Summary Hard hitting and fielding will be the priorities of coaching staff in training sessions.
GEORGETOWN (Daily Dunya) – Pakistan team have reached Guyana, the one-day international (ODI) series venue, and training sessions of players will be started from today (Wednesday), reported Roznama Dunya.
According to details, hard hitting and fielding will be the priorities of coaching staff. Head coach Mickey Arthur has also admitted that Pakistan are not playing modern cricket.
Arthur said that we are struggling at the moment because we lack players who can hit the ball out of ground, and that is why special attention is being given to hard hitting. Fielding coach Steve Rixon is also working on players to get rid of drop catches.
Furthermore, players will also do bowling and batting practices in the nets to conquer the Windies in their own den.
Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, will host all three ODI matches at Providence Stadium that will be played on April 7, 9 and 11.
Asif Zakir, Fahim Ashraf and Mohammad Asghar will make their ODI debuts against the West Indies. Ahmed Shehzad and Kamran Akmal are making a comeback after sitting out of ODI squad for a while. Mohammad Amir was not selected of the Twenty20 (T20) series but will be in action in the ODIs.
It is worth mentioning here that the ODI series of Pakistan against West Indies holds extreme significance regarding the direct qualification for 2019 World Cup (WC).
Only top eight teams will qualify directly for the WC, and two teams will reach the mega event after playing qualifying round.
At the moment, Pakistan hold eighth spot in the ODI rankings, whereas, West Indies are at number nine.
For Pakistan to ensure their direct qualification, they have to win all three matches of the series as West Indies have proposed Afghanistan to play against them in June.
If Pakistan do not beat West Indies in all games, then the five-point difference between Windies and Green Shirts might reduce owing to the West Indies-Afghanistan series. It will be comparatively easy for West Indies to beat Afghanistan in their home and climb to eighth spot, which will put Pakistan’s chances of qualifying for 2019 WC at risk.
Earlier, Pakistan beat West Indies in the four-match T20 series by 3-1, and will hope to give good performance in ODIs as well.
