Karachi: Mickey Arthur has expressed support for the struggling captain in difficult times, saying that we need to give them the opportunity to move forward.

Pakistan team director Mickey Arthur has demanded that Babar Azam be retained as captain. In their last league match in the World Cup, the Green Shirts suffered a 93-run defeat at the hands of England. Due to the unsuccessful campaign, Captain Babar Azam is facing particular difficulty. In the event, he has not been able to perform well as a batter himself, adding to the pressure to relinquish captaincy.

Arthur wants to see Babar leading the team with strength. He mentioned that he stands with Babar and believes that he is very close. Babar is a young player, and he needs to move forward. His morale needs to be boosted, as he is consistently engaged in learning. We all know that he is an excellent batter, and he is continuously learning leadership. He should be allowed to move forward. As long as you are learning, mistakes are not a crime. We have made a lot of mistakes in this World Cup, but if this group moves forward and learns from this event, we will have a much better team.

Mickey Arthur understands two reasons for the poor performance in the World Cup. Firstly, he says that in terms of batting, we are also a team like India, South Africa, and Australia, scoring 330 to 350. Other teams reached the semi-finals, but we fell behind because we could only demonstrate it once when Fakhar Zaman presented his true game. Therefore, we cannot rely on just one player. The second issue is our bowling.

He said that Haris Rauf is not a new-ball bowler, and the unavailability of Naseem Shah due to an injury has caused us damage. He and Shaheen Afridi provide a good start, after which the spinners create their magic, and Haris Rauf contributes with the old ball. However, the balance of our attack was disrupted in the mega event. I’m not making excuses, but the truth is that we did not play well in this tournament.