Karachi won’t have the advantage of playing at home in PSL final: Javed

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Lahore Qalandars Head Coach Aaqib Javed is confident about his team’s chances in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) season five final on Tuesday.

While speaking to Cricket Pakistan in an exclusive interview, Javed said that Karachi won’t have the advantage of playing at home, National Stadium Karachi, due to absence of crowd.

“We are very confident and ready for the final,” said Javed. “I don’t think Karachi will have the advantage of playing on their home turf because there won’t be crowd inside the stadium. If the crowd was there, then things would have been different.”

The Kings are heavily reliant on prolific batsman Babar Azam and Javed knows that his bowlers will have to be up to the mark against the right-hander.

“Babar is a complete batsman. The entire team is depending on him so we will try to bring him under pressure by bowling a tight line and length and force him to change his game,” he said.

The former pacer also heaped praise on Qalandars’ foreign players and their ability to change the course of a match. 

“Our foreign players might not be big names but if you look at David Wiese performed in the previous match and also Samit Patel. Ben Dunk and Tamim Iqbal are also very mature and effective players. All four, on a given day, can change the result of a match,” he said.   

Javed also opened up on why the Qalandars, who will be playing the PSL final for the first time, failed to perform in accordance with expectations in the previous editions. 

“In previous seasons, sometime our players were unfit at crucial moments or out of form. We even changed three captains during one season but this time that was not the case as all our players were available throughout the event, apart from Chris Lynn for the playoffs, and team was in good rhythm,” he said.

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The Sheikhupura-born also praised pacer Haris Rauf, who was instrumental in the team’s victory in the second eliminator against Multan Sultans, and his gesture after dismissing veteran all-rounder Shahid Afridi.

“We are very proud of Haris Rauf. He has worked really hard in the past two years which was evident from his performance in BBL and this PSL season. He is a wonderful kid,” he said.

“I think he gave that gesture [after dismissing Afridi] in excitement but he is now grooming and respecting his senior players. We love when one of our Qalandars proves himself on the world stage, both, as a player and a human being,” he added.

Javed also stressed on the importance of how Hafeez’s performance, highest run-scorer for Qalandars in the event, helped the team’s progress in the tournament.

“Hafeez has performed exceedingly well for us in the tournament. He is great touch and when your big guns step up it is easier to progress in an event,” he said.

FULL INTERVIEW