NEW DELHI: The “perceived” pressure on Pakistan following their decision to boycott the game against India is of little concern to Netherlands opener Max O’Dowd, who said his side is fully focused on winning their T20 World Cup opener against Salman Ali Agha’s men on Saturday.

With Pakistan opting out of their league fixture against India as a show of solidarity with ousted Bangladesh, they now need to win all their remaining three matches, starting with the contest against the Dutch, to stay in contention for a Super Eights spot.

Asked whether Pakistan would be under immense pressure due to the pull-out, O’Dowd replied:
“Look, to be honest, I don't have much to say about Pakistan boycotting against India, that's completely out of our control. We just kind of focus on what we're doing, what we need to do tomorrow, which is to try and beat Pakistan.

“We have got three (vs USA, Namibia and India) very important games coming up after that, so we just have to play the game that's in front of us and everything else will unfold.”

No hints on tactics, but plans in place

O’Dowd, who has featured in 87 T20Is with a strike rate of 122, including a century and 16 fifties, chose not to reveal the team’s strategy while indicating that specific plans have been chalked out for opposition players.

“I'm not going to come out here the day before a game and tell you what we're going to exploit, there's definitely areas that we speak about, we have our analysis meetings and there's certain things with certain guys and that's what we'll try and exploit,” he said.

“But then again, you've got to understand, they're very good players and sometimes plans work, sometimes they don't, but you have to be as prepared as you can, which we feel we are.”

Dutch confident against Pakistan’s spin threat

Pakistan boast a varied spin attack comprising left-arm orthodox Mohammad Nawaz, leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed, off-spinner Saim Ayub and the surprise element in side-arm off-spin bowler Usman Tariq.

“Of course, they've got high quality spinners, thankfully we've spent the last month and a half working very hard on that end and facing spin in these conditions and like I said, guys have upskilled and we've done our homework on a lot of their spin bowlers,” said O’Dowd, who trained with the squad at the Chennai Super Kings Academy in Chennai ahead of the tournament.

“For us, it's going to be tough of course, just like any other team that we come up against because Pakistan have got a great spinning group, but we feel confident that we can play our style and be successful.”

(With PTI Inputs)