Mickey Arthur: A great coach in LOIs but a poor Test coach?

[Leo23]

mickey has done wonders for the limited overs teams since coming on board but unfortunately the same cannot be said about test cricket.

at times it feels like he doesn't know what he's doing and tries too many things but doesn't have the patience to see if the changes will work or not...

he inherited a team that became number one ranked but he decided to tinker with it too much especially when it comes to the batting order.

he moved shafiq to number 3 then dropped him back to 6 and now he is promoted to number 4. he moved babar to 3 and now has dropped him to 5. he made azhar open and now he is back to number 3.

shadab was picked for one series and then dropped.

he has led pakistan to 6 straight defeats and also 2 defeats to a mediocre wi team

and today he decided to go with 1 spinner on an abu dhabi pitch and apparently has "no regrets"..

not to mention his obsession with masood.

even if we exclude the retirement of yk and misbah our test team was certainly better off before the arrival of mickey

although things look good in limited overs we might be heading towards a dark era in tests. at this rate mickey will soon lead us to our first series loss in the uae.

 

[MMHS]

He did take SAF to No. 1 & did exceptionally well with PAK in UK. What I understand is that, he is absolutely clueless when it comes to Test strategy in spinning condition, more precisely in UAE - not only with PAK, I found him really poor with AUS team in their previous tour of IND, which ended 4-0, after winning all 4 tosses & probably 3 innings defeats.

This time, picked wrong combination, wrong bowlers & still backing his decisions - which means, he will do the same in future as well.

 

[ads101]

He did take SAF to No. 1 & did exceptionally well with PAK in UK. What I understand is that, he is absolutely clueless when it comes to Test strategy in spinning condition, more precisely in UAE - not only with PAK, I found him really poor with AUS team in their previous tour of IND, which ended 4-0, after winning all 4 tosses & probably 3 innings defeats.

This time, picked wrong combination, wrong bowlers & still backing his decisions - which means, he will do the same in future as well.

I think Mickey just doesn't know Pak cricket history too well. All Pak fans new that 2 spinners were a safe bet, though Mickey went with three pacers and thought they'd be ok (which similarly away teams have done when touring UAE and then realised their mistake).

We had the same situation with Irfan. He couldn't complete 10 overs and Mickey was livid, expelling him from the team. Again every pak fan knew this was the case with Irfan it's happened a lot before, though it seems Mickey didn't and henceforth wanted him out the team.

It seems like he doesn't know past Pak history before he took over. And someone isn't telling him this stuff/he's ignoring them.

Mickey has a clear policy, he hates playing too many inexperienced players at once. He wasn't going to give more than one player a test debut, hence he picked the pacer over the spinner, and dropped Azhar down to 3.

 

[ExpressPacer]

This is one of the most absurd and ridiculous things I've read all morning. And I say this AFTER reading the paper and looking at Trump's tweets.

You're talking about a man who's taken not one but TWO teams to the World Number 1 rank and is renowned around the world for his tactics.

 

[Leo23]

This is one of the most absurd and ridiculous things I've read all morning. And I say this AFTER reading the paper and looking at Trump's tweets.

You're talking about a man who's taken not one but TWO teams to the World Number 1 rank and is renowned around the world for his tactics.

any half decent coach would have taken that south african team to the number one ranking. it was the most complete all round team of its era.

secondly he didn't have anything to do with pakistan's number one ranking,but he has had plenty to do with messing up our test team

we reached number one ranking due to misbah and waqar. they laid the foundation of our test team and another factor that helped us was the fact that we had a very settled batting lineup and batting order but mickey has ensured that it is no longer the case

 

[Hamza_]

Surely if Haris Sohail is taking wickets then a genuine spinner would have been much more effective?

 

[jnaveen1980]

He is coaching a poor Test team.

 

[Leo23]

He is coaching a poor Test team.

a poor test team that drew in england and became the number 1?

 

[Hamza_]

What a pathetic decision to have Azhar Ali back at #3.

 

[CricFan2012]

a poor test team that drew in england and became the number 1?

also have to keep in mind that sarfr is captaining his first test match.

i believe that mickey is a great coach overall

 

[htariq25]

2 days in a test match and ppl making threads he's a poor test coach. Typical Pakistani fans. Like I said THE WORST.

 

[Abdul]

2 days in a test match and ppl making threads he's a poor test coach. Typical Pakistani fans. Like I said THE WORST.

You didn't even bother reading what the OP wrote, he made some very good points.

 

[Yaasir]

Over reaction.

 

[Madplayer]

I think we all are forgetting that Mickey is new to UAE. These are conditions which you dont find anywhere in the world. We should give him time to get acclimatised and device proper strategies for this part of the world.

He probably thought the ball will reverse swing and hence went with 3 pacers. It has obviously not worked.

I think this will end in a draw although things do start to speed up on 4th and 5th day in UAE.

 

[Abdullah]

People are behaving like SL amassed some amazing kind of score for this part off the world.
It is a par score!!
Pak should be looking to go 150 beyond and apply pressure back end of 2maw

 

[Justcrazy]

People are behaving like SL amassed some amazing kind of score for this part off the world.
It is a par score!!
Pak should be looking to go 150 beyond and apply pressure back end of 2maw

This will be a draw.

 

[jnaveen1980]

a poor test team that drew in england and became the number 1?

Blanked by AUstralia, New zealand. Lost a couple of tests to a bottom ranked team like West Indies All happened after the drawn series. Heck even West Indies beat England in a test.

 

[Usman Chadda]

Blanked by AUstralia, New zealand. Lost a couple of tests to a bottom ranked team like West Indies All happened after the drawn series. Heck even West Indies beat England in a test.

What does that say about India who have been getting thrashed consistently in England since the last 5 years?

 

[mak36]

I see the knives are out already...

 

[jnaveen1980]

What does that say about India who have been getting thrashed consistently in England since the last 5 years?

We return the favor with interest consistently when they tour us. India is yet to tour England under Kohli. India has won 19 out of 29 tests captained by Kohli. only lost 3. That too one was due to ambitious run chase at the Gabba. Anywho India being a poor test side will make Pakistan a better test side? Not sure how that works out.

 

[saeed5646]

I see the knives are out already...

so far he have not the most impressive record in tests but it is still not that bad either after

playing in eng,aus nz

9 losses and 6 wins since his tenure in test under mickey .if we draw current test and win last

test against Sl it will become decent record with 7 wins and 9 losses

 

[Markhor]

Mickey - 2 spinners in the UAE from now on please.

 

[Mueez]

Thoughts about Mickey Arthur as a Test coach?

As all of you guys know, Pakistan are in great form in LOI but in the five-day format it isn't going that well. Even under Misbah's captaincy, we lost some important test matches, where I think the coach could be blamed for. Another example is that he pursued the idea of 3 fast bowlers and 1 spinner in the latest test series!

Record of his tenure coaching the Pakistani test team;
2 all England vs Pakistan
2-1 for Pakistan vs West Indies
2-0 for New Zealand against Pakistan
3-0 for Australia vs Pakistan
2-1 for Pakistan vs West Indies
And a shameful 2-0 for Sri Lanka vs Pakistan



So thoughts about Mickey Arthur as a test coach??

 

[NauV]

He did take SAF to No. 1 & did exceptionally well with PAK in UK. What I understand is that, he is absolutely clueless when it comes to Test strategy in spinning condition, more precisely in UAE - not only with PAK, I found him really poor with AUS team in their previous tour of IND, which ended 4-0, after winning all 4 tosses & probably 3 innings defeats.

This time, picked wrong combination, wrong bowlers & still backing his decisions - which means, he will do the same in future as well.

I have another theory . .

ODIs, he was really able to permeate through the minds and culture of the team and leave an impression . . kinda, start from the beginning . . he had a clean slate because the team was poor to begin with . . he focused on fundamentals like fitness, attitude, culture, brand of cricket, instilling young players . . so on and so forth . . and initailly it was tough, it " seems " that it's coming to fruition now . . He was really able to build a culture around the changing nature of LOI cricket . .

Tests, is a completely different ball game . . When he took over, the Pakistan team was probably playing some of the best cricket! Misbah was a very strong leader/captain with a massive influence on the team and culture! and for good reason, cuz the team was on its way to number 1 . . so my theory is that he didnt feel he needed to change much and perhaps, didn't even have the same level of leverage/clout to change things around in the test team with the presence of strong leaders in the team who had done well for a period of time . .

Now this series was the first series without Misbah and Younis . . and I do think he would have learnt a lot . . some of his comments like . . "I am not convinced we have the best players playing in the team" . . . " I am not sure what the best line up is" . . "We have a lot of soul searching to do" . . . and that tells me that he has realized that in test cricket we are where we were in LOI 1 year ago . . where there were a lot of questions and no answers . .

In conclusion, I think with a new team and captain . . and given that Mickey's clout in test cricket will rise too, he would be able to put the team on the right track . .

I am a firm believer, that Mickey Arthur is the best thing that has happened to Pakistan cricket in the last 10 years . . and that doesn't mean that everyone has to agree with everything that he does . . Yes, I agree it was foolish to not play 2 spinners in the UAE when Misbah gave you a tried and tested template of success for the last 7 years . . but hey, I guess its a learning experience for everyone . . If Mickey really wanted to play 3 fast bowlers, I would have hoped that Sarfaraz (playing with Misbah in the UAE for 5 years) would tell him that we win in hte UAE by playing 2 spinners . . anyway, I think this series was an eye opener for him . . I foresee some changes in the future . .pity, we don't play anotoher test for 7 months