LAHORE - Pakistan's One-day captain Misbahul Haq feels the heat of bilateral series against India and said that the Indian side is very tough to beat on their home soil.
"India a formidable team in their home conditions and it will be difficult to beat them in their home soil", Misbah stated. Misbah-ul-Haq vowed to play aggressive, positive cricket in the upcoming series in India scheduled to be started from December 25. "Whenever we play India, the level of pressure and tension proved to be different and only way to overcome this massive pressure is to act aggressively with positive mindset," Misbah added.
Misbah said that he was a firm believer that age didn't matter in professional cricket. "It is not the age that matters, it is the performance that matters. I am feeling strong and confident and there is no reason I shouldn't carry on," added Misbah.
He also said that he believed that as a nation, Pakistan needed to learn to accept defeat and victory in the same manner. "As a player my philosophy is the same and I also try to tell this value my players that not only accept defeat as a player but also learn to tolerate defeat."
Stating that the series against arch-rival India would be big challenge for Pakistan, Misbah said, "India has a strong batting line up but I firmly believe we have an edge as far as bowling is concerned. I believe that if we can restrict them under 300 on a good batting pitch, our bowlers would have done their job."
In the light of the upcoming bilateral series, the outcome is not likely to influence the challenge that the World Champions will pose for their arch rivals. The series comprising two Twenty20 and three ODIs will be started from December 25 to January 6, 2013.
The Indian side will have a completely different strategy for the One-day and the Twenty20 formats. Facing Pakistan after 2007-08 in a bilateral series, the Indian team is likely to raise the level of their game to make series a tightly contested one.
"India has very good Twenty20 and ODI squads and to defeat them in their own conditions will be a challenging task and we need to do our best physically and mentally to overcome India," Misbah added.
Misbah said: "Every player knows that if you do well against India, people make you a hero and remember your innings for long time. It is always a pressure series for players, he added."
Last time the two sides stood against each other in a bilateral face off, India turned out victorious, bagging the 5-match ODI series with 3-2. This time around, the Men in Green are very eager to face their rivals to balance equation.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Twenty20 skipper M Hafeez also said that he was looking forward to the bilateral series not only as player but also as a captain. "Unfortunately we have not been able to play regular bilateral matches with India due to reasons other than cricket.
I'm a firm believer that as far as Pakistan-India cricket is concerned we need to keep sports and cricket separate from other things because every time something happens it also affects cricket relations," Hafeez added.
The Twenty20 captain said he and other players were excited about the tour as it is being happened after five years. "I see this series as a big platform to show world that we are capable of beating anyone anywhere. The current Pakistan team has lot of potential to do well in the upcoming tour and we would use this opportunity to show that we are a great cricketing nation."
He also pointed out that Pakistan cricket deserved for a lot of credit as it faced bravely many problems in last three years. "It is to our credit that we have done so well although disappointment of not winning recent World T20 still lingers on," said Hafeez.
"As a Pakistani player we all want to play in India and do well against them. The expectations are always high and people from both countries want their teams to win," he added. Hafeez also conceded that he was expecting his pace bowlers to do well in India. "In order to beat India our pacers and batsmen need to fire and in the past also our pace bowlers have won us matches there," he noted.