KARACHI: Despite Pakistan’s indifferent form, former skipper Mohammad Yousuf believes the national team will reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup.
Speaking in the wake of Pool ‘B’ rivals Ireland’s 201-run hammering by South Africa on Tuesday, a day before Pakistan face the UAE in a crucial match, the batting legend said things were coming together for Misbah-ul-Haq’s men.
Having opened their campaign with back-to-back losses against arch-rivals India and the mercurial West Indies, Pakistan kept alive their World Cup hopes with victory against Zimbabwe on Sunday.
Following the game against the UAE, they play South Africa on Saturday before clashing with Ireland in their final Pool ‘B’ fixture on March 15.
“I believe Pakistan will make it to the last eight of the showpiece,” Yousuf said in an interview here, predicting Pakistan will play New Zealand in the quarter-final in Wellington on March 21. “Ireland’s huge loss [to the Proteas] will help Pakistan in catching them up on net run-rate if it comes down to that in the end.”
A member of Pakistan’s 2007 World Cup squad which lost to Ireland on its way to an ignominious group-stage exit, Yousuf believes Pakistan will come good if they were to play the Irish with their quarter-final hopes on the line.
“With the match being held at the Adelaide Oval, which is good for batting, I don’t see Pakistan being troubled by Ireland,” he said.
“We lost to Ireland in 2007 because of the track and the rain at Jamaica’s Sabina Park. The ball was swinging and our batting went down,” he recalled.
Yousuf said he was baffled at wicket-keeper/batsman Sarfraz Ahmed being excluded from the Playing XI. “Dropping him is bewildering as he is currently the most courageous batsman we have in the team,” he said.
The former right-handed batsman also hoped Pakistan’s batting will click following a series of struggles at the World Cup.
“We’ve got good batsmen,” he said. “But they need to take responsibility and fire the team to bigger totals.”
Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2015
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