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ICC CHAMPIONS TROPHY

June 3, 2017

Mickey Arthur

Edgbaston, Birmingham

Approved by Tim

Q. Mickey, noticed quite a bit of focus on Junaid Khan in nets this morning. Are we expecting him to play a key role tomorrow?
MICKEY ARTHUR: No. To be brutally honest, we picked a squad of 12. We'll make a decision on our final combination tomorrow morning.

Q. You just said that you've finalized a squad of 12, so who are the three unlucky guys?
MICKEY ARTHUR: The three are Junaid Khan, Haris Sohail and Fakhar Zaman.

Q. Might be something going on between Anil Kumble and Virat Kohli. Is everything right with you and the captain? (Laughter) And do you think that he'll get any advantage between the scuffle between the captains?
MICKEY ARTHUR: To be honest, we don't know what's going on. That's India's problem, to be honest. All I know is that the captain/coach relationship is almost like a marriage. You've got to be on the same page all the time. And if you're on the same page you get correct decisions and you give clarity to your team. And that's certainly where Saf and myself find ourselves very much on the same page.

As I've said, I've had the privilege of working with so many good captains in my time and Saffy is right up there as one I'm really going to enjoy working with, in terms of our relationship going forward.

Q. Mickey, you have experienced what it means when you coach Australia and play England. Do you understand now what it means when you coach Pakistan and play India?
MICKEY ARTHUR: Yeah, I'm certainly finding that out. The passion, the excitement, the expectation. Those are all words that come to mind, and it's fantastic. I just can't wait for tomorrow. The team can't wait for tomorrow.

We've been here for 12 days now. We came out of a pretty successful tour of the West Indies. Players have got clear role clarity. Everybody knows how they fit in. Everybody knows what the expectations are and what's required. We're excited. We just can't wait to get out there. And the occasion is going to be massive, and I'm really looking forward to being part of it.

Q. What's different from The Ashes?
MICKEY ARTHUR: To be honest, I got sacked just before The Ashes. So I never ever experienced that. (Laughter) I experienced the planning. I didn't experience the actual -- but I did experience playing against England as the Australian coach.

But more to the point in terms of the rivalry I've had it's been South Africa, Australia. And that is always -- that was always a massive series for myself and the team when I was the South African coach because that was the team we always liked to beat.

So that was the closest I've probably come to this rivalry. But I think this rivalry is certainly bigger than most and again just so excited to be part of it.

Q. 18-year-old Shadab Khan, do you think he's ready for such a big occasion, ready for such a big match?
MICKEY ARTHUR: If you're good enough, you're old enough. That's what I always say. And I think Shadab Khan is certainly good enough. How we go about our combination tomorrow, I'm not sure. That's something we'll work out.

He's good enough. He's ready. If he gets the opportunity, I'm particularly confident in his ability to produce for us.

And he's a match-winner. He really is a match-winner. I just think it's so exciting. It's another young Pakistan cricketer on the big stage and that's really great. It's really good for the country and it's really good for cricket.

Q. You know more than most, better than most about security issues and teams not coming to Pakistan. With a big high profile game like this, can you tell us were events in England dealt with differently? Was there concern in your camp about the situation over here at the moment?
MICKEY ARTHUR: To be honest, we didn't fuss with that. As cricket staff and cricket coaches and players, we left it in the capable hands of our staff to sort out. And our security staff were confident. They put some things in place, I think, in the hotel and it was all good.

So we didn't -- certainly didn't clammer our minds with the security issue. We were pretty confident it would be dealt with in an appropriate way.

Q. South Africa said that there was some uneasiness in their squad about the trouble over here. You didn't notice anything amongst your players any concern at all?
MICKEY ARTHUR: No, our players were good. They got on with what they had to do. The players have been fantastic. They've trained the house down. They've been great and they haven't worried about anything outside the cricket. So they've been really, really good.

Q. 300 teams of the past go here and strike-rate of Pakistan's opening batsmen is on the lower side. Do you think Fakhar Zaman could have created a difference? But he's been left out of the 12?
MICKEY ARTHUR: Yeah, he could have. The two guys that we've been working with have done exceptionally -- we've worked massively on our ball rotation, on our strike rates.

That's something that we've prioritized in terms of our preparation. We knew that we needed to play a different brand of cricket, and we're working on it. It's a work in progress.

We've got to play with what our best combinations are, and we feel that the team that we put on the ground tomorrow is going to be a team that we feel can beat India.

You pick your team based on conditions, and you pick a team based on your opposition.

We feel that we've covered all bases with the 12 that we have. And we'll make that final decision tomorrow. But we've got a lot of faith and a lot of confidence in our opening pair.

Q. Last year, when you came to Australia, you said that Babar Azam reminded you of Virat Kohli a fair bit. Coming into this game, do you have to give him any special instructions given it's against India he's playing against? As a coach, what do you say to him?
MICKEY ARTHUR: Babar has had an unbelievable year. His year has been fantastic in One-Day cricket and across all formats. It's been a learning year for him. Test cricket, he's ridden the rough with the smooth a little bit.

One-Day cricket, he's been phenomenal. His strike-rate has been great. His technique is very, very good. He scores well. He runs well between wickets. There's a lot of expectation on Babar's shoulders now.

He's only 23, but he's an integral part of our batting lineup. He knows that. He's worked hard. He's prepared well. There's certainly no special message for him. It's just more of the same, because his record at the moment in One-Day cricket is particularly good.

Q. Ever since you took over, you've been speaking about the old style of ODI cricket Pakistan play. Has it changed or is it changing?
MICKEY ARTHUR: It's changing. It's changing. Certainly in terms of awareness. Certainly in terms of brand of cricket. It is changing.

I'm comfortable where we're at. I thought the last two ODIs in the West Indies we were very, very good. And it's been well-documented. But in the first ODI, I thought we could have got another 20 runs in that one.

Saying that, we still got 306. And I think that's -- I think that's testimony to the change that the guys have made in terms of their mindset.

It was very interesting to read the other day -- I go through the stats quite regularly -- was that in the last year we've scored the third-most amount of 300s. England are way, way ahead, but Pakistan is number three on that list. And I think that's testimony to the brand of cricket that we are starting to play.

Q. You touched on this earlier. But as an overseas coach, is it an advantage that you have in this match that you were able to sort of draw the heat out of the India/Pakistan rivalry? Are you able to sort of calm things down in your own dressing room, or actually are you looking to sort of rev the players up and get them to buy into the sort of the derby mentality?
MICKEY ARTHUR: To be honest, we don't have to do anything. The players have been outstanding. The way they've approached -- I've said in the dressing room, it's the most mature I've seen them around the day before training session.

What we do is our training session is particularly structured leading up until the game. The day before the game is totally up to the players what they want.

And when we started this, the players would go and hit balls and hit balls and wouldn't really know when to stop. Today, we were short. We were sharp. People got exactly what they wanted out of the training nets.

They have topped their skills up, and they're ready for a big game. Our changing room was completely calm. It's amazing.

It's just the outside -- it's the outside noise that there is. Within the dressing room, it is unbelievably calm, unbelievably focused and very, very excited for the challenge that presents itself tomorrow.

Q. So as far as you're concerned, the players are just treating this like just another game, even though it's an India/Pakistan match?
MICKEY ARTHUR: Yeah, we know for us to progress in this tournament, we've got to hit the ground running. So whether it was against South Africa, whether it was against Sri Lanka, the intensity and the expectation, certainly from myself as coach and I'm sure from the captain, would have been exactly the same.

It's just a different opposition, and there's a little bit of hype. And it's a massive game. But every game for us in this competition is massive.

We can't take our foot off the pedal in any game, and we can't think, ah, it's India, we have to just lift ourselves, because that would be very unprofessional.

We lift ourselves for every game. We prepare the same for every game. And the expectation on the intensity and skill levels that we display is exactly the same for any opposition.

Q. You just said that your players are -- you've seen a lot of maturity in the dressing room. You've said they're calm and prepared. A handful of players will be playing for the first time, most likely. How do you kind of, on a day of a match like tomorrow, you said it's the biggest rivalry -- you calm their nerves. What do you tell them?
MICKEY ARTHUR: They can only control it themselves. And the only way you control that nervous tension is in your preparation.

So it's always -- we always talk about it's like the exam. If you've crammed for an exam and you go in and write it, you're always on edge. You're always nervous. You always show a lot of tension because you know you haven't done the work.

But if you prepared properly, you'll be nervous but it will be an excited nervousness because you know you're ready. You know you've prepared. There's nothing more you could have done and then you just gotta go out and execute.

That's where we find ourselves as a team at the moment: Extremely well prepared and ready to go.

Q. I assume that you watched the match yesterday. Just obviously despite -- ignoring the rain that was about, what did you make of the conditions? There wasn't much swing. And the two teams took a very different amount of time, I guess, to adjust their bowling plans when they found that. Does that change your approach or affect it?
MICKEY ARTHUR: A little bit, to be honest. It was interesting to see, and I think the wicket is probably, according to the groundsmen, going to be just a little bit quicker tomorrow.

Yeah, I thought Australia probably adjusted a little bit too late. We eventually saw a lot of cross-seam deliveries. We saw a lot of change of pace. And I think that's how we've got to go.

So when Saf and I sit down tomorrow and have a look at the unit we want to take out, we've got to offer ourselves options. And that's what we've tried to do with our attack, is offer ourselves options.

I think the team that's going to win this competition is the team that can strike. Gone are the days of just containing through the middle. Gone are the days of just soaking up pressure. And if you can go at five and a halves or whatever you're doing a good job, those days are gone.

You've got to be able to take wickets. We always say you pick an attack to take wickets, and that's what we're trying to do tomorrow. Every one of our attack that we put out in the park tomorrow is going to be able to do something different and offer Saf something different.

If you look, we've got a left-arm swinger, could have left-arm pace. We've got the swing and hustle and in swing of Hassan.

We've got a left-arm spinner. We could have a leg spinner. We've got an off spinner. We've got everything at our disposal tomorrow to allow Saf to pull the strings to make sure we can try to bowl India out. Because that's got to be priority number one. We can't just sit back and let them score. We've got to attack them and we've got to look to bowl them out.

Checked by Wisden India

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