ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s head coach Grant Bradburn believes batters would enjoy the game at Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium when the Green shirts take on Australia on Friday, saying we were all set for The Kangaroos challenge and eager to make it 3-1.
It was the maiden contest of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 at the venue. This was the Babar Azam-led side’s fourth match in the tournament and they are placed fourth on the 10-team points table with two wins from three matches.
“I think the first impressions from everyone was cool, it is a pretty small venue. Boundaries are short here and the conditions for the game look very good,” Bradburn told PCB Digital.
“We have done our homework on the venue – it is quite a high-scoring venue that probably relates more to the boundary size, which is 63-64 meters. The batters really enjoyed the opportunity to get on some true surfaces and the bowlers enjoyed it too as there is a fair bit of bounce.
“It is going to be a venue where the batters are going to really enjoy getting in on and the bowlers are also going to be really asked some serious questions. I do not think there is going to be a lot of margin for error on this wicket … As a bowling attack, you know, we haven’t been quite as accurate as we would like to be in recent times and this venue is going to demand some discipline and accuracy.”
Though the match against India at Ahmedabad did not produce favourable results, Bradburn feels it provided some crucial learnings from which the team will benefit in the tournament.
“It was a great opportunity to learn and grow from the whole experience of playing in front of a very large, hostile crowd. It is unusual to play in front of a crowd, which is pretty much, you know, solely there for the opposition. However, it was nice to hear some silence as well at times when we were batting well.
Australia has had an upper hand over Pakistan in the 50-over World Cup, winning six out of 10 matches. But, the most recent outing in the format between the two sides saw Pakistan come on top with a 2-1 win in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League series.
Bradburn said, are all set for the Australia challenge and are eager to make it 3-1 before they move to Chennai for their back-to-back contests against Afghanistan and South Africa. “It is a collection of the 150 best cricketers on the planet and there’s 10 worthy teams here. We have done our homework on Australia. We know what they can contain, we know their style of play, we know what their strengths are and we know where we might be able to exploit them.
“We are a tight unit and we back everyone in this group, but we are certainly becoming more comfortable to challenge the performances and roles in the different phases of the game. We acknowledge as a group that we haven’t put together the true performance across all three disciplines yet but we know when we do that, it’s a beautiful thing,” he said.