JOIN USPlaying down their 11th straight loss to India in World Cups, all-rounder Shoaib Malik felt that Pakistan’s batting needed to improve. Pakistan were restricted to 118 for five in 18 overs, which India chased down in 15.5 overs with six wickets to spare here on Saturday.
“Winning and losing does happen but I think there are a few areas where we need to improve, especially our batting,” he said when asked what does Pakistan need to do to beat India in World Cups. “Even though it was a tough pitch to bat on, I feel we could have set a better target. The second thing is that we might have lost to other teams, not beaten them in the World Cup, but when it comes to India, it becomes a bigger thing. But we must give credit to the Indian team, the way they played on a difficult pitch,” he analysed.
Malik felt Virat Kohli, who scored an unbeaten 55 to guide India’s chase, was the difference between the two sides. “(Our) bowlers bowled really well but the total that we had, it wasn’t enough to defend against such a great batting line-up. We must give credit to Virat Kohli’s innings… He was the only difference between the two teams.”
Malik admitted Pakistan batsmen could have been more positive while playing against spinners. “When the ball was turning a lot, we could have done things differently against the turning ball. We could have tried the sweep or the reverse sweep because when the ball is turning a lot, those shots are helpful and it also disturbs the spinner’s line.”
Malik deflected the question if Pakistan was under any psychological pressure against India and blamed the nature of the pitch for the outcome. “Good or bad is part of the game, it will keep happening,” he said. “We were not really expecting that we are going to get this kind of a pitch and even (MS) Dhoni said the same thing. We thought it would be a similar wicket to the one on which we played against Bangladesh but obviously weather is not in your control. We couldn’t win the toss either, that is also part of the game,” he remarked.