Want to focus on each player and bring our plans in: Azhar Ali

Pakistan ODI skipper Azhar Ali is confident about the way the team has played in the Test series and in the ODI series against Ireland. He emphasized that Pakistan needs to focus on each player and execute the plans to challenge England.

England had quite a few match-winners and limited-overs specialist on their side. Earlier, former England cricketer Paul Collingwood had given a warning to Pakistan team about the pacer, Mark Wood.

“Wood is definitely a very good bowler and Stokes a very good all-around player, and a good batsman too. Every player they have could be a match-winner for them, so we have to focus on each and every player. If we do that and bring our plans in, definitely we can challenge England,” said Azhar.

However, Pakistan is coming into the ODI series after clinching onto the No.1 rank in Test cricket. “Confidence is very high and belief is there, obviously coming from the Test series, we had a very good couple of months here. We take that confidence into the one-day internationals as well,” he said.

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“Being number one is a massive boost and a proud moment for Pakistan cricket and the whole nation is very happy about it, and as players, the team is really happy about it,” he added.

Despite being ranked No.1 in Tests, Pakistan is ranked No.9 in ODIs behind Bangladesh and West Indies. “Our one-day ranking is not great right now but we will take the opportunity and the way the team is performing, hopefully, we can convert it into ODIs as well.”

England was thrashed out of the World Cup 2015 by Bangladesh, but since then they had a good record in the limited-overs format. England was the finalist in the recently concluded World T20 2016. “The way England started playing after the World Cup, they played a lot of attacking, fearless cricket and they’ve been performing very well. We know that and we have to be aggressive against them as well.”

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Not many have expected Pakistan to win Test matches against England in England in the recently concluded series and he believes Pakistan can replicate that in the ODI series as well. “We are all very confident. No one rated us very highly – a few people said we would be competitive but there were doubts if we could win the Test matches here. But the boys really believe in the Test matches, so here also we believe we can do it.”