Follow UsIndia and Pakistan clashes are such that players cannot fight the battle on the ground without inspiration. And it becomes even more important when the team is already down. Pakistan can do with a lot of inspiration when they take on their arch-rivals on February 23 (Sunday) to keep their hopes alive of title defence at home in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
Haris Rauf understood exactly that when he mentioned the Pakistan win of the 2021 T20 World Cup in Dubai. Speaking to the media on February 21 (Friday) after Pakistan’s first training session, Rauf said, “We have beaten India here before, and we'll try to do it again. Every player is determined to give their best performance.”
Pakistan lost Fakhar Zaman in the first match of their campaign, while an injury ruled Saim Ayub out ahead of the tournament. Rauf reckons that it does impact the team's batting.
“When you lose two in-form players, it changes your batting line-up. Our combinations have been disturbed. We have to try and cover that up, and we have the batters who can do that,” the pacer said.
The right-arm pacer said that the team would look to play the game as a normal match, but also mentioned the do-or-die nature of it, given how Pakistan have already lost to New Zealand.
“It’s an important match. We will take it like a normal match.If we want to move forward in the tournament, we must defeat India. This is a do-and-die match for us,” said the 31-year-old.