After registering their first win of the tournament against Zimbabwe on Sunday, Pakistan now take on the UAE in their fourth Pool B World Cup match, looking to gain further momentum in yet another must-win game for the men in green at Napier, New Zealand.
The team had to travel more than 2,500 kilometres — all the way from Brisbane to Napier — and reached their destination late at night. To add to the lack of rest and travel fatigue, the players had to once again adjust to a different time zone and climate before their match on Wednesday.
The team, therefore, is understandably not happy with the schedule made by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as Pakistan have to travel a lot more than the other teams.
“If you look at Pakistan’s schedule, it’s probably the toughest handed out to any participating team in the World Cup,” complained one of the team members. “We have to travel between Australia and New Zealand after almost every match, whereas India play four straight matches in Australia and their final two in New Zealand in the group stage so they only make that trip [from Australia to New Zealand] once. We have had to continue adjusting to conditions in both Australia and New Zealand and that has not helped us at all.”
Pakistan have played three matches in the event so far, losing their first two against India and the West Indies before registering their first win against Zimbabwe on Sunday.
Having lost their opening games by significant margins before earning a tightly-contested win, Pakistan will now be looking to win by a big margin in order to improve on their net run-rate, especially with all-important ties against South Africa and Ireland on the horizon.
Pakistan and the UAE have only met once in World Cup history — back in 1996 in a rain-hit match which Pakistan won comfortably by nine wickets.
“Our practice is scheduled in the afternoon where the players would participate in light training as the team management understands that the players did not get enough time to recover from fatigue after the match against Zimbabwe,” added the team member. “The gap in between the two matches is very less and we don’t want any unnecessary injuries.”
The team member also said that morale in the camp has improved significantly after Pakistan earned their first points of the tournament. “Everyone is charged up after the victory against Zimbabwe and a win against the UAE would further improve confidence ahead of the big match against South Africa.”
Despite question marks over several positions, head coach Waqar Younis and skipper Misbahul Haq do not want to destabilise the team and will therefore not be making many changes. The only expected change will come at the top of the order, with specialist wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed coming in to replace opener Nasir Jamshed, also relieving Umar Akmal of his duties behind the stumps.
All bowlers impressed in the win over Zimbabwe and the team management is likely to persist with the same combination, rather than bring in leg-spinner Yasir Shah.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 3rd, 2015.
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