Asia Cup: Pakistan play (eventually) & Sri Lanka kick on to Super 4s

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You're listening to the TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 live. Hello, I'm Nick Esh Regani. Welcome to the TMS podcast where we're once again talking all things Asia cup. And it hasn't been the quietest of weeks in the competition. Joining me, as always, is fellow TMS commentator Atif Nawaz. Atif, how are you?

Yeah, very well, Nicks.

We have to start with the big news this week and unfortunately, once again it has very little to do with what happened on the pitch. I'm of course talking about the Pakistan cricket team threatening to pull out of the competition. Now this was all to do with Handshake Gate, as it's been come to known during and after that match with India, the Indian players refused to shake hands with the Pakistani players and staff. The PCB said match referee Andy Pycroft had also instructed Captain Salman Aga not to attempt a handshake at the toss and they wanted Pycroft removed from the competition. Well, that didn't happen. So on the day of their group game against the uae, the team didn't travel to the ground on time, didn't leave the hotel, they were considering pulling out of the competition. The UAE team did travel to the ground as normal. They were training, they were going through all their pre match routines and then Pakistan decided they will still play in the Asia cup and they left the hotel and, but lo and behold, they got stuck in traffic in Dubai. The PCB claims there then was an apology issued by Andy Pycroft, but sources close to the situation claim that it wasn't an apology, but an expression of regret over the misunderstanding and miscommunication around the incident from the India game. The match did take place in the end, Artif. We'll get into that in a moment, but where do we start on this? I mean, it's a bit of a PR disaster for the Pakistan Cricket board, isn't it?

Yeah, it, it is really, because I think the situation sort of spiraled away from them a little bit. I think they, they were, you know, the sort of cricketing world had a lot of sympathy with Pakistan, I think, in that sort of handshake situation. But I think this time around, sort of holding the game to ransom, making this sort of taking the stand that we're not going to play this game if Mr. Pycroft is officiating and then sort of abandoning that, that stance very quickly. They claim they have the apology. The ICCF said expression of regret. I don't know why the wording is so important. We're talking apology versus expression of regret. Like, you know, it's like a distinction and it's such a bizarre little power play, really. It was frustrating because I think ultimately what Pakistan cricket fans wanted was to watch a game of cricket. It was delayed, Baron, by an hour. And again, just for clarity, that was. That hour was sort of agreed upon by everybody so they could, you know, make the game happen, which they did. So credit to everybody involved for making sure the game happened and Pakistan continued to participate. But yeah, it just, it was a bit, I, it was just. I think you summed it up perfectly. It was a PR nightmare for Pakistan. The good news is they did play the game. They won their game. So we'll have another India vs Pakistan match to look forward to very, very soon.

Yeah, we will. That will take place on Sunday in the Super Fours. I mean, in terms of pulling out of the competition, Pakistan, there could have been, you know, Big financial implications were they to do so. Of course, TV rights shared among the nations who are playing in Pakistan potentially would have been left out of that. And there could have been other financial implications too. So, you know, you don't know if anything like that came into their thinking.

What did you make of the video that the PCB released? Because it was really bizarre. They released a video claiming that Mr. Pycroft had apologized to the Pakistan team. And they put it out there and nobody sort of refuted it immediately. And then later on the ICC said sort of expression of. Expression of regret. I mean, it's so semantic. But anyway, like, it was bizarre because they put the video out, there was no sound on it. There were loads of people wildly gesticulating in the video. And it just left it even further open for interpretation. I mean, for me, if somebody, if you're expecting an apology, you're presumably expecting a public apology. So you have it very clearly on the record, somebody apologizing for what's happened. But what we actually heard was a sequence of reasons. Again, there's sort of various news sources at play, so it's hard to know what's what. But what we have seen is a video clip which has no sound, which Pakistan contends includes an apology and the ICC says, contends an expression of regret. So, I mean, I think that's pretty much the definition of splitting hairs. But that's where we are.

I mean, that's even. You know, it makes the PR disaster even worse, doesn't it? Putting out a video saying that there's an apology taking place and there's no sound to that video. I don't know who took the video. I don't know why it was allowed because presumably this would have been a private conversation. And if the reports are to be believed around the India game and Andy Prycro suggesting Salman Aga that indeed he wasn't to shake hands with Suryakumar Yadav or attempt a handshake with him at the toss. Allegedly, Pakistan Cricket Board claim that Andy Pycroft handed his microphone to the Pakistan media manager. He didn't want to be on record, he didn't want to be recorded, he didn't want it leaked anywhere. Exactly what he was going to be saying to Salman Aga. Those are the allegations. So you wonder why he would then allow the filming to take place. So all seems very bizarre at the moment and even more bizarre when you consider that, yes, the ICC provide the officials and Andy Pycroft is, is the match referee involved in this incident. But the acc, the Asian Cricket Council is currently run by the head of Pakistan Cricket. So there's a power struggle somewhere. And you know, this, this whole saga, I guess will, will continue.

It will. And the sad thing is it's sort of distracted from, again, distracted from what's happening on the pitch. I mean handshake, gate. We didn't really, we obviously we did talk about it but generally the conversation wasn't about sort of India's brilliant performance. Again Pakistan, I thought, you know, put in a, an intriguing performance against the UAE that day. You sort of feel for the players as well being told to stay in their rooms. I mean then, then you've got to go to the ground, you're stuck in traffic and you don't, you've got this sort of truncated warm up routine before the match starts and then you have to go and perform. Right. And there's they, they certainly didn't perform to their potential. They did enough to win the game and win it reasonably convincingly in the end. But there were certainly a few hiccups along the way and you just have to wonder if all the stuff that's happening off the field is, is further impacting their ability to execute on the field. But I guess the headline is they made it through and you know, four of the best teams, four of the five best teams have made it to the, to the super force.

Yeah, absolutely. Pakistan beating the UAE by 41 runs. Shaheen Shah Afridi taking a couple of wickets and continuing his good batting form too, hitting 29 off just 14. With the Willow in hand in terms of positives then Atif going into the super fours for Pakistan, what do you take?

Well, I mean there's a lot of, there's more worries than there are positives. As you mentioned, Shaheen Afrili again a sort of surprise with the bat. Sort of a revelation really with the bat because when he sort of first burst on the scene there were a sort of expectation that might be a sort of wazy Mukram esque allrounder for Pakistan at some stage in the future, but that didn't really materialize. Now every now and again he gives you a little glimpse and obviously you can hit the ball a long way, but it's, it's sort of bizarre because he did get a couple of wickets but really the role that he's there to perform is to take early wickets for Pakistan. Sima, you who's currently Pakistan's top wicket taker in the competition, he's taken more wickets than he has faced balls in this Asia cup, so far, he's been dismissed for three ducks in a row. And he's, you know, he's really, really struggling. Now. This is a player that's come in with a lot of hype. I remember Michael Vaughan, he was talking about how highly he rates Simon you and how much potential he has as a player. But he's really sort of falling to pieces at the moment with the bat bizarrely performing a role with the ball. So it just, again, it just sort of points to a little bit of a. A lack of clarity, perhaps in the team, where sort of Shaheen is having to cover the batting end of things and Sime Ayuba is covering the bowling end of things. And he bowled really well in the power play, to be fair to him, but it's not really the gig. So, yeah, it. It is. It is going to take a little bit of. I mean, it's very hard to see Pakistan coming close to beating India at the moment. On the back of that performance, they got out of jail, I would say, against uae, because they bowled really well. The UAE bowlers, you know, really pushed Pakistan really hard and they. They took it. They, you know, if they just held on at the death, I think they would have gotten away with a lower total, which may have been significantly easier to chase. But I think Pakistan just had enough to hold them off. But in terms of positives, it's pretty slim pickings, if I'm honest. The bowlers, again, you know, the bail the batters out. But how often can you do that and can you do that against a team as mighty as India on Sunday? We'll wait and see.

Yeah. So India, of course, through to the Super Fours as well, with a match to spare. And joining them, Bangladesh and also Sri Lanka, who booked their spot in the Super Fours after beating Afghanistan by six wickets. And joining us now is broadcaster and morally end podcaster Mark Machado. Welcome, Mark.

Hi, Dikesh. Hi, Atif. Thank you for having me.

So, Mark, Sri Lanka through to the Super Fours then. And you've set up immediately another clash with, I guess, Sri Lanka's newest rivals. Can you call them new rivals now? Bangladesh, It's. It's a pretty fierce rivalry. I mean, it's. It's probably more intense than India and Pakistan has been over the last few years. The. The Naggin Dance Derby, the Snake Dance Derby, as it's been come to known.

I. I absolutely love this derby. I love what's happened with it. I mean, in a world where we constantly be told people don't care about bilaterals. People don't care about, you know, games that don't involve their teams suddenly. And it's essentially only happened because Sri Lanka play Bangladesh so much. There is a lot of needle in this game. Weird. There was a weird situation yesterday when Sri Lanka were playing Afghanistan where Bangladesh fans had to start cheering for Sri Lanka because they needed Sri Lanka to win, to get through. I, I'm like, sadly, Shakib and, and Angelo Matthews, who were the kind of two players who were at the kind of forefront of this rivalry, are no longer involved in, in their national sides T20 setups at the moment. So they won't be there. But they, they're still a lot going on and what, you know, unexpectedly, I'm going to turn up on a podcast and say nice things about Bangladesh cricket, but actually they've improved quite a bit and become quite competitive in recent years, I think particularly around this, this fixture because there is so much needle in it now. They've got some youngsters coming through like Riddle and, and some spinners who, who've caused me endless sleepless nights. And I think, I think this will be the fifth time we've played them in about five, five weeks. But, but I'm looking forward to it. I mean, every time the, the stakes get higher and higher. This, this for me is going to be quite a critical game in terms of Schlage qualified for the final.

Yeah, I mean, it certainly will. But let's talk about the performance against Afghanistan a little bit because that was a huge game. All three teams still able to qualify from that group of death. They had a significantly more difficult group. I mean, one of them has India and Pakistan in it, but this one has three test playing nations in it, all vying for a spot. Afghanistan ahead of the tournament, you know, sort of being built up on social media as the second best team in Asia. But they're not even going to make the, the last four of the, of the Asia Cup. But it was a really exciting and really close game and I felt like Sri Lanka really showed some steel to close out that match against Afghanistan and they've wanted spin lineup.

Yeah. So merrily Ed, what we've been talking about in the Last kind of 18 months or so is actually we reckon we've got the talent. There's a lot of cricket players. They'll always produce good players and players that could should be able to do things at kind of the top, top level. The thing that we wanted to see was that still was that mentality was how do you when things are going well for Sri Lanka like we, we could, you know, we could get a job done and we beat the teams that people should expect us to beat. The problem is, is when things start to go badly. Yesterday there was a really odd situation happened where Denith Will Allagay, he was the left hand all round spinner. You was brought into the side mainly because the idea was as Afghanistan have a lot of right handers and they, they struggle to bit against Bangladesh's left hand spin the day a couple of days before Dudith ends up having to bowl the last over. And there's a debate among Sri Lanka fans whether how that happened and what the thought process was of that. Mohammed Nabi's batted probably one of the best hitters of, of spin in this tournament and he gets five sixes in that, in that over and kind of I thought, right, he's taking the game away, we need to talk a little bit about dinner because he got some terrible news as soon as the match finished that his father had died. But I thought at that moment after that over being the last over of the game, Afghanistan got 169. I was like, that's the kind of play, that's the kind of moment in the match that a year or so ago would have taken the game totally away from Schlun. Their heads would have gone and they wouldn't have been able to get themselves back into it. However, they came out and batted and hadn't lost their minds. They lost an early wicket. In fact, they lost a couple of early wickets in the when they were batting and they were still able to rebuild. And as a Shrug fan, that gives me so much pleasure to watch that because it's the, that mental strength, that toughness is started to, to, to show itself a little bit, which I wasn't entirely sure we had. But we saw it a few weeks ago when they were in Zimbabwe and we saw it yesterday as well.

And I guess from a Sri Lanka fan's point of view, and probably the same with Bangladesh, you see yourselves in the, with India versus Pakistan, there's been, you know, lots said, hasn't there, about the Asia Cup. The relevance of the Asia Cup. Is it just another opportunity to stage India vs Pakistan matches and make loads of money? Well, that's probably partly true given the fact that, you know, the rest of the world isn't that interested in the Asia Cup. It's, you know, it's sometimes been seen as a competition certainly by India where they would send a weaker side and you know, some of the senior players are rested. This is still a great opportunity, though, for Sri Lanka or Bangladesh to disrupt the party, isn't it? And Sri Lanka have done that more than any other side in the history of the Asia Cup. They've won six titles. Pakistan have only won a couple of times, and those have both been post 2000, which when you look at the side that they had in the 80s and the 90s, they should have won a lot more titles. But it's India at the top there with eight titles, Sri Lanka with six, and then Pakistan with two. Nobody else has yet lifted the Asia cup. But another opportunity here for both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to disrupt that party and get through to the final.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Sri Lanka cricket knows its kind of place in the cricket ecosystem, right? 24 million people. It's a small economy. It kind of doesn't dictate large TV rights. It relies on these tournaments to kind of make money. Sri Lanka cricket, what they will tell you is they can't control the teams that India decide to send out or, you know, or how other sides are playing. The Asia Cup's a massive thing for Sri Lanka, not just for the players, but for the fans as well. The people love it. There's loads of talk about it online. They've enjoyed. You know, we've had some great successes. Kind of against the odds. Right. You know, obviously every team in. In South Asia has had economic and political issues on some level, but Sri Lanka, you know, Sri Lanka's won World Cups, but they've been in the midst of a civil war. Our cricket culture is. Is of resilience and it's also off building winning teams when everything else the island is. Is kind of falling apart. So all. And. And I think that the other massive, huge benefit Sri Lanka has, they come to this tour, but at India, Pakistan are. There is that they will always be the underdogs and actually they thrive at being underdogs. It's when you. When you've got a situation where there's a South Africa or New Zealand or Australia turning up to g. To play. To play games or suddenly and people are like, well, actually, Sri Lanka go is quite difficult. When people start talking about Sri Lanka equal as. As an equal team, I think. I think sometimes that starts messing with the. The team psychology. When you come in as an underdog and you've got something to prove and you've got history, the tournament. And that's why I think we relish being there.

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You mentioned Dunit Balalage there as well and you know you've got some heartbreaking news during the during the match I think he came off the field and and learned that his father had passed from a sudden heart attack. Of course all of our condolences with with Dunit and his family and with all of his fans of course as well. But that's a huge loss for Sri Lanka who's I mean he's presumably going to play no further part, quite understandably in the Asia Cup. What's that going to do to the, to the makeup of the team? Is there going to be somebody else drafted in to replace him?

Yeah. So he did go home hours he went flew back to Colombo after hearing the news on totally understandably so at the moment I think there is some what shrink have got now, which they've almost never had is they've got kind of A lot of depth in bowlers traditionally. If you go back to look at the kind of glory days of the mid 2000s, mid 2010s, you kind of felt there was maybe like 12 or 13 good players for Sri Lanka, players who could do a job at this level suddenly. And you know, I, I, I'm very grateful to the IPL because they've got, you know, various IPL teams have done a lot to nurture some of our younger talent. Suddenly there's actually quite a lot, lot of depth at the moment. We've been playing a kind of 74 split. Well, alay, yesterday came in as, as an all rounder. He didn't need to bat, which is, you know, I'm, I'm grateful of, but I do think losing him kind of can in some ways misbalance the team. He didn't play in the first two games though. So I think if they're looking for the oversight teacher will come back into the side. If they're looking for, for the batting, which in my opinion actually if you get 20 good, if you've got 20, if you can bowl 20 good overs and really you should be prepared to bowl 25 good overs because one bowler will have a bad day, then you maybe don't need, I think you should plan that. You don't need to bat as deep. But if they're looking for a bat for a batting option, they might call up Jeffrey Van Der say back into the squad even though he's in Sri Lanka at the moment. Or they might go with who is again, he's, he's back home, but he might be called up or I suspect they won't call anyone up and we'll just go with the extra bowler though. But we do, we do have options which, you know, obviously it's tragic that Dennis Malala Gates had to go home, but I, you know, I wake up every morning and I'm grateful that it's, it's not just kind of three bowlers and we're done. We've, we've got depth of variety, which I'm not used to having.

Yeah, there certainly are a few options there for Sri Lanka. Now we talked about Sri Lanka versus Bangladesh. That's the first fixture in the Super Fours on Saturday. And then the, the sort of crossover between the two groups happens post the weekend. Post that India Pakistan match on Tuesday. Pakistan take on Sri Lanka. Mark, firstly, how do you tackle Pakistan? What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? What will Sri Lanka be looking to exploit? And then I guess the big one if you talk about the favorites for the Asia cup, they take on India on Friday. Same question there. How do you cope with India's spin attack?

I guess so, so for me, for, for against Pakistan, the thing I'll be trying to do is basically go as Sri Lankan as you possibly can. We're, we're, we're post Lasseth Malinga, but his, his spirit lives among the team. When you play Sri Lanka now, it's like entering the Malinga verse. You can play against two possible slingers. We've got New and Tishra slinging the ball down for you in the earlier, in the early part of the innings and I would go with Pat Rana to, to kind of close it off. I'm not sure how much sling the Pakistani players would have played against. I know there is slingers in, in the Pakistan setup as well, but I, I, I think if you, if your batting hasn't been overly confident, which I haven't seen for Pakistan recently, I think having that extra variation regard, almost regardless of, you know, what, what else happens starts to put doubt in your mind as well. Newman, this has been super effective at the, at the beginning of an innings. If he could get a few early on two or three wickets. If we get three wickets of the power play, I'm confident that we'll get a win and I think he's the guy that could get wickets early. Chamira will, will also bow, bow alongside him. I, I'm confident that I, I'm more worried about Pakistan's bowling than their batting, but I think our batting is starting to sign, show signs of fluency. So I'm confident that I just want Schlage to go out there, be slunk and put, put a good performance in, not and, and not lose themselves into the moment of playing quite, you know, a massive side in a massive game in a big tournament.

You've got to watch out for Sime Ayub in those, in those power playovers. He's been Pakistan's biggest threat so far, isn't he? Jest. You jest. But it's, it's not a bad option, is it? Look in these conditions to, to open with a spinner in the power play. Do you think Pakistan are going to go that way throughout the Super Fours as well?

Yeah, almost certainly. I think they'll keep going with that. They did experiment with in the UAE game with an extra SEMA and, and dropping Sufyan Mukim. But I mean, Simon, we sort of joke about it, but he's, he's taken, he's taken six wickets in his three matches and he's averaging 10, which is not bad with the ball at all, you know, so you know, it's, you never know. The Asia cup makes stars. I didn't think Moinali would become one of England's leading frontline spinners and, and he did. I think the way Pakistan sort of look at him or certainly Mike Hessen looks at cyber you is like a modern day Muhammad Hafiz who would bowl in a power play and also get you some quick runs at the top of the order. It's not his principal gig taking the wickets but you know, if he's getting you them, why not? At the moment I think he's either level. Oh, he's one ahead of Nara as well. Who's, who's Sri Lanka's top wicket taker at the moment in the competition with five. He took those four wickets against, against Afghanistan. Outstanding performance. So yeah, I, you know, in terms of a matchup I think just like Mark says, they could well catch Pakistan off guard. Pakistan have just about got over the line with the Oman and the uae. We'll see how they get on with India on Sunday. But I think right now they're sort of almost ripe for the taking. So it could just, it could just work out quite heavily in Sri Lanka's favor.

Yeah, you look at the top wicket takers in the competition, he's only one behind Guldeep Yadav from India and then Junaid Siddiq ahead on nine wickets. So three more than Simo. You have a couple more than Junaid Siddiq. Rather Patum Nisanka, top run scorer in the competition as well. Mark, how key is somebody like a Batum Nisanka with all the experience that he's got as well of steering Sri Lanka through some, you know, likely difficult moments in the Super Fours.

It's, it's funny you say experience because I still think of him as quite young and he's. And early in his career. He's 27. He's been around basically since, since cricket restarted, since COVID He's, he's absolutely superb. England fans will remember him from his century at the oval in the final test last summer. He's turning into the, the kind of all format batter that I was really worried Sri Lanka cricket would be able to produce. Starting the first two games incredibly well yesterday against Afghanistan. He did get out early. I did have a some worries. But you know, Kusel, the, the key for Sri Lanka is with, with the bat is that one of the two openers has got to get rods. So Patu or he bounced crusades at the top in T20. One of those two is if they get runs, then we're in a good place. Patton gets really, really angry about getting out and the thing I see with him that gives me great hope is I kind of almost feel like he doesn't get out the same way more than two or three times. So you won't any obvious weakness. He seems to go away, work on. The way he scored runs over the years has changed his. His strike rate has improved quite a bit since he first started as well. He's a, He's a great little player. I would love. I, I want him to have a really good end to this tournament because I'd love to see him get big T20 contracts around the world, which he hasn't quite done yet, but I think he totally, totally deserves it. Just like he's worth a punt just for his sheer mentality, right? Because you know, if you bring him into a squad, he's gonna figure out pretty quickly why he's not in 11 if he isn't and then he's going to improve as well. So I just think that kind of player is totally valuable.

I've talked about Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Obviously India remain favorites going into these super fours to win a ninth Asia cup title. They've got the batting power, haven't they? At the top with the likes of Abhishek Sharma leading the way. Surikumar Yadav, the captain, just outstanding in this format. But it's been their spin trio really, that has been running through sides. Kuldeep Yadav in particular, like we mentioned there, Akshar Patel, even the likes of Shivam Dubey chipping in with a wicket or two here and there. And of course Jasper Bumrah will always be a threat in this competition. I, I see them obviously going to the final. I'm kind of leaning towards Sri Lanka at the moment because you look at Pakistan's problems right now, Artif, and I'm going to put this to you, they look vulnerable. Bangladesh never quite seem to get over the line. They've got some good, young, talented players coming through, but they've lost a bit of experience in recent times in their white ball formats. I can see an India vs Sri Lanka final. Do you see it any other way, Artif?

I. I do see it a different way. I think there's. What Pakistan has in their favor is scheduling. I think getting that India game out of the way early will help them immensely because it'll make it crystal clear what they need to do. It's almost like a. A free hit for Pakistan, that India game. Nobody's sort of expecting them to win it. So they can go out there and try and try and have a, you know, have a go at it, and then know that they'll have a competitive game, probably likely against Sri Lanka and a competitive game against Bangladesh. I think, you know, most days they would back themselves to be Bangladesh. Even though Bangladesh did win a series against Pakistan recently, a T20 international series. And, you know, they just. Sri Lanka still has that sort of mystery component to it for Pakistan because they don't play them as often. There was a time where they were playing, like, every other day, it felt like, but they haven't played a lot recently. There was, you know, like, every. Every mendis in Sri Lanka was well known in Pakistan for a while. But, yeah, I think, you know, when you look at India, again, as you say, total favorites. But there is, like, if you would really. If you were really digging, if you. If your editor said to you, come on, I need something for the weakness column for India, and you were digging and you were looking for something, I'd point to the fact that maybe they're a little bit underexposed. Like, some of the players just haven't spent time out in the middle doing what they're there to do. Obviously, the bowlers have, but Sanju Sampson's just been a tourist. At least it's been enjoying Dubai Mall and. And the Mall of the Emirates and all that kind of stuff while he's been out there playing Padel, probably, but he hasn't had a bat yet in the position that he's been set for. That could change by the time, you know, we finish recording and they play against Oman, but let's face it, it's unlikely. So the fact that they haven't really been pushed hard yet, you know, just. It will just be a scenario that's slightly unfamiliar to them, I think, at least in this Asia Cup. And at that point, you never know what can happen. So, I mean, in terms of final, I'm still going to call it an India Pakistan final. I'm gonna go with what I think is the most obvious thing. But, you know, listen, Sri Lanka is an outstanding team, as is Bangladesh. They've both got the kind of players that can take out Pakistan, that have taken out Pakistan, that have taken out India. So you never know what that final be. But I think the smart money will probably be on an India Pakistan one again.

I'm sure the people who sell TV adverts will be very happy to hear you say that, Mark. I'm sure you see it a slightly different way and I've mentioned there that the lack of familiarity really between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Of course some of the Sri Lankans do play in the ipl, so there is that familiarity, but they, they haven't sort of really had as many series in recent times as they used to. I mean, it used to be the dumb thing, didn't it? In South Asia, if either India or Pakistan have got a couple of months spare, they'd go and tour Sri Lanka or invite Sri Lanka over, but that doesn't seem to be the case quite as much anymore. Do you think you can maybe see some surprises being sprung by Sri Lanka in this Super 4 stage?

Yeah, I think actually, I think Sri Lanka are due to go over to Pakistan in November though, with Sri Lankan cricket. Pakistan cricket, things change a lot for some white ball games and there's a tri series as well. The Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan tri series, which I'm excited about. The return of the tri series is, is a good thing that's happening in cricket. So for me, I, I think again, you know, artists and Pakistan have, have done. Be done a favor by the scheduling. I think Sri Lanka have the adverse of that because they've got to play Bangladesh first, which I know will be competitive. Then that Pakistan game kind of midweek is going to be potentially for both those sides is going to be, you know, do or die at that moment and then we play India on Friday and then potentially the, the final on Sunday. For me, I think we've definitely got enough in our, in us to, to beat Bangladesh. Pakistan, even though that's not a given, we've got to put a good performance in and figure it out when we get there. I think against India though, I think the thing I've got is that I kind of feel at this point India haven't been tested that much. They're slightly undercooked. I think India are by far and away a much more talented side than Sri Lanka have. I think though, with Sri Lanka's kind of talent and its wilderness, we could have one win against India in US we could do it. We could do it for Sri Lanka cricket and in some ways it kind of reflective of all Sri Lankans at any given point anyway, it's always about just trying to get to the next level, just try and get to the next place. Don't worry about what's going to happen in the superfalls. Just try and get to the superfalls with the superfalls. Now the next question is just try and get to the final. Don't worry about the final. Just get to the final. The, the thing that does that gives me some hope and why I think maybe might be able to beat them is because what I see for this team is they learn from their mistakes pretty quickly. We're playing India on Friday. If we have to play India on Friday and then if we are in the final on Sunday then we'll have a, we'll have had a look at them. I mean, obviously they'd have had a look at us as well, but we might be able to put something in place by the Sunday that India aren't expecting. Hope.

I pray we shall wait and see. Look, what, what would happen if India weren't to make the final? That, that would be an interesting thing to happen. I certainly don't think there is invincible, as people are saying, certainly the strongest side in the competition. But on any given day they, they can well be beaten. We shall wait and see. An exciting Super 4 stage awaits us. But that's all we've got time for today. My thanks to Atif Nawaz and to Mark Machado. Make sure you're subscribed on BBC Sound so you never miss an episode of the TMS podcast and you can keep up to date with all things cricket by following bctms on X and bccricket on Instagram. Thanks for listening and we'll speak to you again next time.

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