Thaindian News

Karachi, Mar 25(ANI): The remaining World Cup matches are going to be a real challenge and test for Pakistan, which has played quite impressively so far, national chief selector Mohsin Khan has said.

Pakistan are set to encounter arch rivals India in the semi-final stage at Mohali on March 30 as the co-hosts beat Australia by five wickets in Thursday’s quarterfinal in Ahmedabad.

Expectations are high in the cricket-crazy region for a mouth-watering Pakistan-India clash for a slot in the World Cup final match to be held at Mumbai on April 2.

“These two matches are going to be a real challenge and test for us. The team needs to do everything to keep the winning momentum going,” the Daily Times quoted Mohsin, as saying.

“The players now need to produce their best-ever performances over the next week and they can make every Pakistani proud,” he added.Meanwhile, former Pakistan captain Moin Khan said he was happy to see that the Pakistan think-tank was ready to gamble and go with the “horses for courses” selection policy in the World Cup.

“The decision to give the new ball to Mohammad Hafeez and to play Saeed Ajmal instead of Abdul Rehman made cricketing sense. And they were courageous decisions,” he said.

“I want to see the think-tank make similar decisions based on their opponents in the semi final and the conditions in Mohali,” he added.

Former chief selector Abdul Qadir said that while the team deserved lot of credit for making it to the semifinal stage, there were still some areas they needed to think about.”They took the right decision to use Kamran Akmal as an opener but I think what they need to do is make Younis Khan bat at number three and Misbah at number four and give the responsibility of shepherding the top and lower order to both these experienced players,” Qadir said.

He pointed out that the role of these two players would be essential against India, a tough opposition. “We need to use options to attack their top-order which is very strong,” he added. (ANI)