Babar Azam’s side suffered a 228-run defeat against India in a rain-soaked 50-over Super Four on Monday, the opening match of next month’s World Cup in India. India registered their biggest ODI win against their arch-rivals by defeating Pakistan for 128 in 32 overs with 356-2 after a rain-induced reserve day in Colombo.
“My gut feeling is that I am grateful for the gift of the last two days,” Bradburn told reporters after the assault.
“You don’t often get the chance to play against the best players in the world,” he added.
“We haven’t lost a single cricket match in the last three months so it was a timely reminder that we have to come to the venue every day and give our best on the park and the last two days have shown that. It was actually a gift.’ I wouldn’t do that,” he said.
After Azam won the toss, Pakistan elected to bowl, but the team quickly lost control after a 121-run opening stand between captain Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill. Virat Kohli and KL Rahul scored 122 and 111 runs respectively, taking India’s unbeaten run to a total of 233. We lost in every phase of the game,” Bradburn said. “There are no excuses, we didn’t perform well these past two days.”
Pakistan’s bowling team, led by Shaheen Shah Afridi, rocked India’s top order in the group matches of the Asia Cup last week, crushing India for 266 before the match was called off due to rain.
But Rohit, Gill, Rahul and Kohli came roaring back in the Super Four contest and shifted the focus of the attack to the bowlers.
“Our hitting unit hasn’t been good for the past month, which is another positive sign,” he said. “We have complete confidence in them. We are very consistent in our selections. We know they will be successful.”
Pakistan’s next match will be against Sri Lanka on Thursday.
