Pakistan skipper Babar Azam backs his side to defeat India in T20 WC 2021

In what is being termed as the mother of all clashes, India and Pakistan will meet at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on October 24. Both sides will be kick-starting their respective T20 World Cup 2021 campaign with this clash and would like to emerge winners. With India and Pakistan being arch-rivals, this encounter is highly-awaited and it would be interesting to see who emerges victoriously here.

It has to be noted that India have a perfect record against Pakistan in World Cup events. The two sides met as many as 12 times in World Cups – seven in ODIs and five in T20Is – and the Men in Blue emerged winners every single time. With the history being in India’s favour, the Men in Green have the onus to end the losing streak.

Past is gone, we are not thinking about it: Babar Azam

While many believe the task is daunting, Pakistan skipper Babar Azam is optimistic about doing well in the upcoming game. Sharing his views ahead of the match, the right-handed batter said his team’s primary focus is to play good cricket and not think about the past happenings.

“When you go into a big tournament, what matters is your belief, the confidence you have within the group. As a team, our confidence and morale are very high. Past is gone, we are not thinking about it rather we are focusing on the future. I am confident that we are well prepared and will play good cricket in the match,” Azam said during a presser.

Admitting that Indo-Pak clashes always put pressure on players, Babar said the key will be holding the nerves and doing appropriate things. “An India-Pakistan contest is always a high-intensity match and there always is pressure but as players and as teams, we try to focus on cricket. We need to be calm and focus just on cricket. We will have to play good cricket in the match,” the 26-year-old added.

The talismanic cricketer concluded by saying that Pakistan have played a lot of cricket in UAE in recent years and are well versed with the conditions. “As far as the conditions in UAE is concerned, since I have been playing cricket, we have played in UAE in the last 3-4 years and we know how the wickets will behave and how the batsmen need to adapt themselves. On the day, whoever plays better cricket will win and our aim is to play best cricket and if you ask me, I think we will win,” he said.