The senior batter Babar Azam, former captain, had an extended practice there on Friday to bowl against several bowlers before the Champions Trophy clash with India in Dubai on Sunday. Following a 60-run defeat to New Zealand in the opening game in Karachi, Pakistan found itself in a do-or-die situation. The team trained for three hours at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, with all batters, except Skipper Mohammad Rizwan, going through a long 20-minute batting session.
Batting lynchpin Babar Azam batted against every bowler for a minimum of two overs. The former skipper had batted rather sedately against New Zealand for 64 runs off 90 balls.
Pacers Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf bowled their seven overs against him as they would be expected to play a key role in the match against the arch-rivals.
Pakistan’s interim coach Aaqib Javed, and captain Rizwan, had an extended team talk, with the former speaking mostly.
Faced with that question, former captain Shahid Afridi said India, going into the highly anticipated Champions Trophy Group A match at Dubai International Stadium on Sunday, had more match-winners than Pakistan. Pakistan had beaten India thrice in the five previous Champions Trophy events-2004 in the UK, 2009 in South Africa, and the final in 2017 at The Oval in London.
“I mean, match-winners in cricket? They are more in India than they are in Pakistan. A match-winner is an individual who can win the game single-handedly. Currently, we don’t have such players in Pakistan. India’s great strength lies in the middle and lower order; they have been winning matches for India.”
“For quite some time now, players have been handed opportunities, but nobody has been able to step up continuously. Somebody has performed quite brilliantly in one game, but we don’t have players able to maintain their form sustainably over the period of a year or two or over 50 or 60 games.”
“And that is where we are slightly weaker than India, who have been great in this area. But to beat India, it demands a collective effort-on the part of the batsmen, the bowler, or the spinner-everybody has to contribute to a win,” Afridi says on JioHotstar.
