With Indian team looking in supreme form ahead of the ICC Champions Trophy final, Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur has insisted his team has no other option but to attack right from the word go in order to exploit India’s untested middle-order.
Right from the first warm-up game against New Zealand, India’s batting has looked rocked solid. In the three matches that they have batted first including a warm-up game, the Men in Blue have scored over 320 runs while on the other occasions they have chased down the totals with utmost ease. Against South Africa, they chased down 191 by losing just two wickets while against Bangladesh in the semifinal, they chased down 264 by losing just a solitary wicket.
India’s top-three batsmen- Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are looking at their lethal best. The trio is in the top 5 of the highest run-getters in the tournament with Dhawan (317 runs) leading the list followed by Rohit (304) at number two and Kohli (253) at number 5. As a result, India’s middle-order, although very strong, has got very less batting time and Mickey Arthur has said his team will target that wink link when both the teams lock horns in the high-octane clash at The Oval on Sunday (June 18).
“We have to (attack), we’ve got no option,” Arthur told cricket.com.au. “We’ve got to try and make that new ball really work for us. We’ve got to try and get into them. That middle order hasn’t had massive hits, they haven’t batted much under pressure of late. So we’ve got to try and put them under extreme pressure particularly by knocking their top order over. If we can do that, we’ve got a real chance of getting to their underbelly.”
Since being hit for 319 runs in 48 overs by India in the opening game, the Pakistani bowlers have looked in great form and have played an integral role in Pakistan’s unbelievable march to the final. They have restricted each of South Africa, Sri Lanka and England to totals under 240 and will fancy their chances once again against the formidable Indian batsmen.
However, given the absence of swing with the new ball in the ongoing tournament, it will be a herculean task for the Pakistani bowlers to make light work of India’s top-order. But Pakistan have found a new way of pressuring the opposition. Instead of attacking in the first few overs with the new ball, the Pakistani bowlers have kept the opposition under check in the second powerplay (from tenth over to 40) and it has done wonders for them.
“Tactically we’d always spoken about our guys wanting to express themselves with the ball and wanting to attack,” Arthur said. “(The second Power Play) historically has been a bit of a dead period where you’re just trying to squeeze and contain the opposition. But what happens is you just allow the opposition to play, they keep so many wickets in hand that scores are getting too big at the back end.
“So we decided that we really wanted to attack those overs. That for us was key and we gave our bowlers the freedom to do that. We’ve got the ball to reverse swing, which is good for us because that’s a massive weapon,” he added.
Arthur also had a word of praise for his skipper Sarfraz Ahmed‘s positive and attacking approach.
“Our execution has been great and we’ve attacked. The captain has kept slips and put catchers in attacking positions and it’s worked for us. He’s very positive. He’s an aggressive captain and he wants to take wickets. That’s how we want to play and I think that’s how you have to play one-day cricket now. He encapsulates all that,” said the former South Africa and Australia coach.
