Pakistan Head Coach Mickey Arthur has backed his team to put up a good show ahead of the upcoming Test series against South Africa.
The Men in Green arrived in South Africa on Friday for a 54-day tour — which includes three Tests, five ODIs and three T20Is — and while speaking during his first press conference, Arthur was optimistic about his team’s chances despite the challenging prospects.
“It's good to be back here [in South Africa]. We have come here with an exciting young Test team that is starting to gel. We think we have a good chance here,” said Arthur.
Pakistan lost the recently concluded three-match Test series against New Zealand in United Arab Emirates but Arthur believes that the team was unlucky in terms of results as they were in the ascendancy for most of the time during the series.
"The New Zealand series [result] was tough for us and hard for us to take because we sort of dominated for 75% of those Tests but ended up losing the series 2-1. But for one hour of each of the 1st and 3rd Test matches, we would have been sitting in a totally different position,” he said. "This is not to discredit New Zealand at all; I thought they were outstanding and played really good cricket."
Speaking about the team’s limited-overs cricket, Arthur said that the side has showed good signs — in terms of progress — in ODI cricket, while he was full of praise for their performance in the shortest format of the game.
"We have been playing unbelievable white ball cricket,” he said. "Our 50-over team is on the way up, our Twenty20 team's been exceptional."
Pakistan's two wins out of 12 Tests in South Africa came in 1998 and 2007, having lost nine with just one draw.
On their last tour in 2013, Pakistan were routed 3-0 and bowled out for their lowest Test score of 49 in the first Test in Johannesburg.
Pakistan open the tour with a three-day game against Cricket South Africa Invitation XI at Benoni from December 19.
The first Test match between the two sides is on Boxing Day — December 26, 2018 — in Centurion.