“Haris played 6-8 Overs a few days ago, and also played a little yesterday,” said Rizwan at the captain’s press conference on the eve of the tournament. “He bowls with a complete rhythm today too. He also puts work in the gymnasium and does not complain about pain. We think he is fully fit.”
Rauf suffered a muscular spraining in his chest while bowling in the opening match of the tri-series against New Zealand on February 8, and was in a race against time to be in good shape for the start of the tournament. He did not play the rest of the series, although Espncricinfo understands that it was more out of caution than an indicator of the seriousness of the injury.
After the press conference, Rauf was seen Bowling in the Nets during the last Pakistan training session before the national stadium tournament. This erases Pakistan to play what they consider to be their first choice range of bowling alley, which presents Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Rauf. The three played together in an attack which finally found itself on the wrong side of a result against New Zealand during the opening of the tri-series. They play the same team tomorrow in the stiffness of curtains of the Champions Trophy that Pakistan is preparing to organize their first ICC tournament since 1996.
“We suffered for 10 years when no team came here,” said Rizwan. “But Pakistan has still produced solid results. So we have no doubt about our abilities.”
However, it is difficult to escape the idea that Pakistan enters its first match as a relative apple. New Zealand has defeated them twice in the tri-series, without being waste through the tournament to raise the title. They then demonstrated their versatile capacity, defending a total against Pakistan in a match before hanging on to two proceedings against the matches against South Africa and Pakistan. At the same time, they dismissed the injuries to the fast Quiters Lockie Ferguson and Ben Sears, retaining their threat of rapid denigration, while reigning Pakistan through the middle of the Overs with a varied range of spinners.
“There are ups and downs and some shortcomings on our side,” said Rizwan. “We know that we must make certain improvements in our professionalism and our consistency.
“We have tried to learn from trial, which is why we hit first in the final to determine where our weaknesses are. We used this series as a training experience. We hope we have enough learned to cover these weaknesses tomorrow.
But with the usual joyful optimism, the declarations of ricewan have been prevented from a kind of naked hunger which he rarely let slide in the past. Bearing his religion on his round, he tends to resign himself to “the will of Allah” as he often says. This can delete pressure, a precious competence for a Pakistani captain, but today, Rizwan seemed to switch to the edge of fantasizing how much he wanted to win an ICC event, and how good he would be to win this at home.
“We are so close to several times,” he said. “We have to determine how to get this extra hundred to win these big games. No one can guarantee this success, and we are still looking for this last step where we lose big games or tournaments.
“Each player is desperate for this title. And we are doing everything possible to determine how to win. I don’t think a country works as hard as us.”
It is rare to hear Rizwan talk with this kind of before. Soon, he was back to his usual gregarious self, speaking of the way “the 15 players were captains” and the value of team performance on individual brilliance. But then again, it may be “additional” “additional” Pakistan, and Rizwan, are so desperately driven out.
Danyal Rasool is the Pakistani correspondent for Espncricinfo. @ Danny61000
