"Our bowling can trouble Indian batsmen"

Bangalore: Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez on Monday said that his team has a good mixture of fast and spin bowlers who can pose questions to the Indian batsmen in the five-match limited overs series, starting with the Twenty20 encounter here on Tuesday.

"Indian batting is well known all over the world being extremely good. But winning or losing does not depend only on batting. Bowling will also have a major role. When we see our team, both batting and bowling is very good. So, our bowlers can negotiate the strong Indian batting line-up," Hafeez told reporters at the pre-match press conference here.

Hafeez said the team has prepared well for the series and is looking forward to the match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. "We are very much ready and looking for good, positive results for our country," he said. Hafeez said the selectors wanted to give opportunities to youngsters who have done well in the last couple of years at the domestic level. "It will be a good experience for them in India because the crowds are always good. So the pressure is always there, but you have to handle it. Our team is a mix of both experience and youth. We have Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal. It is a mixture of seniors and juniors," he said.

Mohammad Hafeez said that his team has a good mixture of fast and spin bowlers who can pose questions to the Indian batsmen.

On Afridi's poor run with the bat, Hafeez said there is no doubt that in the recent past he has not done well, but added that he is still a match winner. Hafeez said Sayeed Ajmal is bowling very well at the moment and getting the results for Pakistan. "We want him to stay at the peak. We don't want to put too much pressure on him. At the same time, other bowlers also have to do and take wickets to give confidence to him," he said.

Hafeez said that Pakistan are looking forward to some good performances from Afridi. In the last couple of practice matches in Pakistan, he has done well with both bat and ball. "I being the captain, would love to see good performance from him," he said. Hafeez said the team couldn't have a final look at the wicket and hence have not finalised the playing XI. Hafeez said there is no injury worries in the team.

On pressure factor, Hafeez said all international matches have an element of pressure, and players have to soak it up because expectations are high. "We will try our level best to play without pressure," he said.

Hafeez said that this series is a new journey and was made was possible due to the efforts of both the governments and PCB and BCCI chairmen. "Our efforts will be to remain positive. For the betterment of cricket, there has to be more bilateral series between the two countries. Because the whole world follows the game between the two sub-continent countries," he said.

On handling senior players, Hafeez said that they are cooperative and play for the nation.

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