Posted by Syed Shoaib Ahmed
News PK Hafeez hopes to gain momentum with India win
LAHORE:
Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez on Wednesday said he hoped his team
gets a much-needed lift from their match against arch-rivals India,
which opens the main round of the World Twenty20 in Bangladesh.

The fifth edition of the World Twenty20 with 16 teams in competition will be held from March 16 to April 6.
Bangladesh, ranked 10th in the world, have been drawn with Afghanistan, Nepal and Hong Kong in group A of the first round.
team from each group advances to the main
tournament. They will join the eight seeded teams in the second, which
opens with Indo-Pak match on March 21.
Hafeez wants his
team to get the ideal start by beating India. “India-Pakistan match is
always a pressure match, as a player as a captain I am very happy that
our first match is against India and from there we will, Insha’Allah get
a good take off and will perform better in all the matches during the
tournament,” Hafeez told reporters.
The Pakistan team
flies off on Thursday (today) and will play two warm-up matches, against
New Zealand on March 17 and South Africa two days later.
Pakistan
are placed in Group Two in the second round along with India,
Australia, the West Indies and one qualifier from the first round.
Hafeez believed Pakistan had the momentum with a win over India in the Asia Cup.
“I
think we will have that momentum of our win against India in the Asia
Cup,” said Hafeez of the one wicket win in the Asia Cup earlier this
month.
“We have advantage that where we are going
(Bangladesh) we have played one-day cricket there recently. We have one
week to get back into Twenty20 mould, expectations should be always
positive and we all need to move in one direction.”
Hafeez said no team will be easy in the event.
“Lots
of teams are playing Twenty20 now and you can´t take any team easy, you
have to be positive in your thinking against all the teams. I think two
things are very important in a big tournament, one is momentum which
you have to carry and the second is luck and with the prayers of
countrymen the luck factor will also be with us.”
Hafeez
hopes Shahid Afridi will be fit in time for the World Twenty20 after the
hard-hitting allrounder delayed his departure to Bangladesh.
Afridi
played in the Asia Cup final on Saturday with painkillers after he hurt
his hamstring with some powerful late hitting during two nail-biting
victories against India and Bangladesh last week.
“As a
captain I need a fit Afridi, and that´s why we have given him time to rehab,” Hafeez said.
Afridi’s
fitness could be tested in the second warm-up game against South Africa
next Wednesday before the 2009 winners´ first group match against India
two days later.
Afridi is the most capped Twenty20
International player with 70 matches, bagging 73 wickets with his
legspin bowling and scoring 1,044 runs at an impressive strike rate of
143.01.
Hafeez said fitness was one of the key issues with
the team because it has been playing international cricket nonstop for
five months.
“When you play back-to-back matches, the fitness of individuals counts a lot,” Hafeez said.
“Fitness is the problem of the Pakistan team, but it needs to be improved at the grassroots level.”
The
dip in the form of Umar Gul, the second highest wicket-taker in T20s
with 74, and Junaid Khan, worries Hafeez after both fast bowlers
combined for only six wickets during the
Asia Cup.
“The
performance of the fast bowlers will be the key for us because they have
to play their roles with both the new and old ball,” he said.
“(Bowling
coach) Mohammad Akram is working hard with both of them in the nets,
but in the end it´s up to them to go out and perform.”Fielding is
another area of concern, as Pakistan dropped at least three catches in
the Asia Cup final loss to Sri Lanka.
The Pakistan Cricket
Board hired former Test opener Shoaib Mohammad as the fielding coach
before the Asia Cup, but Hafeez said it will take time to implement the
coach’s techniques.
“He (Mohammad) has never worked as a
fielding coach with any national team,” he said. “He is giving us some
new ideas and we are trying to adopt those things, but it will take some
time.”
Pakistan have recalled allrounder Shoaib Malik,
wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, left-arm fast bowler Sohail Tanvir and
left-arm spinner Zulfiqar Babar in the four changes made from the team
which played in the Asia Cup.