Pakistan batter Sahibzada Farhan has played down the hype surrounding Sunday's T20 World Cup clash against bitter foes India, calling it a "normal match" although the mindset of his team will be "different" from previous games.
Pakistan sit atop Group A with back-to-back wins over the Netherlands and the USA. Even though the victory against the Dutch team was a narrow one, Pakistan looked quite assured in their 32-run triumph over the Americans last night in which Farhan smashed a 41-ball 73 to be deservedly adjudged the player of the match.
During the post-match media briefing, the opener fielded queries on the game against India that is finally on after his government withdrew its boycott call.
"See, when you win two matches and are at the top of the table, you feel confident. The upcoming match is not such a big deal, we're not playing against them for the first time," he responded when asked about team's mindset.
"We've played before and this time we'll play with a different mindset. You've seen us...You must have seen that Shadab (Khan) is making runs, (Mohammad) Nawaz is scoring runs. So hopefully you will enjoy our game against them," he said.
"It's a normal match. We'll play like a normal match. We won't put it in our head that this is an India-Pakistan match, it is a normal match and we will play it like a normal match," he added.
The India-Pakistan tensions, which peeked after the gruesome Pahalgam terror attack in 2025, have spilled on to the cricket field as well.
The two sides played out tense games during the Asia Cup, all of them won by India, including the final.
India T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav had stated that given his team's dominance in recent years, he no longer considers the rivalry against Pakistan an evenly-matched one.
Farhan disagreed with that assessment.
"No, I think the way we played in the last Asia Cup, we didn't play one-sided. We played and fought till the end. We didn't play a one-sided match till then and hopefully this time we'll play a wonderful game," he asserted.
On whether he has any specific plans in place to tackle India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, Farhan said, "I think when you make runs you are confident. I am also very confident and the way the last two innings have gone, I'm very confident."