JOIN USIf it’s World Cup and if it’s an India-Pakistan match there is no way India’s 5-0 winning record isn’t thrust upon captains addressing the press conference. While it’s a boring question for the Indian captains to answer, it’s a painful one to reply for Pakistani skippers.
Misbah-ul-Haq, one of the few articulate Pakistani players, dealt with those questions in his typical calm manner.
Excerpts.
On breaking losing streak: For me, every match is important. But seeing that we’ve never beaten India in the World Cup, I think it’s a big opportunity for the team to make our best effort and try to win this match.
That would create history, our first win in the World Cup. This is a big motivation for us. We would try our best to win.
On controlling emotions: Obviously, your feelings and emotions are involved, but the best performance comes by that player who is able to control the emotions and is able to focus on the situation and plays accordingly. When you become emotional, sometimes you can make wrong decisions. So the more you control the emotions, focus on the game, the better your chances of giving a better result.
On playing India first: See, as a professional, I think if you come into such a competition, you should be ready all the time, to be able to compete against any team. You can expect or want to play certain teams in certain times in the tournament. There is only one way - you should be ready for any opposition at all times, and try to win each game.
That’s our thinking. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the first match, or whether it should have come later. We have to play our best cricket.
On his advice to boys ahead of a big-pressure game: Obviously India‑Pakistan is always all about pressure. The best thing we can do is to just enjoy the game, enjoy the atmosphere, go there, play your game, be positive, and that's the way how it is. I think if you could just go there and play your natural game, that's how you can handle the pressure well, and that's my advice to the team.
DH News Service