India, Pakistan should be more ‘aggressive’

BOTH India and Pakistan should play more aggressive cricket if they want to succeed in major tournaments, former Pakistan skipper Rashid Latif has said.

While Australia successfully retained their champion’s status in a one-sided affair yesterday against New Zealand, both India and Pakistan were left to count the cost of their frailties after crashing out of the tournament.

Pakistan went down to New Zealand by five wickets in the semi-final, while Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men failed to enter the final-four stage of the eight-nation tournament in South Africa.

But Latif believes both teams need to take a leaf out of Australia’s book and learn to come out with more aggressive brand of cricket.

“Both Pakistan and India need to change their approach and mentality towards cricket. We need to play more aggressive and entertaining cricket,” Latif, who has played 37 Tests for Pakistan, said.

“We shouldn’t worry about results, but we should worry about playing positive all the time and the good results will come automatically. Australia is a classic example of this,” he added.

However, Latif also believes that both Dhoni and Younus Khan are capable of leading their respective sides to much better results in the 2011 World Cup, which would be co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

“I see Dhoni and Younus as captains in the next World Cup and also hope both of them have definitely the capacity to take their teams to the top of the rankings,” Latif said.

Both teams will be hoping to bounce back from Champions Trophy disappointment  when they return to field later this month.