Arthur: 'We did the simple things wrong'

"We do the simple things wrong. We drop simple catches. We don't run well enough between wickets. We don't hit the keeper with our throws. We don't understand when to bowl our variations,” said Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur after his team's heavy defeat to India.

Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur discusses with the players after the team's defeat to India.

A disappointed Mickey Arthur rued Pakistan's failure to do the 'simple things' right after Sunday's heavy defeat to India at Edgbaston.

“The worrying thing for me, and it has been for a period of time, is we just do the basics wrong. We do the simple things wrong. We drop simple catches. We don't run well enough between wickets. We don't hit the keeper with our throws. We don't understand when to bowl our variations,” he said.

Pakistan had not been entirely confident, Arthur felt. “My issue is fear. We had a couple of guys that were in the clouds at the start. And that sets the tone.”

While admitting that the result was a “reality check of where we are in our one-day cricket at the moment”, Arthur bristled at the suggestion that Pakistan was playing worse than when he took over a year ago. “That's a total insult to say we're playing even worse. If you have a look at our records over the last year, we've won two series. We've got ourselves from No. 9 to No. 8, and our brand of cricket has changed. We had a poor game today and the change is not going to happen overnight.”

Arthur denied that Wahab Riaz, who walked off with an ankle injury, was not fully fit before the match. “Let's get something straight first off. Wahab Riaz was fully fit. He went through a fitness test; he was declared fully fit,” he said. “He performed poorly today. And I'll take the blame, me, I'll take it. I selected him. I selected him because I wanted him to perform a role. He didn't execute that role, unfortunately. Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn't.”