Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez on Wednesday said he hoped his team gets a much-needed lift from their match against arch-rivals India, which opens the main round of the World Twenty20 in Bangladesh.
The fifth edition of the World Twenty20 with 16 teams in competition will be held from March 16 to April 6.
Bangladesh, ranked 10th in the world, have been drawn with Afghanistan, Nepal and Hong Kong in group A of the first round.
The other group comprises Zimbabwe, Ireland, the United Arab Emirates and the Netherlands. The top team from each group advances to the main tournament. They will join the eight seeded teams in the second, which opens with Indo-Pak match on March 21.
Hafeez wants his team to get the ideal start by beating India.

                                   “India-Pakistan match is always a pressure match, as a player as a captain I am very happy that our first match is against India and from there we will, Insha’Allah get a good take off and will perform better in all the matches during the tournament,”
                                                                                                         Hafeez told reporters.
The Pakistan team flies off on Thursday (today) and will play two warm-up matches, against New Zealand on March 17 and South Africa two days later.
Pakistan are placed in Group Two in the second round along with India, Australia, the West Indies and one qualifier from the first round.
Hafeez believed Pakistan had the momentum with a win over India in the Asia Cup.
“I think we will have that momentum of our win against India in the Asia Cup,” said Hafeez of the one wicket win in the Asia Cup earlier this month.
“We have advantage that where we are going (Bangladesh) we have played one-day cricket there recently. We have one week to get back into Twenty20 mould, expectations should be always positive and we all need to move in one direction.”
Hafeez said no team will be easy in the event.
“Lots of teams are playing Twenty20 now and you can´t take any team easy, you have to be positive in your thinking against all the teams. I think two things are very important in a big tournament, one is momentum which you have to carry and the second is luck and with the prayers of countrymen the luck factor will also be with us.”
Hafeez hopes Shahid Afridi will be fit in time for the World Twenty20 after the hard-hitting allrounder delayed his departure to Bangladesh.
Afridi played in the Asia Cup final on Saturday with painkillers after he hurt his hamstring with some powerful late hitting during two nail-biting victories against India and Bangladesh last week.
“As a captain I need a fit Afridi, and that´s why we have given him time to rehab,” Hafeez said.
Afridi’s fitness could be tested in the second warm-up game against South Africa next Wednesday before the 2009 winners´ first group match against India two days later.
Afridi is the most capped Twenty20 International player with 70 matches, bagging 73 wickets with his legspin bowling and scoring 1,044 runs at an impressive strike rate of 143.01.
Hafeez said fitness was one of the key issues with the team because it has been playing international cricket nonstop for five months.
“When you play back-to-back matches, the fitness of individuals counts a lot,” Hafeez said.
“Fitness is the problem of the Pakistan team, but it needs to be improved at the grassroots level.”
The dip in the form of Umar Gul, the second highest wicket-taker in T20s with 74, and Junaid Khan, worries Hafeez after both fast bowlers combined for only six wickets during the Asia Cup.
“The performance of the fast bowlers will be the key for us because they have to play their roles with both the new and old ball,” he said.
“(Bowling coach) Mohammad Akram is working hard with both of them in the nets, but in the end it´s up to them to go out and perform.”Fielding is another area of concern, as Pakistan dropped at least three catches in the Asia Cup final loss to Sri Lanka.
The Pakistan Cricket Board hired former Test opener Shoaib Mohammad as the fielding coach before the Asia Cup, but Hafeez said it will take time to implement the coach’s techniques.
“He (Mohammad) has never worked as a fielding coach with any national team,” he said. “He is giving us some new ideas and we are trying to adopt those things, but it will take some time.”
Pakistan have recalled allrounder Shoaib Malik, wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, left-arm fast bowler Sohail Tanvir and left-arm spinner Zulfiqar Babar in the four changes made from the team which played in the Asia Cup.

                                                             HZY