Pakistan captain Babar wants teammates not to just focus on India in World Cup

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan captain Babar Azam wants his teammates to focus on all nine opponents in the World Cup instead of singling out archrival India in the marquee game of the tournament.

The Pakistan Cricket Board is yet to get clearance from its government to tour India due to tense political relations between the neighboring countries. The International Cricket Council has marked Pakistan’s nine World Cup group games in the Indian cities of Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata.

The ICC has said that Pakistan will not be playing any World Cup games in Mumbai and if India qualifies for the semifinals against Pakistan it will be played at Kolkata.

Pakistan will play its first two World Cup games in Hyderabad against qualifiers before taking on India at Ahmedabad on Oct. 15. Pakistan will also play Australia and New Zealand at Bangalore, then Afghanistan and South Africa at Chennai before rounding off the round-robin at Kolkata with games against Bangladesh and England.

“We are going to play World Cup and it’s not only against India,” Babar told reporters on Thursday, a day before Pakistan team’s departure for a two-test series in Sri Lanka. “There are also nine other teams and if we beat them, only then we are going to play the final.

“We are not focused on only one team, we are focused on nine other teams … wherever our matches are we have to play because as a professional you have to be ready. You have to play in different conditions, in different environments, and these are challenging things. As a player and as a captain I try to perform in every country, be dominant there and win games for Pakistan, that’s what in our mind and not only one team.”

Pakistan starts its new test championship cycle with matches at Galle and Colombo, with the first test starting from July 16.

India has already refused to tour Pakistan for the Asia Cup and the Asian Cricket Council has accepted Pakistan Cricket Board’s hybrid plan, according to which Pakistan will host the first four games while rest of the nine matches will be played in Sri Lanka in September.

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