Asghar Ali Mubarak
Rawalpindi: Pakistan Cricket team’s captain Babar Azam has said that the goal for Pakistan is to win the series against England in Rawalpindi and play the final of the World Test Championship.
Pakistan is currently ranked fifth in the nine-team World Test Championship (WTC) and could qualify for next year’s final at the England Oval if it wins the three-Test series 2-0.
Pakistan also have a two-match home series against New Zealand next month.
Addressing a press conference in Rawalpindi, Babar Azam said, “We are excited about playing the World Test Championship final.” This is an important series. We have a golden opportunity to take the lead if we win four out of the next five Tests,” he said adding that the Pakistani team has 56 points from nine Tests at the WTC. They won four, lost three and drew the remaining two.
Australia lead the table with 84 points and are currently playing a home Test series against the West Indies. New Zealand won the inaugural WTC last year by defeating India.
Under Babar’s leadership, Pakistan performed brilliantly in white-ball cricket this year, playing in the finals of the Asia Cup and the Twenty20 World Cup.
Babar said that his players have prepared well for the series.
“It took us about a week to prepare for the series which was great and gave us a bit of an edge. The best part was that the domestic first-class matches were on so some of the players were already playing red ball cricket. .
“Our bowling is good and will give England a tough time,” Babar said. “Naseem Shah is bowling well and whatever England are doing I have the confidence and belief that they will do their best to give us a win.”
Naseem is the only fast bowler in the squad who has played 13 Tests while the other three fast bowlers Haris Rauf, Muhammad Wasim and Muhammad Ali are not included in the long format.
However, he admitted that England have more bowling experience.
England’s James Anderson, who has taken 667 wickets in 175 Test matches, is very experienced and has the upper hand in this field.”
Babar hoped England would be at full strength after the virus broke out, leaving 13-14 members of the squad (six-seven players) ill.
“Yes, it’s sad to hear but I’m sure he’ll recover and we’re facing a full-strength England team in the Test.”
