The city of Hyderabad warmed up to the Pakistan cricket team in a manner that left the players from the neighbouring country overwhelmed. In pacer Haris Rauf’s words, the welcome at the airport was “Zabardast. Maza aa gaya”.
The political tension between India and Pakistan was absent when fans lined up at the Hyderabad airport on Wednesday night to welcome Babar Azam and his men.
Instagram Stories from captain Babar and speedster Shaheen Afridi upon their arrival at the heavily guarded team hotel in Banjara Hills summed up their emotions.
“Overwhelmed with the love and support here in Hyderabad,” wrote Babar. Shaheen added, “great welcome thus far”.
Though swept off their feet with the reception, Pakistan are fully focused on the World Cup and straightaway hit the nets on Thursday morning. Though it was only an optional session, as many as 10 players, including Babar, turned up for practice at the Hyderabad Cricket Association Stadium.
Pakistan will play New Zealand in a warm-up match on Friday.
The Hyderabad police have taken strict security measures for the Pakistan team, who were escorted by six police vans on their way to the stadium on Thursday.
With inputs from PTI
Marnus Labuschagne replaced left-arm spinner Ashton Agar as the only change to Australia’s preliminary World Cup squad announced earlier this month.
The five-time champions will thus go into their Cup campaign with just one specialist spinner in the form of Adam Zampa, although Glenn Maxwell proved he’s a capable sidekick with a career-best 4/40 in the third and final ODI against India in Rajkot.
Agar played only four competitive matches since the Big Bash League in January. He also struggled with a calf injury during the recent ODI series against South Africa and that went on to rule him out of Cup contention.
