I’m not giving up on this young unit: Arthur

Although “incredibly frustrated” at the back-to-back losses in New Zealand, Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur is not giving up on his young side.

“Very frustrating, very hard to understand [why we are continuing to lose] despite all our hard work, but I’m not giving up on this young unit,” Arthur said during a press conference after New Zealand beat Pakistan by seven wickets in the opening T20 match in Wellington.

Pakistan’s batting woes continued on Monday, with only Babar Azam and Hasan Ali reaching double figures.

Before the late charge by Babar and Hasan, Pakistan had again been let down by their recognised batsmen, just as they were when losing all five one-day internationals against New Zealand.

“We have tried to change roles, set things around, we’ve done all the training, we [resolved] to commit to our decisions, so it’s incredibly frustrating to get such [disappointing] results,” the coach lamented.

“It’s a very inexperienced top order.. we didn’t execute [our plans] well, but I’m not giving up on this young team. We just have to be smarter, assess the conditions better, execute better,” he continued, adding that today was yet “another learning experience for the young group of players.”

Asked about the batsmen’s poor shot selection, Arthur admitted that his side assessed the conditions poorly.

“We were playing as if we needed to score 170..whereas 140-150 could have been good enough. But obviously 105 is not enough.”

Pakistan had hoped the change of format would bring a change of fortune, but they were in trouble in the second over when Tim Southee, standing in as captain for the injured Kane Williamson, removed Fakhar Zaman for three.

What followed was another batting collapse that could have set an embarrassing record, but Babar (41) and Hasan (23) took Pakistan beyond their lowest T20 score of 74 set against Australia six years ago.