Sharjah. Sri Lankan coach Nic Pothas, hailing his opponents Pakistan as a formidable One-day team, is hoping that his team’s batters will play positively in the fifth and final One-match of the series at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Monday.
Pothas gave the biggest compliment to the Pakistan team that have been beaten them 4-0 in the series by stating that even if their players are woken up at 3am, all of them can execute their roles.
Answering to a query on how disappointing it has been for him after Sri Lanka had trounced Pakistan in the Test series, Pothas said: “It is disappointing but we are also playing a different Pakistan team. You have to take that into account. Their (Pakistan) Test squad is in transition as they lost three legends of the game. We certainly know what that feels like. We build a Test team so we are very happy with the result of the Test team but the One day team, the Pakistan team, winners of the Champions Trophy, are on a roll. They are playing good one day cricket and they got their formula down. So they can wake up at three in the morning and can go and execute their roles and skills. They are in a very good place. We probably know we are in a different place. As much as it is disappointing, it is also unstable.”
Pothas wants his batters to play positively at least in the last match. “We just want the batters to be a little more positive about the way they go about things. We also understand we need to be in the right mental frame of mind to be there. So our job is to try and give the players the freedom to be able to play their way. It is going to be a very good wicket again (at Sharjah) and it is not the biggest boundary in the world. So we are always looking to just improve.”
Pothas went on to explain why players need to play positively even in defeat. “Batters always play better when it is positive. His decision making gets better, his feet movement will be better and there will be an intent to score if you stay in a positive mind. It has been the same message all the way through. Execution is the toughest part, so hopefully we can go and execute that a little bit better.”
When Pothas was asked to comment on Pakistan skipper Safraz Ahmad’s remark that Pakistan has best bowling attack in the world, Pothas said: “Hundred per cent I agree with that. When a team is winning, it’s pretty easy to bring new players into their team because there is a good culture, there is a confident culture. It is pretty easy to just drop people into that kind of environment. It is not easy when you are not winning. So they certainly they do have one of the best bowling line ups in the world. You can’t argue with results and argue with numbers.”
Is Pothas confident that his young team will become better in one and half year and be strong for the World Cup? “I don’t think we can call this a young team. We have some very senior guys in this team that have handled lot of one day cricket. We need to go back and reflect on the last two ODI series (against India and Pakistan). When you keep losing, something has to change,” he said.
