Pakistan struggling because of 'No cricket at home': Muralitharan

Muralitharan, who is in UAE with the Australian team as spin bowling consultant said “I think they were struggling against Sri Lanka as well.”

The 42-year-old said “Thing is that Pakistan have lots of young players who are not experienced much as before I think mainly because they are not playing in the home and they are developing lot of young cricketers and that is why I think they are struggling.

“So when it comes to this standard it takes some time to learn this standard. So that is why they are struggling”, he added.

Talking about Pakistan’s defeat in the first ODI, the world record holder spinner said the pitch took more turn in the second half which caused problems to their batsmen.

“I have played lot of matches here and we know the wicket so much so we thought it is good to bat first and later on it might turn a little bit more”, he said.

Pakistan has not hosted any international cricket at home since terrorists attacks on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in 2009 and are forced to play their home series on neutral venues of United Arab Emirates.