‘Pressure does funny things’: Giant-killer Zimbabwe warns injured India ahead of must-win clash Cricket News

Zimbabwe all-rounder Ryan Bull said his team is aware of the task ahead against India but believes the pressure of a must-win T20 World Cup match could weigh on the hosts when the two teams meet on Thursday.After India lost to South Africa and Zimbabwe lost to West Indies, the Group 1 Super Eight match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium will be crucial for both the teams.“Yes, it’s a must-win game for us, but it’s a must-win game for India as well. Being a World Cup game, there’s obviously a lot at stake here and we all want to win tomorrow’s game if we’re going to advance to the semi-finals,” Bull said at the pre-match press conference.“Obviously, we don’t get many chances to play against India, so it’s something we’ve been looking forward to. Playing against India in India is a challenge in itself. They obviously have home advantage, but both teams need to win tomorrow’s game, which adds to the pressure.“Pressure will do interesting things to the team. Obviously, this is the World Cup and the pressure will increase. We hope to execute our process tomorrow,” he added.Bull said Zimbabwe’s bowling options could help them against India’s batting.“We are doing a lot of homework. Obviously, India have such firepower and they will obviously work very hard in the powerplay and if they don’t lose wickets, their players can give it their all throughout the game. We obviously have a lot of options (bowling) and that is probably one of the strengths of the Zimbabwe line-up.”“We have a left-arm seamer, a right-arm seamer, we have a couple of leg-spinners, we have a non-spinner and we have a left-arm office. So, we do have quite a bit of depth and I think it probably depends on the batsmen that are available and the combinations that we do want to go for, what the specific matchups are,” he added.The all-rounder said the team has moved on from the loss to West Indies.“To be honest, I think we can only take positives from that loss. It sounds weird, but we hadn’t really had a bad game before that. So there’s a lot to learn from that.“Having said that, India obviously didn’t perform well against South Africa as well. So we’re all hoping to bounce back and there’s no better place than tomorrow,” he said.Bull also confirmed that captain Sikandar Raza is fit and healthy despite the injury he sustained in the last match against West Indies.“Sikandar Raza is 100 per cent playing. Good luck telling him he will not play against India. Yes, he will play,” he added.