Pakistan’s star speedster Hassan Ali was elated with his team’s memorable T20I series victory over defending T20 World Cup champions West Indies but refused to look too ahead to the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 game against India in October.
India and Pakistan are placed in the same group in the T20 World Cup 2021 and most probably the old foes are likely to face each other in their tournament opener in the UAE later this month.
However, Ali said Pakistan is not thinking about their T20 World Cup game against India at the moment, as they are only focusing on the upcoming two-match Test series in the West Indies starting on August 12.
On Pakistan’s clash with India in the upcoming T20 World Cup 2021, the pacer said: “We're not looking forward to the India match right now at all, to be honest with you. That's still very far away. My focus is just on these two Tests right now.”
The upcoming Test series against West Indies will kick off the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle for both West Indies and Pakistan and Ali said his team wants to start their WTC 2021-23 campaigns in victorious fashion.
Notably, Pakistan and West Indies could play only second T20I that the tourists won by 7 runs with the rest of the three T20Is ended without any result thanks to the bad weather in the Caribbean as the Men in Green won the T20I series 1-0 on Wednesday (August 4).
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Hassan said: “Winning away to a side with such firepower that they can hurt you anytime is great. A win is a win and we're very happy with the series victory in the West Indies. We're all disappointed because we wanted to play. Even when it was raining we were all raring to go. But the weather is not in our control. Of course, the disappointment is we couldn't prepare properly away to a champion side.”
The bowler added, “We had to learn some lessons from the England series, and we're working on our bowling in the middle and the death. I really like our bowling unit right now, and also my personal form. As a bowling unit, we trust each other and our coaches trust us too. Of course, we have to improve, but we have a month or two to hone our skills ahead of the T20 World Cup.”
Ali said about the upcoming Test series against the West Indies: “We're looking forward to the Tests; we have a few days to get used to the red ball. I'll try to capitalize on my form and the rhythm I've got going for now. Our team is very balanced. We have plenty of spinners with Yasir [Shah] coming back, and in dry conditions like these that's very useful.”
He signed off by saying, “Then we also have [pace options in] Shaheen [Afridi], Naseem [Shah], [Mohammad] Abbas, and myself. We've won the last two Test series [against West Indies] and we're looking to continue that and get the WTC off in victorious fashion.”
(With ESPNCricinfo Inputs)
