Nottingham: Pakistan skipper Sarfaraz Ahmad has already turned his focus on triumphing over India despite their last defeat to Australia. He has appealed to their fans to come out and support his team against India.
In the match against Australia at Taunton, even though Pakistan fans outnumbered the Australians, and they were cheering their team all the way, his team could not pull off a victory. However, he was happy with the support he got, and said: “Whenever Pakistan comes to England to play cricket, we always get big support since many Pakistanis come to the ground. A big thank you to the crowd for always encouraging us. We look forward to their support for our match against India as well.”
Sarfaraz is so much focused on beating India at Manchester on Sunday that he apparently feels that the Indian team has been given wickets that are batsmen friendly where as his team has had to play on green and bouncy wickets.
In a newspaper from Pakistan called Jang that was distributed at Taunton, it has been mentioned that Safaraz has told a source close to him, and which was also quoted in Geo News, that “India always get wickets which are good for batting and suitable for spinners. Such wickets suit Asian teams. However, the Pakistan team is almost always made to play on more challenging surfaces in ICC events, like the one at Taunton.”
The skipper now wants his team to give their best against India, and remarked: “We need to improve in all three aspects of the game if we hope to beat bigger teams like Australia and India,” he said. He expressed deep disappointment at his team’s fielding in the match against the Aussies, and wants to ensure they improve before the India match. “I definitely think our fielding has not been up to the mark. But we will work hard before the India match,” he said.
Hoping to take positivity out of their last match, he cited Mohammad Amir’s spell of 5 for 30 from his allotted 10 overs as a big boost for his team, and hopes to continue in that spirit as they work towards their match against India. “Mohammad Amir bowled really well,” said Sarfaraz. “And after that, Wahab Riaz’s batting was fantastic. He played a crucial inning. I hope my team is inspired by these performances and carry this positivity into our next matches.”
