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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUPJune 2, 2019Azhar MahmoodWest Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, UK Q. If we can start, obviously a disappointing performance the other day. How have the team and the coaches been trying to rally spirits? AZHAR MAHMOOD: Yeah, it was disappointing, and yes, we have to move on. It's a different ball-game tomorrow, and yes, we didn't handle the short bowl really well and we practised a lot, and we know it will come. All the team will bowl short against us, so we are doing the practising, and we've done it before, so I think we need to move on and concentrate on the next game. Q. Was it just an off day with the short bowl, or do you think that is a slight problem for some of your batsmen? AZHAR MAHMOOD: Yeah, definitely when teams come from subcontinent, the other teams will use that sort of tactics. No, we managed in South Africa when we had the same sort of issues, but we managed it really well in test match cricket and one-day cricket over there, so it was one of the bad days, I would say. Q. Does that change things, the way that game panned out the other day, the way you look at employing your bowling attack? AZHAR MAHMOOD: Yeah, definitely. If you see the last game, at least we bowled a lot of short balls and we mixed that up, so definitely we can do that. We've got bowlers who can bowl 140 plus, so they can do the same thing to England batters. Q. How impressive has Jofra Archer been so far for England? AZHAR MAHMOOD: Really impressed with him. He's a really good bowler. He's got pace. One thing is it doesn't seem like he bowls 140 plus, but he does and he has good skills and good action, and I think he's a really good bowler. Q. Does it help that your batsmen faced him in the warm-up games before the World Cup? AZHAR MAHMOOD: Yeah, definitely. It's a new challenge for us, and it's a different game. What happened in the past we can't control it, but we can control tomorrow. Q. How have the batsmen prepared today? Have you been peppering them with bouncers in the nets? AZHAR MAHMOOD: It's normal routine for us. We always allow our bowlers to bounce it in the nets. Not after what happened the day before yesterday, it's not that, but our guys are used to bowling with short deliveries in the net. It's not necessary we have to do it now because we were bowled out for 107 or -- so they are professional, we are professional. We have to adapt and we have to face each new challenge in front of us. Q. How tough is the task facing you tomorrow, stopping England, the best batting outfit on this track? AZHAR MAHMOOD: Oh, we know we have ability, they have skill, and they are the best batting lineup, but a lot of it going on, the 480 pitch has been a world record pitch, but they have to play 300 balls to get to that record, but we have to bowl 10 good balls to get 10 wickets, so we have ability, we have the skills to do that, and hopefully we can do it tomorrow. Q. You were demonished on Friday and you lost 4-0 in the series to England and I think you've lost 11 one-dayers now. What chance is there at all of Pakistan making a huge upset on Monday? AZHAR MAHMOOD: No upset. We can beat them. It's not upset. We have ability to beat them. If you see the one-day series, we were not that far from England. They scored 1430 odd runs, we scored 1370 runs, so we were 70 runs short. Unfortunately our fielding was not up to the mark and we give extra bonus because we have inexperienced bowling lineup, young bowling lineup. They need to learn from their mistakes. So we know what England can do, and we know what we can do. Q. When you played here last month, Mark Wood took a couple of wickets for England. Are you expecting to see Mark Wood playing against you? AZHAR MAHMOOD: Oh, it's up to the England team. They can decide who plays. But if he's playing, we'll be up for the challenge. Q. What about Asif Ali coming back into the team possibly? AZHAR MAHMOOD: Yeah, there might be a chance. We'll see. He might be in the side or not. We'll decide in the morning. We haven't decided yet. Q. Azhar, you said the bowling lineup is slightly inexperienced. Considering the fact that you guys have lost quite a few previous games in a row, do you think this side as compared to the previous Pakistan side probably lacks somebody in the dressing room or in the management staff who can like probably get them good motivation, lift their spirits at the moment? Is there somebody the team can turn to? AZHAR MAHMOOD: Yeah, definitely, like you mentioned, we lost 11 games in a row. The five games we lost against Australia, we rested eight to nine players in that series. So it was young team and we were trying different players, different combinations. Yes, against England we lost four games. As I mentioned, we were not far away. We didn't win that crucial moment. Yes, definitely when you have a role model in the team, in the dressing room who has already been part of the World Cups and part of good success, that definitely that helps. We are one win away from coming back, and that's happened in Champions Trophy, as well. We lost in Champions Trophy and then we come back hard. So whenever we have lost and we come back stronger, and we have the ability to bounce back. I totally believe in this team -totally. If you see these guys, they were part of Champions Trophy, as well, so they have experience. They've played in England, so they have enough experience and motivation to go and win the game for Pakistan. This is World Cup. It won't be easy for us. It will be a roller coaster, not for us, for all the teams. It's a big tournament, so as long as we learn from our mistakes and we move on, it's better for us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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