Pakistan will play positive, attacking cricket against India: Sahibzada Farhan ahead of T20 World Cup clash

Pakistan opener Sahibzada Farhan on Tuesday said it will approach its high-profile clash against India with a positive and attacking mindset.

Pakistan called off its boycott of the match against India late on Monday night. The two teams will meet in a marquee contest here on February 15.

“We’ll go in with the same mindset as we did in our previous matches against India, including the Asia Cup. We’ll try to stay positive and play attacking cricket,” Farhan said at the post match presentation.

Farhan was named player-of-the-match for his fiery 73, which formed the cornerstone of Pakistan’s 32-run win over the USA.

READ | Pakistan spinners outfox USA in 32-run victory

“The way we practised yesterday, the ball was coming onto my bat really well in the nets. I had already told our batting coach (Hanif Malik) yesterday that I was getting a good feeling for today’s match.

“I was confident. I even said, I will finish the match in a way that earns me the player-of-the-match award. I’ve set a personal target for myself, to win at least two to three player-of-the-match awards in this World Cup,” he added.

Pakistan captain Salman Agha said that while his side prefers chasing, it is equally comfortable setting an above-par total.

“We are comfortable chasing, but we try to bat first and put up above par, then try to defend. We have a flexible order, first three ready to go and then finishers can go early, or if we lose wickets we have batters who can take the game deeper,” Salman said.

After scraping past the Netherlands in its opener, Pakistan produced a far more assured batting display against the USA.

“[It was a] Clinical performance, we started well with the bat and batted really well in the middle. When we come to bowling we have a world-class attack, and scoring 190, we know we could defend that.”

However, Agha admitted that there was still room for improvement.

“Always room for improvement, we’d like to bowl better in the powerplay, be more clinical. These are the things we want to improve.”

A disappointed USA captain Monak Patel rued leaking runs in the middles overs.

“Thought we bowled well in the powerplay but not the middle overs, we gave up a lot of runs. Came back at the death, the pace bowlers bowled well,” he said.

Having lost both its matches so far — significantly denting its hopes of reaching the Super Eights — Patel said his side will aim to finish strongly.

“We’ve been playing good cricket, coming here we were confident but small mistakes cost you. We want to finish this WC strong with two wins.”

Published on Feb 10, 2026