New era about to begin for Pakistan: Mickey Arthur

Pakistan’s head coach Mickey Arthur is confident of coming up with a good show in the upcoming series against Sri Lanka. Team Pakistan is all set to take on the islanders in the Test series that commences on Thursday. This Test would be the first Test for the Pakistan team after the retirement of their veteran duo Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq.

As per the recent quotes in Geo.tv, Arthur remarked that the team is all set to embark on a new era now. With their senior players retired, Arthur looked excited for the upcoming challenges. He also mentioned that it will not be easy tackling Sri Lanka. He is in no mood to take them lightly.

“A new era is about to begin for [Pakistan cricket] after Misbah and Younis. Sri Lanka won’t be an easy opponent,” quoted Mickey Arthur.

On Yasir Shah’s fitness

Over the last few years, leggie Yasir Shah has been the prime bowler for the Pakistani team in the longest format of the game. In the recent times though, there have been concerns over his fitness. Speaking about the same, Mickey Arthur remarked that Yasir is fully fit and is bowling well in the nets.

“Yasir has been bowling with [full rhythm] in the nets, we have no fitness problems so far,” said the Pakistan head coach.

New look squad

Talking about the Pakistani squad that has been named for the series, there are as many as 5 rookie players in the list. Young pace bowler Mir Hamza has earned a place in the side. All-rounder Bilal Asif and left armer Mohammad Asghar have got the call ups too. Among the batsmen, Haris Sohail and Usman Salahuddin have been named in the squad. All these five players are yet to make their international Test debuts for team Pakistan.