Bristol: The unfortunate washout against Sri Lanka will not disturb the momentum generated by their stunning win over tournament favourites England, Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed has said.
Sarfaraz said they will pick up next week from where they left against England. Attempting to emulate their success under Imran Khan in 1992, Pakistan bounced back from defeat against West Indies in their opening fixture to triumph over England at Trent Bridge in the highest-scoring game of the current competition.
“As a team we really wanted to play this match especially after gaining momentum with the win against England,” Sarfaraz was quoted as saying by ICC media. “It is unfortunate that we were not able to play. We have great team spirit and our confidence is on a high after beating England. We would want to carry the momentum into the remaining games. We won’t relax in our remaining six matches.”
Pakistan’s next encounter is against five-time defending champions Australia at Taunton, a venue that has a reputation for high-scoring matches in the white-ball formats. “Like other teams in the tournament, Australia are also a tough opponent,’ added Sarfaraz, who made his ODI debut as far back as 2007 and featured in the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand four years ago.
‘They also have momentum as they have won their first two matches.”
Before then, Australia face India at The Oval on Sunday, and Pakistan will hope that their own extra time to rest will work to their advantage. “We have a few days now to prepare for the match and we will try to prepare at our best to enter the field as well as we can,” he added.