Echoing his cricket board's stance, Pakistan skipper Salman Ali Agha on Thursday stressed that the decision to boycott the T20 World Cup match against India was taken by their government and was "not in our control".
Pakistan on Sunday announced a boycott of its high-profile men's T20 World Cup group league fixture against India on February 15 here. However, the Pakistani government cleared the national team's participation in the rest of the global event starting February 7.
"Yeah, the India game, it's not in our control. It's a government decision, and we respect that. Whatever they are going to say, we do that," Agha said during the captain's conference.
Agha said in the event of the two arch-rivals clashing in the knockouts, they will again abide by the decision taken by the Pakistan government.
"Well, I have mentioned that before. It is a government decision and we respect that. We will do what they are going to say and we will do that.
"Regardless - I do not know if the game is going to happen or not, but the government has said one thing and we are going to do that. I do not know about the game.
"If we have to play them again in the semifinal or final, we will have to go back to them and act on their advice," Agha said.
Pakistan's decision, which was conveyed through an official government statement, is a political protest against Bangladesh's removal from the tournament. The ICC declined Bangladesh's request to shift matches from India to Sri Lanka on security grounds.
Agha said it was unfortunate to see Bangladesh not playing in the tournament.
"Well, they are our brothers. I'll say they can support us in the tournament as well. And it's really sad to see them. They are not playing the World Cup." During the press conference here, Agha was also reminded about Pakistan's embarrassing defeat to lesser-fancied USA in the last edition of the tournament in the Americas.
Both Pakistan and USA are in the same group this time too.
"Yes, we lost to the USA in the last World Cup, but that's history now. It's a new World Cup, a new team and a new combination, and we are very excited about it." "It's my first World Cup as a captain, and I'm very excited about that. I don't know how to describe myself as a captain.
"As a captain, I just want to lead from the front and do as much as I can for the team, get the best out of the team, and prepare an environment where they can play at their best," Agha said.
Looking to do well here after win against Australia
The Pakistan captain said the team will take confidence from their 3-0 series win against Australia last week at home though the visitors were without few of their top players.
Agha was relieved when the discussion switched to Pakistan's success after the queries on their government's decision to boycott the India game.
"Nice to have a question apart from the India game. We have been playing really good cricket. I think post-Asia Cup, we haven't lost a series yet and we have won most of our games.
"We are playing really good cricket. Everything is coming along very nicely. We are very hopeful and excited for this World Cup and really hope to do well here as well." Pakistan, however, have struggled to perform in ICC tournaments, getting kocked out in the first rounds of the last three global events while also losing to India.
"Yes definitely, in the last three events we haven't played the cricket that was expected by us by the people, or what we expect from ourselves as a team. But that is history and we can only learn from that and we have learnt a lot from it.
The Pakistan skipper also said the team has settled down since arriving here and called Sri Lanka his "second home".
Having refused to play against India, the margin for error is very small for Pakistan to progress into the knockouts, with Sri Lanka's unpredictable weather making things much more tricker.
"The weather, you can't control. We just here to play good cricket and whatever challenges will throw us, we will deal with that," he added.
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