Pak XI to be decided according to conditions: Rizwan

KARACHI: Pakistan cricket team captain Mohammad Rizwan has said that national cricket players are confident and optimistic about winning the Champions Trophy. “We need to improve our performance, and we are working on our mistakes,” he said during a press conference on Tuesday. He said that Pakistan XI will be decided for the first match against New Zealand according to the condition of the wicket.

He said that Babar Azam is the strongest player for opening and he will start the innings, however, it is not necessary that he will open against New Zealand. “There may be some ups and downs on match day, which we are working on. Keeping in mind our weaknesses, we batted first in the final of the tri-series to find the flaws, and we have noted these weaknesses and mistakes,” he said.

The captain said that Haris Rauf bowled 80 percent of the overs yesterday. “Now Haris Rauf is bowling in rhythm and he is now fit and not experiencing any pain,” he added. “We are playing as a team and all 15 players are captains for me. However, the responsibility of performance is more on senior players,” he added.

He said that Pakistan is hosting an ICC event after 29 years and so the entire nation should enjoy the Champions Trophy.Justifying his decision to bat first in the final of the tri-series, he said that he batted first in the final “so that we could find out our shortcomings. We saw our weaknesses in that match and I hope that those mistakes will not happen tomorrow. We will have to play our best cricket in the upcoming matches,” he said.

TODAY’S FIXTURE

Pakistan vs New Zeland

2:00 pm PST