Pakistan's power-hitting batter Fakhar Zaman has revealed that the five-wicket loss to Ireland, earlier this month, has finally made them realise the need to adopt a more aggressive approach batting first in T20Is.
The 2009 ICC Men's T20 World Cup winners are still one of the very few sides left in the international circuit that play T20 cricket as a traditionalist whereas the other teams throw caution to the wind when they have the bat in hand.
"After we lost that first game against Ireland, after that the mindset that we made, the body language was very different," Zaman was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. "Nobody likes to lose, we understand that. But after that first match, the mindset that we have, if we continue that you will see a different side.
The southpaw mentioned that there will be a display of intent from Pakistan at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup and they would look to target 200-plus totals.
"We have meetings after every game and the mindset we have now is that our target batting first is to make 200 or 200-plus. I am talking about this mindset, that if we go into the World Cup with it… there's always talk about our batting, though the bowling is world class. What I'm saying is, our batting, the mindset that we have, and are batting with, you'll see we will play for 200-plus. You'll see the intent."
Gary Kirsten is such a great guy: Fakhar Zaman
Pakistan's newly announced white-ball head coach Gary Kirsten has joined the squad in England amid their ongoing four-match T20I series against the Three Lions. Fakhar revealed that Kirsten is fairly approachable as a coach and has gelled with the side in no time.
"Too many new coaches," Zaman said when asked about Kirsten. "But Gary is such a great guy. He is new but we don't feel he is new because the day he arrived he gelled with the team. He likes to talk to everyone. He likes to hear our story, how we play cricket and his own culture. We're very excited to work with him.
"He hasn't had that much time but his mindset, the way he sits and talks with us like we're friends, I really liked that. The World Cup is so close, so I'm not going to listen to anyone right now (about his batting methodology). If you tinker stuff with a tournament so close it's not easy. So I'm going to keep playing the way I am and then will work with him after that."
