“At the moment, boys (openers) are thinking let's play 15 overs, but don't lose wickets and another way they are thinking is to play their positive game,” Afridi said.

Openers Mohammad Hafeez and Ahmed Shehzad have scored just 93 runs between them in four matches as their poor starts have put the middle-order under pressure and the team failed to cross the 200-run mark against Canada and New Zealand.

“It's a very good combination (of openers) but the boys are not performing,” Afridi said. “We are trying to give them confidence to perform.” The openers are likely to get another chance on Monday against Zimbabwe in a Group A match and Afridi expects them to gain some momentum before the knockout stage.

“I've already told them 'play to your strengths, like you play in domestic cricket, play like that,”' he said.

“Over the last couple of days they've worked really hard and the coaches have worked hard with them as well.” Middle-order batsman Umar Akmal suffered another minor injury when he twisted his ankle while playing soccer during training at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on Sunday. But he returned to the fielding session with his left ankle heavily strapped.

Akmal also bruised his index finger during fielding practice on Thursday and since then has not batted in the nets.

However, Afridi insisted Akmal was still under consideration for Monday's game. If Akmal could not regain full fitness, Asad Shafiq could get his first World Cup game.

Pakistan has six points from three wins and Afridi was targeting a quarterfinals berth with win over Zimbabwe, which has just two points after four matches.

“Against them we will play with our full strength, it's a very important game for us,” he said.

Pakistan suffered a heavy 110-run loss to New Zealand last Tuesday.

“We learnt a lot of things from that (New Zealand) game because we didn't perform well in the field, with ball or bat,” he said. “We should be more focused on the way we are going to start with the bat, the way we bowl with the new ball.” The World Cup has already witnessed at least two major upsets with England beaten by Associate nation Ireland and Bangladesh in Group B.

Co-host India also suffered a loss when South Africa won a high-scoring thriller by three wickets at Nagpur on Saturday.

Afridi said upsets have removed the tag of favorites from all the participating teams and all depends how the teams performs on the match day.

“In the World Cup you cannot take teams lightly because they all have come well-prepared for this tournament,” Afridi said. “That is what has happened in the upsets, whoever plays well on the day, at the right time, will win.”