13 October - Ahmedabad - Pakistan Captain Babar Azam pre-match press conference
[Reporter:]
I want to remind you that how many people reminded you of the World Cup. And the eighth match. How much hope do you have that the you will win and break that jinx?
[Babar Azam:]
I don't focus on the past; I try to focus on the future. Such records are made to be broken and I try to break them. I will try to give a good performance tomorrow, on the day. It depends on the day how you play. I believe my team did well in the first two matches and will do well in the next matches as well.
[Reporter:]
Is it a game where the result of the match plays psychologically very important part or what have you told your boys about it?
[Babar Azam:]
To be honest - yes, India Pakistan match is big game – it is a high intensity game. I've just told them to give us the best opportunity – give us whatever best you have, which you have been doing. That’s our belief as a player, as a team - we will execute our plans. And the main thing is to execute our plans. And believe in us - Ahmedabad is a big stadium and a lot of fans are coming. So, this is a golden opportunity for us to perform well in front of the fans and become heroes.
[Reporter:]
Coming into this World Cup, most of your boys didn't have the experience of playing in India. But you got two practice matches and two league matches. How do you see the conditions, how different are they from your home conditions? And how much will this experience you have gained coming into this big game help your team?
[Babar Azam:]
See, in Hyderabad we have played for about one and a half weeks. As far as I have noticed, every city has different behaviour and conditions - I noticed that every stadium has different conditions. It's not similar. Some have a better turn, some are more batting-friendly, some are more bowler-friendly. So, we have planned for each stadium to have different conditions. And the conditions of the stadium are different. We have planned accordingly. We get help when you live in a place and study the conditions – how it is in the first 10 overs, then after those 10 overs it behaves differently – based on that we make plans on how to play, how we want to execute our plans. We get a lot of help, definitely. We stay in one place and then study the wicket – that helps a lot.
[Reporter:]
It is said that pace bowlers come as hunting pairs. Okay. So, Naseem cannot be opposite Shaheen Afridi – so will you be feeling his absence and even did you have a word with Shaheen Afridi also in this matter?
[Babar Azam:]
First of all, we will miss Naseem Shah a lot. The way he was bowling in the Asia Cup, it was very impressive bowling - and a youngster, the way he was improving day by day, we miss him a lot as a team, as a captain.
As far as Shaheen is concerned, we know he is the best bowler. He is a champion and he knows and I believe he is a great bowler and he will give a good performance. It doesn't matter if you don't get a wicket in one or two matches - it's not a question mark on you, I don’t think that way nor does my team. We have full belief on him and he also has full faith on himself that he can do it, and he will.
[Reporter:]
Many Pakistani cricket fans will not be in the audience, their visas have not come through. You will be playing for a predominantly, overwhelmingly Indian cricket fans in Ahmedabad. How are you and your players dealing with that kind of pressure? And how do you think that's going to impact your game?
[Babar Azam:]
This is not pressure because we have played before a lot of time in front of a large crowd, in front of big crowds in MCG and all the big stadiums. Yes, there are also big stadiums around and yes, I think Ahmedabad will only be blue. So, if Pakistani fans were allowed, it would have been good for us. So, they would support us. But to be honest, when we arrived in Hyderabad, I feel there were a lot of supporters of the Pakistan team and I expect that here and we are looking forward to the match.
[Reporter:]
Just taking a cue from your last answer, in this tournament, there have been six, seven high-scoring, like 350-plus scores. And when pace is one of your strengths, what other conversation do you have on surfaces like this which kind of get challenging for the fast bowlers. Any conversation that you've had with Shaheen and others?
[Babar Azam:]
Look, here whatever matches till now have been high scoring matches. I think the margin of a bowler is very less. If you are bowling outside the stumps, margin is less for bowlers. So, I just ask my bowlers to just hit the length and bowl stump to stump. Yeah, that's it.
[Reporter:]
What batsmen and what bowlers do you find challenging for tomorrow's match?
[Babar Azam:]
Challenging? The challenge is the match of Pakistan-India. You and the fans and the whole of Pakistan-India are waiting for this match. We are also very excited. I think both sides are trying to do their best. We are trying to see how we can take the wickets of their top-order players and how we can make runs against their bowlers. What matters is that we play our best game on the day.
[Reporter:]
[inaudible question]
[Babar Azam:]
Yes, you are right – we learn to handle pressure through experience. The more you go through it the better you know how to handle it.
As a youngster, you feel that when I played for the first time, there was a lot of pressure. But as you play, you share your experience with the senior players. You share how to play and how to handle pressure. So, it comes with experience.
The aim is to give a positive message to the youngsters or the team.
It's a big game, a Pakistan-India match. How to handle it? Keep yourself calm. Keep your eyes on the ball. When you are in the field, keep your eyes on the ball. When you are batting, keep your eyes on the ball. That's it. Don't think too much. Just keep yourself focused. Look at the ball and the batting time.
[Reporter:]
You talked about on-field pressure - how you deal with it. How do you deal with off-field pressure? It's a big match. A lot of people are calling and saying that you have to win – the number seven (7-0 to India in ODI World Cups) is not right. How do you deal with that?
[Babar Azam:]
I’ve not got calls for this – but yeah, I also got a lot of calls for tickets. Basically, people call me for tickets. We don't take pressure about this at all.
We were not able to execute in the past, but we changed it in 2011 [2021 T20 World Cup] and 2019 [Champions Trophy 2017]. We won against India in the World Cup. We hadn’t done that before, but we did it.
We believe that we can do it and we will go with full confidence.
Tomorrow – you never know, but we believe that we can do it. We will go with full confidence and give our best.
[Reporter:]
Did you try Gujarati food here?
[Babar Azam:]
Yes, we tried, but in the hotel – we are not going outside right now.
[Reporter:]
Here in England and New Zealand, it was seen that batting in the second innings was very easy. You guys also had a training session yesterday evening. Was there dew and do you think the toss can be a big factor tomorrow?
[Babar Azam:]
I think all the matches we have seen; toss is vital because under the lights the pitch behaves well. There was a little dew - but I don't know. We will ask the umpire if there will be a spray or not for dew. But last night there was dew. Under the lights, the weather plays a role.
[Reporter:]
This is a match where people in your country say – Lose to anyone, but don't lose to India. And in our country, they say – lose to anyone but don't lose to Pakistan.
This is a match because of which captains’ lose their captaincy - what is the pressure of this? And what is your mandate to your players in your team meetings? What do you have to say to them?
[Babar Azam:]
One thing. I never worry that because of this match I will lose my captaincy. Whatever God has written for me – I will play. I will get what I deserve. I didn't get the captaincy because of a match and I will not lose it because of a match.
I believe that. Confidence is the same as we played in 2019 [2017 Champions Trophy] - T20, and also the World Cup.
Just simple plans. This is the best opportunity for you. Best opportunity to execute your game. Go and execute it. And the main thing is to enjoy
[Reporter:]
Your own record in ODIs against India is not that good. Is there a kind of bowling against India that you have struggled a bit? Is this in your mind before the match?
[Babar Azam:]
My World Cup till right now has not been as it should have been - but hopefully you will see some difference in the next matches.
Against India, we only come face to face in the World Cup. There is a big gap. It's not that because of a bowler or... I say that I sometimes get out because of my mistake. I try to make as few mistakes as possible.
[Reporter:]
In the Asia Cup we saw that fielding is a major problem for Pakistan. Yesterday your entire team did fielding drills for quite a long time. There is a lot of preparation being done in that regard. What are you telling the players.
In Hyderabad after you won the match – we saw that many of your match winner players put up a tweet about it – so are the players enjoying besides the World Cup?
I'm talking about Rizwan; he tweeted something…
[Babar Azam:]
I think its better if we stick to talking about cricket – you are taking the conversation in another direction.
About fielding – yes, I think we were not up to the mark in all three matches. I accept that. If we want to win the tournament, we have to improve our fielding, and we are working hard on this – in our last practice session we did focus more on this.
The message is that – see, you are doing the batting and bowling, but fielding is an attitude. So, I just tell the players – show your attitude, do your best in fielding because when you save the runs for the bowlers, the bowler will take wickets for you.