KARACHI (APP) – Pakistan can sail into the semifinals of ICC World T20 if it beat India on Saturday in Kolkota, former captain Muhammad Yousuf said on Thursday.
“The way our batting and bowling clicked against Bangladesh and if they carry forward the momentum they got the capacity to down India,” he told APP in an interview.
However, he said, handling the pressure will be key in the outcome in a high voltage game at 62,000 capacity Eden Gardens. “The team that will handle the pressure will emerge victorious on the day,” he stressed. Handling the pressure will be name of game,” he added.
At the same time, Pakistan’s ex-batting ace Muhammad Yousuf said after humiliating defeat against the Black Caps, Indian will be coming hard on Pakistan.
“This could be a do-or-die game for the host India and that may put them under pressure and may bring some extra from them,” he maintained.
He said Pakistan batsmen did very well against Bangladesh bowlers. But admitted that Dhoni’s Indian team got better and experienced bowling variety.
Pakistan batting great Yousuf said, our top order batsmen like Sharjeel Khan, Ahmed Shahzad, Muhammad Hafeez and Shahid Afridi if continued in the same vein they can topple arch-rival India. “It depends how you perform on the given day in front of massive partisan crowd,” he commented.
Yousuf said Indian batting despite debacle in Nagpur is very formidable and would bounce back against Pakistan. He said toss will also be an important factor because in the evening ball turns and it can pose some problems for batsmen.
“It will be advantage if Pakistan batted first. In day time batting and pitch is slightly easy,” he remarked. He agreed that Pakistan is without any specialist spinners as compared to New Zealand which got three spinners in Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodi and Nathan McCullum.
Indian will be having off-break spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and would be backed by left arm spinner Rivndra Jadje.”Both are difficult bowlers to handle if they started well,” he concluded.
