T20 World Cup
\nButtler\u2019s big call on Pakistan pace quartet ahead of T20 World Cup Final
\n MELBOURNE
\nCaptain Babar Azam told his rejuvenated Pakistan side on Saturday to ride the wave of four consecutive victories and win the Twenty20 World Cup final.
\nThe 2009 champions suffered last-ball losses to India and Zimbabwe to start their tournament but bounced back to surge into Sunday\u2019s final against England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
\n\u201cWe have lost the first two matches, [but] the way we came back the last four matches, we\u2019ve performed very well,\u201d Azam said at his pre-match press conference.
\n\u201cI\u2019m more excited than nervous \u2026 it is no doubt that pressure exists, but it can only be suppressed with confidence and belief in ourselves. And for good results, it is important that one must do so.\u201d
\nPakistan are slight underdogs against Jos Buttler\u2019s England, but Azam is banking on the strength of his fast bowlers to give them an edge, particularly in the six-over powerplay.
\n\u201cEngland is a competitive team, their (10-wicket) win to reach the finals against India was a proof of that,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cOur strategy is to stick to our plan and use our pace attack as our strength to win the finals.
\n\u201cUtilising the powerplay to grab as many wickets will be essential for the match,\u201d he added.
\nNotwithstanding any late injuries, Pakistan are set to name the same team with Shaheen Shah Afridi spearheading a dangerous attack and Azam and Mohammad Rizwan headlining the batting.
\nPakistan Cricket Board chairman Ramiz Raja met the squad on Friday and gave them a pep talk, reflecting on how the Pakistan team he was part of beat England to win the 1992 one-day World Cup.
\n\u201cWhen the chairman came and shared his experience of the World Cup, it put a massive boost in our confidence,\u201d said Azam. \u201cHe advised us to stay calm and focus on what goes well.\u201d
\nMore than 90,000 fans packed the MCG when Pakistan played India early in the tournament and they have enjoyed solid support wherever they have played in Australia.
\n\u201cThey give us confidence and [it\u2019s] good to see when we go anywhere, any stadium, they come and support the Pakistan team,\u201d he said.
\nMeanwhile, England captain Jos Buttler has paid Pakistan\u2019s fast bowling attack the ultimate compliment on the eve of the ICC Men\u2019s T20 World Cup final by declaring some of their quicks will finish their careers among the best pace bowlers the country has ever produced.
\nButtler will go head-to-head against Pakistan\u2019s bevy of quality pacers in Sunday\u2019s T20 World Cup final at the MCG and his battle at the top of England\u2019s batting order will go a long way to deciding who claims the coveted trophy.
\nLeft-arm quick Shaheen Afridi already has 10 wickets at the tournament and is renowned as one of the best quicks in T20I cricket, while Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf and Mohammad Wasim have been among the better-performed seamers at this year\u2019s tournament.
\nPakistan have been well renowned for producing quality fast bowlers over a long period of time, with the likes of Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar, Waqar Younis and Imran Khan among the best quicks to have ever played.
\nBut Buttler rates the current batch so high that he believes many will finish their careers among the best fast bowlers from Pakistan.
\n\u201cThey are an excellent team and have a long history of producing quality fast bowlers, and the team we are up (on Sunday) against is no different,\u201d Buttler said at the MCG on Saturday.
\n\u201cI am sure some of the guys we will go up against will go down at the end of their careers as some of the best bowlers Pakistan have ever produced and that\u2019s a huge part of why they have got to a World Cup final.\u201d
\nButtler said he used to dream about getting the chance to hold the World Cup trophy aloft when he was growing up in England and the dynamic opener gets the opportunity to make that dream a reality in his first ICC tournament as captain.
\nThe right-hander only took over from former skipper Eoin Morgan earlier this year and could become the second England men\u2019s player to captain a T20 World Cup side to glory after Paul Collingwood achieved the feat in the West Indies in 2010.
\n\u201cYou certainly have a few dreams about that kind of thing and it really links back to your time as a kid and the kind of stuff you would be doing in the back garden with your brother and sister and pretending to lift the trophy and that kind of thing,\u201d Buttler recalled.
\n\u201cNow to be able to have that opportunity to have a chance to live that kind of thing out is incredibly special.\u201d
\nButtler said England\u2019s recent series victory in Pakistan will have little bearing on Sunday\u2019s result, given conditions expected in Melbourne will be vastly different to what they experienced on the sub-continent during the seven T20Is against Babar Azam\u2019s side.
\n\u201cWe have played against them a lot recently but that was in very different conditions,\u201d Buttler noted.
\n\u201cEven though we have played each other in quite a few games, here in Melbourne is going to be a bit different to the series in Pakistan.
\n\u201cWe know we are up against an excellent team and that is what you expect in a World Cup final.
\n\u201cWe will focus on them a bit and on us a lot to ensure we turn up tomorrow and give the best account of ourselves.\u201d
\nButtler is hopeful of regaining key fast bowler Mark Wood (hip) and top-order batter Dawid Malan (groin) from injury for the MCG contest after the pair missed England\u2019s emphatic 10-wicket triumph over India in Adelaide on Thursday.
\nThe England skipper said the duo will be given right up until the toss on Sunday to prove they have recovered from their ailments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
T20 World Cup Buttler\u2019s big call on Pakistan pace quartet ahead of T20 World Cup Final MELBOURNE Captain Babar Azam told his rejuvenated Pakistan side on Saturday to ride the wave of four consecutive victories and win the Twenty20 World Cup final. The 2009 champions suffered last-ball losses to India and Zimbabwe to start their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-294899","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n