Colombo: Pakistan Captain Fatima Sana said her side is determined to stay focused on performance and pressure treatment in the high-stakes World Cup collision from Sunday against arch rivals India.
Her comments occurred on the high-doctane ICC Ladies Cricket World Cup 2025 match against Arch-Rivals India, planned to be played in the R Premadasa Stadium on Sunday.
The long -awaited collision between fierce rivals will probably reflect the tensions that were observed during the recent Asia cup, where the Indian men’s team was confronted with recoil for unsporting behavior.
Earlier this week the Indian media hinted on the possibility of a different handshake, increased drama and political undertone.
During the press conference of Captain Fatima of Pakistan, Fatima, the ICC media manager prevented the reporters from asking political questions and also about the controversy of the handshake.
Fatima, however, was still asked to share whether she would miss the spirit and comrades between the two teams, referring to their off-field interactions after their match at the 2022 edition of the Mega event, when the Indian players the then Pakistani captain Bismah Maroof and co-opens about her six-month-old daughter.
Fatima, who was part of the national team, then repeated the position of Pakistan to fulfill the mind in response, but emphasized that their primary goal is to ‘stay focused’ at stake.
“Our main goal is to play well. Our relationship with the other teams is good. We will try to fulfill the spirit of the game,” Fatima said.
“What happened before, like with the daughter of Bismmah, when everyone mixed and enjoyed themselves, as players, we all love such moments. But the most important thing is to stay focused on where we came here,” she added.
The captain of Pakistan also rejected the idea of opportunities against them, because they find India 11-0 in their head-to-head record in the ladies ODIs and emphasized instead that her team has the potential to defeat each top, which states that the records are meant to be broken.
“First, whatever data between India and Pakistan, they are meant to be broken. It is not that Pakistan will never win against them,” Fatima said.
“We believe in playing good cricket, regardless of who our opponent is. So we will not consider history; we will only concentrate on the day we play. I personally believe that Pakistan has the potential to beat a top team by playing well in a match. So you can’t judge yourself with just one game.
Fatima Sana then underlined the importance of pressure treatment in large competitions such as Pakistan-India and repeated that they are focused on the coming match.
“Of course it is a match with a lot of pressure. We know that the whole world is similar to the India-Pakistan. But dealing with that pressure is the most important thing. We will concentrate on it, play our game and implement our plans,” Fatima continued.
“Coaches told us to believe. You can’t define a whole tournament based on one competition. We believe that we can still win games.”
