T20 World Cup 2024: Canadian captain looks forward to put pressure on Pakistan squad

Canadian captain Saad bin Zafar has intended to put pressure on the Pakistan squad in their third match of the T20 World Cup 2024 in New York as “anything is possible”.

After losing to the United States (USA), the Canada team owns one win from the two matches they played as they achieved a remarkable win against Ireland in New York.

Moreover, their skipper is set to continue the good form in order to remain alive in their pursuit of the World Cup Super 8.

Parallel to this, Pakistan team went through two losses from the two matches they played as they failed to secure the 120-run target against India on Sunday following their loss to the USA during their opening match of the tournament.

Notably, another loss on Tuesday would eliminate them from the tournament.

As the Canadian team’s last match against Ireland went “really well”, Saad stated while speaking prior to their match against Pakistan, that everyone in the Canadian camp is in a good mood.

"Everybody's in a positive mood. Our last game went really well," said Saad as quoted by The Canadian Press. "It instilled a belief in us that if we play good cricket on the day, we can take down any opponent.”

He also admitted that Pakistan is a good team but their recent form hasn’t been good which they will try to exploit by putting some pressure early in the match.

"I know that we are coming up against quite a high-ranked and well-experienced team in Pakistan but the reality is lately they haven't been playing the good brand of cricket that they're known for," he added.

"They are under the pump. They have lost two games. So, if we're able to play good cricket on the day and we're able to put some good pressure early on in the game, anything is possible."

Squads

Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Saim Ayub, Mohammad Rizwan, Azam Khan, Shadab Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Usman Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Abrar Ahmed, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Amir, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf.

Canada: Saad Bin Zafar (c), Aaron Johnson, Dillon Heyliger, Dilpreet Bajwa, Harsh Thaker, Jeremy Gordon, Junaid Siddiqui, Kaleem Sana, Kanwarpal Tathgur, Navneet Dhaliwal, Nicholas Kirton, Pargat Singh, Ravinderpal Singh, Rayyankhan Pathan and Shreyas Movva.

Reserves: Tajinder Singh, Aaditya Varadharajan, Ammar Khalid, Jatinder Matharu and Parveen Kumar.