PAK vs ENG: Pakistan’s spinners haven’t bowled as well as they could have, says Micky Arthur after World Cup exit

Pakistan’s director of cricket Micky Arthur said that their spinners did not bowl as well as they could have in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023. England beat Pakistan by 93 runs in their final group-stage match at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday, November 11.

ENG vs PAK Scorecard | World Cup 2023 Points Table

Speaking in the post-match press conference, Arthur said Pakistan’s spinners did not bowl as well as they could have. Out of the three Pakistan spinners that faced England, only Iftikhar Ahmed managed to pick a wicket in Kolkata.

“It would be unfair of me to pigeonhole that as a criticism. And the spinners would be the first to say they probably haven’t bowled as a group as well as they could have. And that’s a work on for us. Our brand of cricket, the way we play our cricket, requires us to have two spinners playing and a third one as your sixth or seventh,” said Arthur.

He went on to say that Pakistan deserved to finish fifth in the points table, insisting that inconsistency does not breed success. Pakistan won four matches, while losing five in the 2023 World Cup.

“Inconsistency, unfortunately, doesn’t breed success. But that is no excuse at all. The fact is, we haven’t played well enough. We finished fifth, and fifth is where we deserve to finish with the cricket that we’ve played over the last six weeks,”

Pakistan crashed out of the semi-final race when they failed to chase down the target of 338 runs within 6.4 overs. Despite having eight points from eight games, Pakistan had an opportunity to surpass New Zealand’s net run rate if they could achieve the challenging task.

As for England, they registered their third win in the tournament to book their spot in the 2025 Champions Trophy by finishing seventh in the points table.