Pakistan captain Fatima Sana addresses pre-match press convention on the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on October 4, 2025. — ICC
COLOMBO: Pakistan ladies’s cricket captain Fatima Sana has mentioned that her staff is solely ‘focused’ on the “game”.
Her remarks got here forward of the high-octane ICC Girls’s Cricket World Cup 2025 match in opposition to arch-rivals India, scheduled to be performed on the R Premadasa Stadium on Sunday.
The extremely anticipated conflict between fierce rivals is prone to mirror the tensions witnessed throughout the current Asia Cup, the place India’s males’s staff confronted backlash for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Earlier this week, Indian media hinted at the opportunity of one other handshake snub, heightened drama, and political undertones.
Throughout Pakistan captain Fatima’s pre-match press convention, the ICC Media Supervisor refrained the reporters from asking political questions and in addition concerning the handshake controversy.
Nonetheless, Fatima was nonetheless requested to share whether or not she would miss the spirit and camaraderie between the 2 groups, referencing their off-field interactions after their match on the 2022 version of the mega occasion, when the Indian gamers surrounded then Pakistan captain Bismah Maroof and cooed over her six-month-old daughter.
Fatima, who was part of the nationwide staff then, in response, reiterated Pakistan’s stance of fulfilling the spirit however harassed that their major goal is to ‘stay focused’ on the sport.
“Our main goal is to play well. Our relationship with the other teams is good. We will try to fulfil the spirit of the game,” mentioned Fatima.
“What happened before, like with Bismah’s daughter, when everyone mingled and enjoyed together, as players, we all like such moments. But the main thing is to stay focused on what we have come here for,” she added.
The Pakistan captain additionally dismissed the notion of odds being in opposition to them as they path India by 11-0 of their head-to-head file within the Girls’s ODIs and as a substitute harassed that her staff has the potential to beat any prime aspect, stating that the information are supposed to be damaged.
“Firstly, whatever records exist between India and Pakistan, they are meant to be broken. It’s not that Pakistan will never win against them,” Fatima said.
“We believe in playing good cricket, regardless of who our opponent is. So we won’t dwell on history; we’ll focus only on the day we play. I personally believe that Pakistan has the potential to defeat any top team by playing well in any match. So, you can’t judge yourself with just one match. Everyone’s morale is high.”
Fatima Sana then went on to underline the significance of strain dealing with in massive video games like Pakistan-India and reiterated that they’re targeted on the upcoming fixture.
“Of course, it’s a match with a lot of pressure. We know that the whole world is watching the India-Pakistan matches. But handling that pressure is the main thing. We will focus on that, play our game, and execute our plans,” Fatima continued.
“Coaches have told us to believe. You can’t define an entire tournament based on one match. We believe we can still win games.”
