KARACHI: Nasim Shah, the 16 year-old right-arm fast bowler from Peshawar, has played down the excitement of playing against India at the U-19 Asia Cup next month.

Talking to media representatives at the Hanif Mohammad High Performance Centre, National Stadium on Monday, Nasim said: “I played the last Asia Cup as well. There is no added pressure or excitement of playing against India. We’ll take the contest as a normal game and the team that plays good on that given day will win. The aim is to give 100 per cent and bowl well in the match against India.”

Talking about the preparations, Nasim said training at the camp has proved to be very good so far.

“The camp is going great. As you know that we are going to Sri Lanka for the Asia Cup where the conditions and the wickets will be much similar to what we have here. So we’ll get good preparation by bowling here,” said the teenager.

With the U-19 World Cup just four months away, Nasim said that the U-19 Asia Cup will really help the players prepare for the mega event.

“The experience of playing the U-19 Asia Cup will be useful for the U-19 World Cup. We also had a training camp at the NCA that helped us with our preparations,” he added.

The pacer also spoke at length about the importance of performing in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) as a young player.

“Every performance counts in the PSL. No matter whatever event we play at the U-19 level, they are all important for us. We try to perform to the best of our abilities and if given an opportunity in the PSL, we will try to give our 100 per cent.”

Speaking about the bowling combination, Nasim said: “We are a quartet of fast bowlers and have discussed with each other and the coaches the mistakes that we made in South Africa in the previous series and have worked on them. I believe that we have a good fast bowling combination at the moment.”

Commenting on fitness, Nasim said that all the players are fully fit but they are working on it in the camp to improve it further.

When asked whether he feels the heat by being in the same company as Shaheen Shah Afridi or Mohammad Hasnain, Nasim said: “I don’t look at others as to how they are bowling. I look at myself and try to work on my mistakes.”

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2019