India vs Pakistan | Unpredictable Tag Makes Us Exciting: Mickey Arthur

Manchester: 'Unpredictable' is an adjective that's often associated with Pakistan. Their coach Mickey Arthur is not always a fan of the tag, as he'd prefer them to be consistent and structured rather than mercurial, but said it makes his side 'exciting'.

Speaking in Manchester ahead of their World Cup game against India, Arthur said, "I like to think we've become a lot more structured as a team. I think there's been a lot more role clarity given to players, and hopefully that bridges the gap between being consistent and being inconsistent."

"I certainly think our gap between being very, very good and very bad is a lot closer, and I do think that we're playing a game now that is a little bit more consistent. I really do believe that.

"But that unpredictability tag always sort of hangs around the Pakistan team, and that makes us very exciting. I don't particularly like, you know, when the commentators talk about 'oh, it depends which Pakistan team is racked up today', because, as coaches we prepare those guys exceptionally well every time to make sure that, when they go on the field, they're ready to deliver and ready to fire. But we are exciting, and I know there's a massive amount of excitement in that dressing room tomorrow as to the opportunity that tomorrow presents."

Arthur was not stressed about other tags like 'favourites' too. Two years back, India came into their Champions Trophy final match against Pakistan as favourites only for Sarfaraz Ahmed's side to win easily. Arthur said such tags made no difference and the game was a thing of the past.

"No, that's a long time ago. We're concentrating at the moment on our own games because we know, if we put three disciplines together, we can beat anybody in the world," he said. "We're comfortable with our game plans. We're comfortable with our personnel. We're comfortable with our players. We've just got to get them into the optimum space to go out there and perform tomorrow.

"We haven't put the perfect game together yet. Our disciplines have been good with the bat, have been okay with the ball and okay in the field. If we put the perfect game together, we can beat everybody, and we're confident of that, and the dressing room is very, very confident of that fact."

Arthur called on his side to give everything they have on the field and not be tentative about their game.

"When we get a little bit tentative, we tend to fall off the ball a little bit, and the message for the boys tomorrow is not to hold back," he said. "We want to leave everything out on the ground, whether that's with bat, ball, or in the field. And if we do that, if we do that and not play a tentative game, we play a game where we take the game on, which has been our mantra for a period of time now, hopefully, it clicks and everything goes well.

"It only takes one moment of magic. It only takes one moment of brilliance, and it needs one guy to stand up and do that, particularly early in the game for us."

Arthur said Pakistan have been on the verge of playing their A game, but conceded they haven't grabbed the key moments.

"We know we've been very close. We've been very close in most games. We just haven't grabbed the moments when they've presented themselves, and that's something we've spoken about as a group," he said. "In every game we've played - and I go back to the one-day series (against England) as well - There were moments in the game that presented themselves for them to win, and we just didn't take the moments when they presented themselves. That's something we're working on.

"I definitely do think that through a World Cup, when you're playing nine games, you're not going to win every game, but it's getting that momentum towards the back end of the tournament that's really, really important, and it's round about that time for us. Hopefully tomorrow, we can string that perfect game together."