The babar Azam-led Pakistan cricket team is not having a good time at the Cricket World Cup. With only two wins in six matches, the 1992 Cricket World Cup champions, are on the brink of exit from the round-robin stage. Pakistan take on Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata in what is almost a must-win match. Ahead of the match, Pakistan’s head coach Grant Bradburn blamed the “foreign conditions” in India and their lack of familiarity with the venues as the reason behind the debacle.
With four straight defeats, Pakistan’s semifinal hopes have been heavily dented. Nothing sort of a miracle will see the team through to the last four stage. They have to win their remaining three matches by big margins and hope that other teams’ results also favoured them to have any chance of making it to the last-four stage.
“We are in a position that we didn’t want to be. We are determined at this stage of the tournament to be in control of our destiny but we’re not. That hurts the group,” said the Pakistan coach, according to news agency PTI.
“This tournament is on foreign conditions for us. None of our players have played here before. Every venue is a new one, including this one.”
Bradburn said his side have done their homework meticulously.
“We’ve done our homework meticulously on our opposition, on our venues that we’re playing at, and we’re prepared very, very well for each and every encounter.
“But the reality is that each and every venue is a new one for us and we don’t feel disadvantaged at all in terms of the knowledge, the quality, the skill, the backing that we have for this team of cricketers,” he said.
The former Scotland coach, who had served as Pakistan’s fielding coach and then consultant, was handed the reins by the PCB on a two-year deal in May.
“Ideally, preparation for a tournament like this starts four years ahead. We started six months ago and changed direction in the way that we want to play the game of cricket, especially the one-day brand.
“We’ve shown some positive signs of that over the last six months. We’re proud of some of the performances that we’ve put on. It’s taking a little bit longer than we hoped, but we want to play a dynamic brand that matches the challenge of the conditions we’re playing in.”
With PTI inputs
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