Colombo, Feb 14 Skipper Salman Ali Agha on Saturday defended Usman Tariq's unorthodox action and termed the "off-spinner who pauses and then delivers" as Pakistan's "trump card" against India in the T20 World Cup match here on Sunday.
Tariq impressed with a three-wicket haul against the United States of America, albeit at the neighbouring Sinhalese Sports Club, and the 27-year-old could be even more dangerous on the slower RPICS pitch.
"Usman is one of our 15 players, and we treat him that way. You (media) have made him a star. He has been bowling very well," Agha initially tried to downplay the hype around Tariq during the pre-match press meet here on Saturday.
However, as the questions persisted on Tariq, Agha admitted that the off-spinner is indeed his team's primary weapon against their arch-rivals, whose batting lineup is filled with power-hitters.
"He has been bowling very well for the past few months. And he also bowled well in the Pakistan Super League before playing for Pakistan. And yes, you can say that he is a trump card for us," Agha added.
Questions have been raised about Tariq's unusual pause-and-deliver action, but Agha did not dwell too much on those comments.
"He doesn't care about these things. Since he started playing cricket, people have been talking about him. He doesn't care. The ICC has cleared him twice, and he has done everything required to bowl in international cricket.
"So I don't know why people are saying so many things about him, but the one thing I can assure you is that he doesn't care. He is smart and mature enough to deal with all this," he noted.
However, Agha said that Pakistan's attack has more to offer than just Tariq.
"It is possible that the spinner will dominate here, but I think the fast bowlers will also have a role. Because fast bowling is such a skill that you cannot write off anywhere."
The captain believes that Shaheen Shah Afridi will play a significant role due to the variations in his repertoire.
"His role is always there. So I think he will also have a role here. We have a lot of spinners, but we also have fast bowlers, whom we can use if needed," he said.
Agha acknowledged that Pakistan has not had a great record against India in ICC events, but the top-order batter refused to dwell on past events.
"Obviously, we don't have a good record against them in World Cups. But whenever you come to play a new match, it's a new day, a new match. And you have to play good cricket to win. So you can't change history. You can learn from it. We learned from it. And we will try to perform well tomorrow and win the match," he said.
Agha said that the boycott initiated by the Pakistan government in solidarity with Bangladesh after the latter were eliminated from the T20 World Cup was in the past.
"For us, the team was prepared for the big match on Sunday.
"This is a game whose magnitude has always been massive and will continue to be so. And even tomorrow, the game will be massive. We were prepared for everything; we were prepared whether we play or not. We were prepared for everything when we came here."
The 32-year-old said they are not worried about any particular Indian player as his side prepared to tackle anything that the opposition comes up with.
"We have not targeted any particular players. We have to play against all 11 players, and we have plans against all of them. It's routine work. Our bowling coach works with the fast bowlers. It's basically death bowling work. I think we have been doing it for the last 6-7 months. It wasn't just for this specific game. We do it in every practice," he added.
