Pakistan opener Sahibzada Farhan has made his intentions clear ahead of the high-voltage clash against India, promising that his side will stick to a “positive and attacking” brand of cricket in their upcoming T20 World Cup encounter on February 15.
Pakistan called off their proposed boycott of the marquee fixture late on Monday night, clearing the way for one of the most anticipated matches of the tournament. Speaking at the post-match presentation after Pakistan’s 32-run win over the USA, Farhan said the team would not change its approach against their arch-rivals.
“We’ll go in with the same mindset as we did in our previous matches against India, including the Asia Cup. We’ll try to stay positive and play attacking cricket,” Farhan said.
Farhan was named Player of the Match for his fiery 73, an innings that formed the backbone of Pakistan’s total of 190. The opener revealed that he had sensed he was in good touch even during training.
“The way we practiced yesterday, the ball was coming onto my bat really well in the nets. I had already told our batting coach (Hanif Malik) yesterday that I was getting a good feeling for today’s match.
“I was confident. I even said, I will finish the match in a way that earns me the player-of-the-match award. I’ve set a personal target for myself, to win at least two to three player-of-the-match awards in this World Cup,” he added.
PAK vs USA, T20 World Cup 2026: Highlights | Scorecard
Pakistan captain Salman Agha said the team’s flexibility with the bat has been a key strength. “We are comfortable chasing, but we try to bat first and put up above par, then try to defend. We have a flexible order, first three ready to go and then finishers can go early, or if we lose wickets we have batters who can take the game deeper,” Salman said.
After scraping past the Netherlands in their opener, Pakistan delivered a far more assured display against the USA. “Clinical performance, we started well with the bat and batted really well in the middle. When we come to bowling we have a world-class attack, and scoring 190, we knew we could defend that,” he said.
However, the skipper admitted there was still room for improvement. “Always room for improvement, we’d like to bowl better in the powerplay, be more clinical. These are the things we want to improve.”
A disappointed USA captain Monank Patel felt his side lost control in the middle overs. “Thought we bowled well in the powerplay but not the middle overs, we gave up a lot of runs. Came back at the death, the pace bowlers bowled well,” Patel said.
Having lost both their matches so far, significantly denting their hopes of reaching the Super Eights, Patel said his team would look to end their campaign strongly. “We’ve been playing good cricket, coming here we were confident but small mistakes cost you. We want to finish this World Cup strong with two wins.”
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