LAHORE: Despite losing the recent One-day International home series against South Africa, Pakistan national women’s team were well prepared and had no extra pressure to face arch-rivals India in the forthcoming ICC World Cup, captain Fatima Sana said on Tuesday.

The Fatima-led team won the third and final ODI against South Africa in Lahore on Monday but the tourists took the series 2-1.

Fatima and Wasim were addressing a press conference along with in-form batter Sidra Amin at a local hotel in Lahore before the squad left for Colombo to participate in the World Cup starting on Sept 30.

“There is no extra pressure [on us] for the match against India as all the World Cup games carry similar pressure. Therefore, we will take that match [against India] as any other game,” Fatima told reporters.

“We will try to take a good start [to the World Cup] against Bangladesh and then move forward with a good momentum.”

Pakistan, after playing their opening game at the World Cup against Bangladesh on Oct 2, face India on Oct 5.

Speaking on the occasion, Wasim said that the team were prepared for the global event.

“The team is in very good form, and we are going for the World Cup with better preparations. We also have a couple of warm-up matches before the World Cup in which we will try to get good momentum,” the head coach said.

While acknowledging that Pakistan lost the South Africa series, Fatima said, “We should also see several positives.

“Our batters and bowlers are in good form and momentum.

“In cricket, you have to move forward after forgetting the past; we will give better results in the World Cup,” the captain vowed.

The eight-nation showpiece will be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka from Sept 30 to Nov 2. However, Pakistan — under an ICC hybrid model decided by the ICC due to political strains between New Delhi and Islamabad — will play all their matches of the event in Sri Lankan capital.

Fatima insisted that the way Pakistan tried to chase a 300-plus target in the second ODI against South Africa, it showed the hosts were heading in the right direction. Pakistan lost that match by 25 runs.

Sidra, who scored two centuries and one-half century in the series, said that Pakistan had some good pinch-hitters like Fatima, Eyman Fatima and Natalia Parvaiz.

“Hopefully the playing conditions in Colombo will be the same as we have here in Pakistan,” the in-form player added.

“If there are spin-friendly pitches [in Sri Lanka] we have proved our strength by winning the last ODI against South Africa on a spinning track.”

Meanwhile, Wasim said that though Pakistan had lost the ODI series to South Africa, the series gave him the opportunity to test maximum number of combinations ahead of the World Cup.

“Both [spinner] Nashra Sandhu and [batter] Sidra are in impressive form,” the head coach underlined.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2025