It's a must win game: Azhar

Azhar Ali inspects pitch on Thursday.

Pakistan captain Azhar Ali admitted on Thursday that his beleaguered team will be under immense pressure to level the four-match ODI series at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
"It's a must win game for us. It won't be easy because England played well in the last two games and won," Azhar told reporters before taking his team to a net session.
"We all realise the importance of Friday's game. We will do our best to win the game and I am confident that if we play to our ability, we can definitely win this game and level the series."
Friday's is a must-win match for Pakistan after they conceded a 2-1 lead to the visitors in the series. And Azhar says this is his toughest test yet as the ODI captain of his country. "Yes it's a tough test. But pressure is always there in every series. We had the pressure of qualifying for the Champions Trophy when we were playing against Sri Lanka but then the players responded very well.
"But there is pressure now again. Since it's a must win game we have to remain positive and focus on cricket and use all our abilities. If we can do that you can win the match," Azhar said.
Their batsmen have received brickbats for their failure against the English bowlers in familiar conditions. And the Pakistan captain has vowed to get his batting department back on track.
"I think all of us were hurt. We were in a position to score big in Sharjah. But having said that, it wasn't easy to chase 208 on that pitch and if we had one or two more wickets the match could have been in our favour. "But yes the batting failure hurts. But these things happen in cricket. It's part of the game. Tomorrow we must try to score as many as we can."
The opening batsman said they will play Yasir Shah only if he is fully fit. "We will see his fitness today. Hopefully he is fit .He is feeling better now but we want to assess whether he can survive the 50 overs. So we have to assess him, we will look at the pitch and decide what combination we play," Azhar said.
The 30-year-old batsman said captaincy is not the reason for his poor form with the bat.
"I scored lot of runs when I started as captain, but sometimes you don't score runs. I am trying my best and was feeling well in the last game," he said.
"So hopefully I will do that again in the next game and convert the good start."
rituraj@khaleejtimes.com