“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.”
