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“Good to be the underdogs” – Shoaib Malik
By SMCS - Oct 30, 2021 11:30 am
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Prior to the T20 World Cup 2021, not many considered Pakistan as favourites to win but with back-to-back wins, they have proved their worth. Pakistan started the tournament with a thumping 10-wicket win over India before beating New Zealand as well. Later they won against Afghanistan as well. And, veteran all-rounder Shoaib Malik, who is one of just two cricketers in the current team who had played in the inaugural World T20 in 2007 and was a crucial member of their side that won the tournament in 2009, believes they can do it again this season.

Shoaib Malik

Speaking about their title win, Malik told the International Cricket Council (ICC) in an interview: “If I take myself back into 2009, we were struggling in the beginning of the tournament. But as we went deep in the tournament, we picked up momentum, the guys who picked up good form – Shahid Afridi, Umar Gul, to some extent myself, we started performing consistently.”

Malik again shared: “Great memories and I guess before I end my career, I would like to go through the same memories, so let’s hope for the best. When nobody is considering that you can win an event and you pick up the momentum and you see your players are in good form and consistently performing, in my opinion, I take it as a challenge, and I have seen that in our dressing room as well, that we take as a challenge if nobody is saying that Pakistan could win the mega event. It’s good to be the underdogs, there is no pressure on you and you can just go and give your best.”

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However, apart from Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Hafeez, is the other players who had featured in the 2007 edition as well. And, other players are Rohit Sharma, Chris Gayle and Shakib Al Hasan as well. Having made his debut way back in 1999, he is pretty much active and doing well in the shortest format as well. Meanwhile, he also opened up on the game changed since the inauguration of the T20 format.

“Early days, obviously it was a new format. Internationally, 2007 was the first mega event that happened, in South Africa. At first, everybody was just thinking about the Powerplay, the first six overs. How to utilise them as a batting unit, as a bowling unit.”But now the things have changed. You have to gain momentum from ball one, and then try to finish it till the 20th over. And the game is never over. Even if you lose a couple of early wickets, two batsmen can still win the match,” Shoaib Malik concluded.