Robust batsman Mohammad Hafeez is optimistic that Pakistan will deliver an outstanding performance in the back-to-back Twenty20s against England from Thursday and Friday at the Dubai International Stadium. Hafeez, in a statement Tuesday, said,"We have been winning in the T20 format, like we have been winning in Test matches." Pakistan, he said, had got more skills in T20 (than in ODIs). "We are more combined as a team because we have been playing with each other (in this format) over the last couple of years. I feel we will put up a better show than in the ODI series," he added.
After Pakistan won the three-match Test series 2-0 and England bounced back in the One-Day International (ODI) series, Hafeez said the T20Is would decide which team would leave the United Arab Emirates with bragging rights at the end of two months of action. "The One-Day (series) loss was a defeat, no doubt, but now it is the T20s which will be the decider," he said.
Hafeez played down the idea that Pakistan would suffer a hangover from the ODI series loss. "(On the field) you do good things and bad things but whatever it is, it is in the past," he said. "You always think about the future with a positive mindset (and) as a team we are thinking very positively. Whatever happened (in the ODI series), it is history. We believe this (T20) team will bring better results for Pakistan cricket."
Pakistan currently lies second in the ICC T20I rankings, just four rating points behind Sri Lanka, and famously won the ICC World Twenty20 title in England in 2009. Hafeez said Dubai International Stadium is the best ground for T20. "Whenever we come here, the atmosphere in the ground, the buildings inside, it is something very special," he added.
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