Not overawed by the big stars, says Tauqir

The United Arab Emirates’ skipper Mohammad Tauqir that his team was not intimidated by defending champions India. UAE meet India in what is a third match for both sides in Pool B here on Saturday.

“We know they are big stars, but we will take this game like the previous two games,” said Tauqir, after his team’s practice. “The intensity is going to be the same, and we'll take it like just another game. We will not be intimidated by their names or their status. If you look at the Zimbabwe game and the game against Ireland, definitely there was an improvement in the overall performance. The Zimbabwe game was over in the 47th over (of chase), and Ireland went up to the last over (of the match). So we need to cross the line and win. So, as I said, we're getting closer to the victory. Everybody's enjoying this event and playing good cricket,” he offered. 

Tauqir felt UAE batsmen needed to convert their starts into big innings. “I think we need to turn the 30s and 40s into bigger runs and Shaiman (Anwar) has shown us that in the last game. Yeah, we've been… Maybe a little bit lapse of concentration in the middle, but we know our middle order can put up a bigger innings and this is the chat we had in the dressing room. I'm sure we'll look at some bigger innings during this tournament.”

Tauqir said he didn’t find it difficult to lead a team of players with various nationalities such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka besides UAE. “Absolutely not… That is not an issue in the dressing room. I mean, if you look at UAE as a country, it's a very cosmopolitan country, more than 60-70 nationalities living there. Most of these boys are living there for over 10, 15 years and UAE is like a home for them, so that's not an issue at all. We're all one team, and we're enjoying everything in this dressing room as a team effort.”