Babar Azam believes his side’s eagerly awaited contest against India

Pakistan captain Babar Azam believes his side’s eagerly awaited contest against India at this year’s ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup is of equal importance with each one of their nine matches.

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All eyes will be on Ahmedabad on October 15

While all eyes will be on Ahmedabad on October 15 when India hosts Pakistan at this year’s 50-over showcase, Babar knows his team must perform well throughout the entire tournament if they are to earn a second World Cup trophy to the one they claimed in Australia

Sri Lanka and the Netherlands progressing from the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier

Pakistan now knows the nine opponents they will face in India later this year, with Sri Lanka and the Netherlands progressing from the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier tournament in Zimbabwe to join seven other teams that Babar’s charges will face.

Scheduled to play in five different cities

Pakistan is scheduled to play in five different cities during the World Cup and Babar says his team must be ready to adapt to any change in conditions that may occur.

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“You prepare yourself for different conditions and in every environment and that is what we call a challenge and you take it to live up to it,” he said.

“Me, as a player and captain, I aspire to score runs in every country, dominate and win Pakistan games. So this is all we have in mind and not only that we’re going to play against one team.”

Babar’s team has a more immediate goal of making a strong start

And while the World Cup is the big prize for Pakistan at the end of the year. Babar’s team has a more immediate goal of making a strong start to the new ICC World Test Championship campaign when they take on Sri Lanka in a two-Test series later this month.

Pakistan fell short when attempting to qualify for the 2023 World Test Championship Final and Babar is expecting his players to show much improvement and continue to play more attacking cricket when the next cycle commences for them at Galle on July 16.

“When you reflect back on the Championship, you look out for all the positives and mainly what we were lacking in,” Babar said.

“We did look back and plucked a few points. We’ll try to start this cycle in a positive way and up our game by 5-10 percent. We talked about taking our partnerships longer and with the ball, we have to take wickets. With the bat, if we were going with 3.5 (run rate), so now we have to change our game to try and go with four.”