Pakistan cricket team coach Grant Bradburn believes that although his side was at the top of the International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings in the lead-up to the Cricket World Cup 2023, they were ‘skewed’ because of the number of teams who do not travel to Pakistan. In the wake of Pakistan’s disappointing show in the Cricket World Cup, questions were asked of the team’s strategy but Bradburn believes that the lack of experience against big teams including India have played a big part in damaging Pakistan’s preparations for the competition. Bradburn was also of the opinion that Pakistan were not favourites heading into the World Cup and that should be used against the team.
“I’m not sure where you get favourites from because there are 10 teams in this tournament, there’s 150 cricketers who are the best on the planet,” Bradburn said.
“In terms of the ICC rankings, we know they are skewed because we don’t get to play India, we don’t get to play a lot of the top nations who haven’t been to Pakistan of late,” he said.
“But we’re realistic. We have not been the best in the world as yet, so which highlights where we are in this tournament right now. We have no divine right to beat anyone in this tournament.”
Bradburn refused to blame the controversial DRS call for Pakistan’s one-wicket loss to South Africa and said his side fell short by 20-30 runs despite assessing the sluggish Chennai conditions well.
“Chennai was a difficult venue to assess conditions, as you all well know. We felt we assess the conditions well but in the South African game we acknowledge and we’ve had skills meeting this morning and part of our skills meeting is that we reflect on the good and bad.
“And part of the admission for us is that we didn’t have our batsmen going quite deep enough in that innings, and we probably left 20 to 30 runs out in the middle. And certainly 310 to 315, I think, in that game would have been sufficient to bring that game to a W for Pakistan,” he said.
He said there was never any issue in terms of team environment.
“The environment is great. There’s never any issue in terms of the environment. We have a wonderful group of players who are very determined, to bring joy to their nation, play a quality, exciting brand of cricket for our fans,” he signed off.
(With PTI inputs)
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