Pakistan team manager, Intikhab Alam feels the 'half-fit' express pacer, Shoaib Akhtar still has the potential to lead the Men in Green to its second World Cup victory. Adding that a lot would depend upon how the injury prone speedster is used in the ICC show piece event.
"Shoaib's not fully fit, but even a half fit Akhtar can lift Pakistan to glory”, said the team manager. “He needs to be utilised carefully during the World Cup to get the best out of him. A lot could depend on the weather, the heat, the humidity as to how Shoaib is utilised by the skipper", he added further.
Pakistan’s team is currently in Bangladesh to play two warm-up games, against World Cup co-hosts Bangladesh and England, before heading to Sri Lanka to start their league stage in Group A against Kenya on 23 February.
The former captain of Pakistan was happy with team’s training sessions in Bangladesh and was hopeful the team will perform well in the mega event.
"We've had a couple of good training sessions since we arrived in Bangladesh. Everything is going well. The boys are in good spirits and the fitness levels are okay”.
Alam, who was the coach of Pakistan when the side lifted the World Cup trophy in 1992 and again in 2009 when the side became World Twenty20 Champions, said that both the warm-up matches are crucial for the team bearing in mind the build-up and planning, and hoped Pakistan would win both practice matches.
Intikhab brushed off talks that Pakistan will be going into the World Cup with a depleted pace attack, following bans imposed on Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, and that the side would be over dependent on the spin department.
The former Test cricketer of Pakistan hinted that Pakistan would start in most of the matches with only two spinners and an all-rounder Hafeez might be played as an opening batsman only.
The team is playing its first preparatory game against the Bengali Tigers in Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur and have set a competitive 50-overs target of 286 for the hosts to win.
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