<\/p>\n
Coach Mickey Arthur hopes his team will have two wins under their belts before they face old rivals India in the eagerly-awaited World Cup blockbuster.<\/p>\n
The 1992 champions face the Netherlands first up in Hyderabad on Friday followed by Sri Lanka at the same venue four days later.<\/p>\n
Pakistan will then lock horns against India in Ahmedabad on October 14 in front of 132,000 fans in the world\u2019s biggest cricket arena.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be an unbelievable spectacle,\u201d said Arthur on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t wait for it, personally. Hopefully, we\u2019ve got two wins under the belt before we get to Ahmedabad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arthur praised the world\u2019s number one ODI team India.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndia are playing some fantastic cricket, but so are we,\u201d said Arthur. \u201cI just think it\u2019s going to be a great game. I can\u2019t wait for it, personally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pakistan will hope to overcome a poor show<\/a> in the recent Asia Cup where they suffered a 228-run rout at the hands of India and lost<\/a> by two wickets against Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n They also went down in both World Cup warm-up games against New Zealand and Australia, also in Hyderabad.<\/p>\n Arthur said his team will, however, be focused on the Netherlands rather than India.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not getting too far ahead of ourselves,\u201d said Arthur. \u201cFirst of all, the boys love being in India, which is fantastic.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pressure of a World Cup is always massive. But I think our boys are in a really good place.\u201d<\/p>\n The Pakistan Cricket Board appointed<\/a> Arthur in April this year for a second stint, doubling up on his job with Derbyshire in the English county championship.<\/p>\n He vowed to complete the unfinished business of winning a second World Cup to add to Pakistan\u2019s 1992 triumph.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt in 2019 we were very, very close,\u201d said Arthur despite Pakistan failing to reach the semi-finals.<\/p>\n \u201cThese young boys have now become men and have another four years\u2019 experience.<\/p>\n \u201cLook, they\u2019re a very close group because they\u2019ve played together for so long. They know each other backwards. They\u2019re not only teammates, but they\u2019re generally friends as well.\u201d<\/p>\n The pitch at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Hyderabad is known for high scores with New Zealand chasing 346 and Pakistan compiling 337 in a chase of 352 against Australia in the warm-ups.<\/p>\n \u201cIt looks an incredibly good wicket,\u201d said Arthur. \u201cThe wickets we had for the warm-up games were brilliant and this pitch looks no different. It looks like a very, very good one.\u201d<\/p>\n Arthur also played down concerns over the lack of form of opener Fakhar Zaman and spinning allrounder Shadab Khan.<\/p>\n \u201cI think form comes and goes,\u201d said Arthur. \u201cThe quality of these players that we have in those positions is undoubted. It\u2019s about making sure they are in a good space mentally, and then just hoping that they click tomorrow. \u201c<\/p>\n Separately, in a video posted by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on the social media platform X today, skipper Babar Azam said Pakistan would give their best in the 50-over spectacle.<\/p>\n He recalled that the team received an \u201cunexpected\u201d reception upon their arrival in India.<\/p>\n The skipper also talked about the absence of the home crowd element, saying: \u201cIf we had Pakistani supporters here, we would have received even more support.\u201d<\/p>\n Regarding the team\u2019s preparations for their opening match, the skipper said the national team spent a week in Hyderabad and experimented with various batting and bowling combinations in warm-up matches.<\/p>\n \u201cAs you\u2019re aware, our strength primarily lies in our fast bowlers. Since our arrival in India, our spinners have also performed admirably in the middle overs, consistently taking wickets.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is certainly a positive sign for the team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Azam stated that each player in the middle and lower-middle order was stepping up to fulfill their respective roles, which he said was encouraging.<\/p>\n He also expressed his satisfaction with the quality of pitches in the host country, describing them as \u201cvery good,\u201d and was hopeful that the matches would be \u201chigh scoring\u201d.<\/p>\n He also noted that the boundary distances appeared to be \u201cnormal\u201d.<\/p>\n Furthermore, Azam shared his perspective on Pakistan\u2019s bowling strategy, saying that bowlers were expected to employ variations and focus on bowling \u201cwicket to wicket\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Coach Mickey Arthur hopes his team will have two wins under their belts before they face old rivals India in the eagerly-awaited World Cup blockbuster. The 1992 champions face the Netherlands first up in Hyderabad on Friday followed by Sri Lanka at the same venue four days later. Pakistan will then lock horns against India […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/10\/051758535572f07.png?r=193409","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\u2018We will give our best,\u2019 says Babar<\/h2>\n