Have no option, but to attack Indian top order: Arthur

According to Arthur, India’s top-order has done marvelously well and the middle-order has not been tested throughout the competition, so if Pakistan want to create a chance for themselves, they’ll have to focus their attack on Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli who have been scoring the bulk of the runs for the men in blue.

“We have to (attack), we’ve got no option. We’ve got to try and make that new ball really work for us. We’ve got to try and get into them,” Arthur said. 

“That middle order haven’t had massive hits, they haven’t batted much under pressure of late. So we’ve got to try and put them under extreme pressure particularly by knocking their top order over,” he added. The Pakistan coach believes that if his players can do that, they have got a real chance of getting to India’s underbelly. 

If Dhawan reaches 50 in the final, he’ll have got there more often than any other batsman ever in the Champions Trophy. Of the men to have recorded 10+ ODI innings since January 2016, Kohli (98) and Rohit Sharma (72) have the highest batting averages.