|
Pakistan skipper Shan Masood expressed the need to play "good cricket" as they eye to win their first Test in Australia in 28 years.
Two cricketing giants will square off against each other in Peth on Thursday. The last time 'Men in Green' stood victorious against the 'Kangaroos' in Australia was way back in 1995. Since then they have lost 14 Tests in a row on Australian soil. However, the newly crowned Pakistan skipper isn't too bothered about Pakistan's history and just wants his team to focus on the process. "It's best to look at the bigger picture as a side, look at the process, look at how we want to play cricket and take results as a by-product. If we play good cricket for five days consistently, I am sure we'll be on the right end of certain results," Masood said as quoted from ICC. "So for us right now, it's how we grow as a side, how do we go forward as a side. And if we do the right things for a long period of time, we'll be on the right side. We want to go forward as a side, play attractive Test cricket and if the results come our way, yes [that's good]. But if they don't, we'll try to go back to the drawing board and try to rectify our mistakes, but I see a lot of potential in this side. A lot of players who can take Pakistan forward. For us, it is about the bigger picture and playing good cricket and making sure we can compete against the best and this is the perfect opportunity," Masood added. Pakistan will walk into the Optus Stadium as the World Test Championship table toppers and their position will depend on the results of the next three games. Masood talked about the importance of each Test while looking at the "bigger picture" and said, "When you talk about the bigger picture, there's the World Test Championship. So every Test match, every single point counts. And it's a two-year cycle, so we've got a lot of other Test matches to play as well. So Australia is the perfect place to start, [the] perfect place to gauge where we are as a team and take it from there." Australia playing XI against Pakistan: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood. Pakistan playing XI against Australia: Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood (c), Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Aamir Jamal, and Khurram Shahzad. (ANI)
|
