotlight is clearly on Sarfraz Ahmad as the new Test captain.
“Safi is good and making his debut here as the Test captain. I’m really confident that in Sarfraz we have got a positive leader, who looks to take the game on and he is an attacking captain. He is going to be very good for the team,” Arthur said.
The coach is wary about the Lankans and said the opponents will be out there to prove a point. “We can’t take Sri Lanka lightly. They have got some destructive batsmen and good bowling attack. In these conditions, they are a formidable opposition. We respect them greatly. And they have obviously come at a period when they have been under the gun a bit. And that makes it more dangerous for us because they have got some massive points to prove. So, they have come here with only a win on their mind. We are certainly not going to underestimate them at all.”
On targets for the series, he said: “Every series we go into we want to win and that’s our ultimate target as we are judged on that. This is a start of a new era for the team as we are going to see some fresh and young faces, and that’s very exciting and all part of challenge of building a team going forward.”