Pakistan's national cricket team have finally arrived in India for the highly anticipated World Cup, which is scheduled to commence on October 5.
The Babar Azam-inspired team had touched down at Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport on Wednesday.
Amid tight security, the Pakistan squad will be escorted from the airport to their hotel. Ahead of their opening World Cup fixture against the Netherlands on October 6, Pakistan are set to participate in warm-up matches.
Their first warm-up encounter will be held against New Zealand on September 29 (Friday).
– Babar Azam –
Pakistan's cricket captain, Babar Azam, Tuesday affirmed that his team is heading to the ICC World Cup in India brimming with 'confidence and without pressure' as they prepared to compete in the arch-rivals nation for the very first time.
While addressing a press conference in Lahore today, Babar emphatically denied any discord within the team. He emphasized the strong bond among the players, stating, "Everyone gives me respect...and see when you lose close matches then certain disagreements".
He then said, "I try to maintain unity; I make very few changes,” assuring that "There is no fight within the team; everyone's respect is the same and will remain the same".
"We love each other like a family," he added.
The captain dismissed any notions of pressure related to playing cricket in India, emphasizing, "There is no pressure on us to play cricket in India". Instead, he articulated his commitment to improvement: "We will try to improve our performance by learning from mistakes".
Babar Azam pledged, "I will strive to give the best performance for the team against the best team." He underlined that players would be judged based on their recent performances.
"The less pressure there is, the better the performance will be," he remarked.
