Pakistan Head Coach Grant Bradburn Blames ‘Foreign Indian Conditions’ As Reason For His Team's Struggles in ICC Cricket World Cup 2023

Kolkata, October 30: Pakistan are hurt by their woeful World Cup show, and their head coach Grant Bradburn on Monday blamed it on "foreign" Indian conditions and their lack of familiarity with the venues. Four defeats on the trot have virtually dashed Pakistan's semifinal hopes. They have to win their remaining three matches by big margins and hope that other teams' results also favor them to have any chance of making it to the last-four stage.  Inzamam-ul-Haq, PCB Chief Selector, Resigns From His Position Amid Pakistan's Poor Show in ICC Cricket World Cup 2023

"We are in a position that we didn't want to be. We are determined at this stage of the tournament to be in control of our destiny but we're not. That hurts the group," said the Pakistani coach on the eve of their match against Bangladesh here on Tuesday. "This tournament is on foreign conditions for us. None of our players have played here before. Every venue is a new one, including this one," he added.

Bradburn said his side had done their homework meticulously. "We've done our homework meticulously on our opposition, on our venues that we're playing at, and we're prepared very, very well for each and every encounter. "But the reality is that each and every venue is a new one for us and we don't feel disadvantaged at all in terms of the knowledge, the quality, the skill, the backing that we have for this team of cricketers," he said.

The former Scotland coach, who had served as Pakistan's fielding coach and then consultant, was handed the reins by the PCB on a two-year deal in May. "Ideally, preparation for a tournament like this starts four years ahead. We started six months ago and changed direction in the way that we want to play the game of cricket, especially the one-day brand. "We've shown some positive signs of that over the last six months. We're proud of some of the performances that we've put on. It's taking a little bit longer than we hoped, but we want to play a dynamic brand that matches the challenge of the conditions we're playing in."

Skewed ICC Rankings

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Pakistan was the No. 1 ODI side briefly in the lead-up to the World Cup and currently is No. 3 behind India and Australia. But Bradburn believed that the ranking system was skewed as Pakistan doesn't get to play India and many top-ranked countries don't play them at home of late. He did not agree that Pakistan was the pre-tournament favorite. "I'm not sure where you get favorites from because there are 10 teams in this tournament, there are 150 cricketers who are the best on the planet," Bradburn said. "In terms of the ICC rankings, we know they are skewed because we don't get to play India, we don't get to play a lot of the top nations who haven't been to Pakistan of late," he said. "But we're realistic. We have not been the best in the world as yet, which highlights where we are in this tournament right now. We have no divine right to beat anyone in this tournament." Bradburn refused to blame the controversial DRS call for Pakistan's one-wicket loss to South Africa and said his side fell short by 20-30 runs despite assessing the sluggish Chennai conditions well.

"Chennai was a difficult venue to assess conditions, as you all well know. We felt we assessed the conditions well but in the South African game, we acknowledge that we've had a skills meeting this morning and part of our skills meeting is that we reflect on the good and bad. "And part of the admission for us is that we didn't have our batsmen going quite deep enough in that innings, and we probably left 20 to 30 runs out in the middle. And certainly, 310 to 315, I think, in that game would have been sufficient to bring that game to a W for Pakistan," he said. Here’s How Pakistan Can Qualify for Semifinal of ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 Following New Zealand’s Defeat to Australia

He said there was never any issue in terms of team environment. "The environment is great. There's never any issue in terms of the environment. We have a wonderful group of players who are very determined, to bring joy to their nation, and play a quality, exciting brand of cricket for our fans," he signed off.

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