DUBAI: As the Pakistan team began its practice session on Friday evening under lights at the ICC Academy, they were greeted by a familiar face. Having flown here for his academy work, former Pakistan allrounder Mudassar Nazar spoke to the players, gathered in a huddle, and later also had one-on-one sessions with them.
The 68-year-old, who scored 4114 runs in 76 Tests@38.09, with 10 hundreds and 17 fifties between 1976-89, and 2653 runs in 122 ODIs@25.26, was Pakistan's head coach previously. Having been the interim head coach of UAE a few years back, Nazar has a fair idea of the UAE conditions, and his advice would come in handy for Pakistan.
Interestingly, while most of the Pakistan fans have given up on their team's prospects of upsetting India, Nazar, in an interaction with TOI, came up with a different, more optimistic take on his team's chances on Sunday.
"How an India-Pakistan match will pan out doesn't depend on the form of the teams. I know that a few former cricketers are criticising our team, but we must remember that this match will be won by the team which copes better with the pressure. It will be an exciting game. Once again, an India-Pakistan match is happening in Dubai. What more do you want? I hope that Pakistan raise the bar. Their experienced players will put pressure on India. India has a highly reputed, fine team, with a few great players in their line-up, but as I said, it's about which team copes better with pressure on the day," he said.
Nazar feels Fakhar Zaman being ruled out due to injury was a "huge blow" to Pakistan. "It's massive loss, the absence of both Fakhar and Saim Ayub. If you look at the composition of the Indian team, there are three left-arm spinners. Even if Fakhar was playing in the middle-order, India would perhaps been forced to play an off-spinner. I still think India may play an off-spinner tomorrow, because I think the Dubai pitch will offer turn," he analysed.
"Perhaps, Varun (Chakravarthy) can play a huge role. I believe Sunil Gavaskar has said something about this (Gavaskar has recommend that India must play Varun against Pakistan). Sunil's words are gospel," he added.
