ICC World Cup 2023: ‘Play the Pakistan way’

Pakistan players during their practice session prior to the match against The Netherlands in Hyderabad yesterday. Pic/PTI

Expectations run high and so will the pressure of playing in India. Amidst this palpable tension, excitement and suspense, Pakistan kick-off their campaign against The Netherlands at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Friday.

The Asian Games was a big disaster. In fact, Pakistan have little to show in sports, barring cricket. Sadly, they have slipped badly in hockey and squash - disciplines in which they reigned supreme in the past. Although the odds are stacked against Pakistan, they will look for redemption from the Babar Azam-led team in this World Cup.

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The results are not encouraging for Pakistan in their run-up to the World Cup. They lost to India and Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka. After landing in Hyderabad, the Babar-led team suffered defeats in the two warm-up games against New Zealand and Australia.

Pressure on Pakistan

Is there any pressure? Mickey Arthur, director of Pakistan cricket, gave a big smile and said: "The boys have loved being here in India but the pressure of a World Cup is always massive. Our boys are really in a good place and part of the attraction for me is that it is a very similar squad to what we had in 2019 and it's almost unfinished business. I felt in 2019, we were very, very close there with these young boys. And those young boys have now become men and have become very experienced. These guys are ready for everything that's thrown at them in this competition."

Mickey Arthur

Arthur boasted that his team have one of the best attacks in the competition. "Our bowling attack is one of the best and with runs on the board, our bowlers can generally defend that. So, you watch the likes of England and Australia playing a brand of cricket, but we play a brand called the Pakistan way and it suits our team's dynamics and hopefully, we can win the World Cup with this."

Not bothered by the recent results, Arthur said: "Form comes and goes but the quality of the players in the positions is undoubted. We are just making sure that those guys are in a great space technically and mentally. Hopefully, they click tomorrow and from there, the confidence just grows. They are one performance away from getting their confidence and hopefully, we get that one tomorrow."

Pitch looks good

Being pretty happy with the venue, Arthur added, "it looks like an incredibly good wicket and the curator has done a great job."

For The Netherlands, it's a big thing to play in this World Cup and for the first time there will be live telecast in their country, according to Bas de Leede, whose father Tim also played in India in the 1996 World Cup. "We are excited and have spent quite a bit of time in India and the closer you are going to get to the first game, the more excited you are going to get. I think we are ready and we did spend some time in Bangalore and have the right prep for tomorrow's game," de Leede said.

The associate team are playing in the World Cup after a long time. They had beaten big guns like West Indies and Zimbabwe in the qualifiers in Zimbabwe before losing to Sri Lanka in the final. "It's been a long time for us in the World Cups and it's a very young group and we are in the right space to play against Pakistan tomorrow and hopefully beat them," said de Leede, who took a five-for and scored a century against Scotland in the qualifiers.

They have two players of Indian origin in Vikramjit Singh and Teja Nidamanuru. De Leede said for the Telugu-born Teja, it is a homecoming. "He has two ODI centuries and he has shown what he can do.''

But de Leede did agree that playing against the class of Shaheen Afridi will be a challenge. "Shaheen and Haris Rauf are two quality pacers and something we don't face too often is the left-arm swing. It was a wake-up call against Mitchell Starc the other day, but we still need to be confident in our abilities. Hopefully, we play Shaheen better than we played Starc the other day."