5-0 loss against Australia 'incredibly hard': Arthur

Pakistan's cricket coach Micky Arthur said on Tuesday that the 5-0 loss against Australia was "incredibly hard", but accounted the poor performance to the lack of key players in the squad.

“We hate losing as a team — it’s not part of our vocabulary. Losing 5-0 was incredibly hard. We didn’t have our best team against Australia,” Arthur said while addressing a press conference in Lahore

He added that no compromises will be made on players' fitness with the World Cup right around the corner. “There will be no compromise on players’ fitness. We will conduct fitness tests on April 14. We will [then] sit down with the selection committee and make decisions about the World Cup squad.”

Arthur said that he and the management were sure about their squad picks for the World Cup and the strategy they would be using to train for the mega event.

Going back to Pakistan's dismal performance against the team from down under Arthur said, "The series against Australia was disappointing — but there were positive takeaways. We gave opportunity to new talent in order to test them."

He said that five centuries in the series and Hasnain's debut were the a major positive outcome from the games played against Australia.

Arthur further said that Sarfaraz is the management's first pick as a wicket keeper and new-comer Asif Ali will be focusing on taking the sixth spot i the batting lineup.

"We need to give him confidence," Arthur said.