Pakistan’s Vice-captain Shadab Khan showed his humorous side when asked about whether Pakistani cricketers are having Hyderabadi biriyani. Shadab, who stood in for Babar Azam in the warm-up match against Australia in World Cup 2023, funnily said that the Pakistani players have been slow because of consuming the popular Indian food item on a ‘daily’ basis.
“We are eating it daily, and perhaps that is why we are getting a bit slow (laughs),” Shadab Khan was quoted as saying. Pakistan will go into the World Cup after losing both their warm-up matches against New Zealand and the Aussies. In both their warm-up games, Pakistan scored in excess of 300 runs, but failed to secure victory.
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Against the Aussies, Pakistan were bowled out for 337 in 47.4 overs after being asked to chase down a target of 352. Babar Azam, Iftikhar Ahmed and Mohammad Nawaz scored 90, 83 and 50 respectively, but their efforts went in vain. Hasan Ali and Usama Mir took Pakistan closer to the target before Marnus Labuschagne dismissed the former to pull the curtains down on the match.
Harsha Bhogle: Hyderabadi biryani try ki hai?
Shadab khan: ham to har roz kha rhy hain isi liye thory slow ho gaye hain❤️😂 pic.twitter.com/mc62P3i36D
— waqas (@icricketfreak) October 3, 2023
However, Shadab did not sound concerned after the Men in Green ended up on the losing side. He was happy with the ‘attitude’ of the players
“Result is not important. We took a lot of positives. Our attitude was good, result not in our hands. I think our 11 is sorted, we just wanted to give time to the bench to show their skills. When you play against Australia and New Zealand, you get confidence. We got a little bit experience of conditions [in Hyderabad],” he added.
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Pakistan’s opening match is against Scott Edwards’ Netherlands on Friday, October 6 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. Shadab Khan’s light-hearted response to the question about biriyani shows that the Pakistani team is in a positive mood despite losing both their warm-up matches. They will be looking to start their World Cup campaign on a winning note when they take on the Netherlands on Friday.
