ICC World Cup 2023, IND vs PAK: Babar confident of turning the tide today

Babar Azam bats at the Ahmedabad nets yesterday. Pic/Getty Images

For someone, who boasts of a batting average of 57.09 across a whopping 110 ODIs, including 19 tons and 28 half-centuries, it comes as a bit of a surprise that Pakistan captain Babar Azam's numbers against arch-rivals India aren't all that impressive.

In seven ODIs so far against the Men in Blue, Babar, 28, has accumulated only 168 runs at a meagre average of 28.00 with not a single hundred or even a fifty to boast of. The brilliant batsman blames those statistics on the fewer number of times the two teams meet these days. "Against India, we only come face-to-face in a World Cup, so there is a big gap [between meetings]. And it's not that this [poor numbers] is because of any particular [Indian] bowler or anything. I feel that I sometimes get out because of my own mistakes. The idea is to try to make as few mistakes as possible," he told a packed house match-eve press conference at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Thursday.

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This is not to suggest for one moment, however, that the Pakistani leader's poor batting numbers against India will continue this Saturday. It takes just one inning to turn things around, and Babar believes this is true even when it to comes to his country's dismal 0-7 ODI World Cup record against India. "I don't focus on the past. I try to focus on the future. Such records [0-7] are made to be broken and I try to break them. It all depends on how you play on the day. I believe my team did well in the first two matches and will do well in the next matches as well," he said.

On the personal front too Babar realises that he needs to fire and possibly set an example to his teammates, most of whom haven't played too much against India. "My World Cup till now has not been as it should have been, but hopefully, you will see some difference in the next matches. I will try to come up with a good performance tomorrow," he added.