LAHORE: Making it crystal clear that physical fitness would be one of the top priorities in national team selection for the forthcoming West Indies tour and beyond, head coach Mickey Arthur on Saturday insisted Pakistan would need to change their ODI brand of cricket in order to achieve sustained success.

“After the players’ fitness tests, which started today, a 50-overs-a-side practice match will be played on March 15, and then the final squad(s) will be announced for the West Indies tour,” Arthur said during a press conference on the opening day of the national training camp at the Gaddafi Stadium here on Saturday,

“This [physical fitness] is what we are striving for,” he maintained. “It actually starts at the training ground, starts around the attitude towards fitness [and] once you get those, it’s easier to get the package in terms of the match.”

Apparently, the South Africa-born head coach reckoned, the players’ fitness level was looking better, claiming that during his first eight months of coaching the Pakistan team, the standard of fitness had improved.

Coach believes Sarfraz will be instrumental in changing ODI team’s fortunes

Still, Arthur warned Pakistan cricketers’ fitness level was not at par with the other top teams of the world.

Pakistan are scheduled to undertake a full West Indies tour starting on March 26. Four T20 Internationals followed by three ODIs and three Tests will be staged during the tour that will end with the May 10-14 Test at Roseau.

Underlining that his main target was to build a strong Pakistan team for the next 2019 World Cup in coordination with chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq, the head coach urged the players to “show consistency in their performance, which is only possible with constant training and better physical strength”.

Commenting on the possibility of convicted spot-fixer Salman Butt returning to the national fold, Arthur said the left-handed opener’s selection or that of any other player was the policy matter of the Pakistan Cricket board (PCB), and his job was only to train the players invited to the training camp.

Giving his views on forthcoming West Indies series, Arthur said the conditions in the Caribbean for the ODI leg of the tour were similar to those in the UAE where Pakistan had been playing their home series since 2010.

“Our three ODIs are in Guyana where conditions are going to be pretty similar to what we face at home [in the UAE]; so that’s good for us,” the 48-year-old said. “Spin will certainly play a role and we’ve certainly got the players to fit the game plan.”

However, the head coach believed Pakistan would require a major change in their ODI game to compete and win consistently. For this, Arthur said Sarfraz Ahmed, the newly-installed ODI captain and dashing wicket-keeper/batsman, could be instrumental.

“Pakistan have been playing a very conservative type of ODI cricket. This didn’t work when other teams are scoring 320-340 runs. We needed to go in a direction that Safi [Ahmed] enjoys playing,” the coach said of the struggling ODI side that have plummeted to eighth in ICC rankings.

Lauding the hard work of the team’s coaching staff in training national cricketers, Arthur noted that youngsters like Hasan Ali, Babar Azam and Imad Wasim showing improvement in their game was indeed a bright sign for Pakistan.

After the West Indies, the head coach noted, Pakistan had to play the ICC Champions Trophy under totally different conditions in England. “Only those cricketers will be selected for the Champions Trophy, who can perform better in those [English] conditions.”

Meanwhile, out of 31 probables called for the national training camp six players, all of Peshawar Zalmi, were absent.

They are Mohammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal, Wahab Riaz, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Asghar and Junaid Khan. They are expected to soon join the camp.

On Sunday, the camp probables will start practice.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2017