Dubai - Pakistan will have to fight hard to recover from the impact of a defeat to arch-rivals India on Wednesday in the Unimoni Asia Cup.The person, who will have to lift the spirits of the team, is coach Mickey Arthur.

Speaking to Gulf News about why after their batting failed,  Arthur said: “We went away from our plans too quickly. On a wicket like that you need to strike early if you are going to defend, but we didn’t do that. We need to sit down and talk about it.”

Arthur then explained what went wrong with the batting too. “Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah bowled well and assessed the conditions well,” said Arthur. “We were soft at the top of the order, we thought we could have defended 250-260 but we didn’t get there. I thought Babar (Azam) and (Shoaib) Malek batted well and after that we didn’t bat well. There was some panic when we didn’t strike early and then our bowlers went away from the plan.”

Arthur considers it as a bad day for Pakistan. “It was a poor bad day. We were below par today which is very disappointing,” he said. Arthur then went on to remind everyone of the team’s record in Dubai. “We have played some pretty good cricket here, this is the first time we have lost a one-day match here in 17 matches,” he said. “We are coming at the back of seven ODI wins albeit against different oppositions but still we have played well but we didn’t play well tonight and there are no excuses.”

To a query on whether he is worried about skipper Sarfraz Ahmad’s poor form, Arthur said: “Certainly not a worry about his batting position at all. He is playing well. We sort of batted out of roles, which was disappointing. It’s not Imam’s role to run down the pitch to Kumar in the third over. It’s not Sarfraz’s role to hit over the top and get caught. We have given roles to the batsmen, if Fakhar gets out like that then it’s OK because that’s what he needs to do. If Asif (Ali) gets out like that then it’s OK because that is his role but other four batsmen have to take responsibility. I just thought we were soft, a 128 dot balls out of 258 faced not good enough.”

Arthur admitted that Mohammad Amir’s lack of wickets is a worry. “Yes, that’s a concern,” he said. “I will be lying if I sat here and said it wasn’t. I had a good long chat with him and I think he bowled well tonight. I thought he hit the crease hard, he ran in well, he has been decelerating to the crease but he didn’t do against India. There was a little bit more pace and I was comfortable that he bowled well but of course there is pressure on him.”

Arthur feels that India were better than Pakistan due to many reasons. “India are a very good team. We are also a good team but they were better today. They executed their plans and disciplines well. They bowled better lengths. I am confident that I have players in the dressing room who can stand against India on a given day and win.”