By Omar Khalid, IANS,
Karachi : The Pakistan cricket team flew to Dubai early Friday with coach Intikhab Alam promising that his boys will go all out for a “comprehensive” triumph over New Zealand in the one-day series starting next week Tuesday.
“We are leaving with a lot of confidence and I’m sure that the boys will do well there,” said Intikhab. “We have a balanced squad for the series and I’m confident we are going to win the series comprehensively.”
Captain Younis Khan will be looking to avenge his team’s shocking loss to New Zealand in the semi-final of the Champions Trophy in South Africa. The defeat led to match-fixing accusations against the team by the chief of a parliamentary committee on sports.
Though the committee later cleared the team of any wrongdoing, the allegations snowballed into a major issue when Younis resigned as captain in protest. He was later convinced by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to withdraw his resignation.
Intikhab said his boys would put aside such issues and focus on winning the three-match one-day series to be played in Abu Dhabi as well as the two Twenty20 games in Dubai that will be played Nov 12 and 13.
The 67-year-old coach was confident that his charges would make good use of the familiar conditions in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
“We have played a lot of cricket in the UAE in recent times and will have sort of a home advantage there,” he said.
Intikhab said that his team has a balanced bowling attack, capable of posing lot of problems for New Zealand.
“Our bowling is our biggest strength because it is a perfect combination of pacers and spinners.”
Pakistan will stay in Dubai for a couple of days before leaving for Abu Dhabi Monday on the eve of the series opener. PCB officials were unable to book rooms for the team in Abu Dhabi since all hotels there were booked for the inaugural Formula One race in the city.