Image Credit- ICC
While Pakistan’s coach Grant Bradburn refrained from
characterising his side as an isolated one in the world of international
cricket, he did draw attention to their inexperience playing against strong
teams and in India as they struggle to survive and hope that other World Cup
outcomes go their way.
Pakistan, which won its first two games against the
Netherlands and Sri Lanka before losing its next four, including to archrival
India, is on the verge of being eliminated. They not only need to keep winning
the games they have left, but they also need to pray that one of the four teams
now leading falls short.
Bradburn was asked what went wrong with Pakistan after
they were once among the favourites, especially till Naseem Shah got injured
during the Asia Cup. “Look I’m not sure where you get favourites from
because there are 10 teams in this tournament, there’s 150 cricketers who are
the best on the planet,” he said. “In terms of the ICC rankings, we
know they are skewed because we don’t get to play India, we don’t get to play a
lot of the top nations who haven’t been to Pakistan of late.
“We were No. 5 in April, we became No. 1 recently
before the tournament, and that might be where you term the phrase favourites.
But we’re realistic. We have not been the best in the world as yet, so which
highlights where we are in this tournament right now. We have no divine right
to beat anyone in this tournament. We have to play quality cricket, and we have
to put all three departments of our game together.
“We are desperate to bring joy to our nation. We
are desperate to make our nation very proud of this cricket team. And we are
also realistic in the knowledge that we haven’t put all departments of our game
together over the last four games but four losses does not define who we are as
players, as coaches or a team, So we’re determined now to focus on what we can
control and that is putting our best on the park in these last three games and
then leaving that to fate as – to determine the remainder of the tournament for
Pakistan.”