Inzy cracks the whip on his players

With a must-win game at hand, the Pak skipper said his players would have to strive for consistency, than hide under the garb of a rebuilding process.

With a must-win game against India in the Asia Cup at hand, Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul Haq on Saturday cracked the whip on his players saying they would have to strive for consistency rather than hide under the garb of a rebuilding process.

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"People have been saying it's a rebuilding process but there are players who have been playing for long now. They need to perform at a better level on a consistent basis," said Inzamam ahead of Sunday's day-night Super League match against India.

Inzamam felt his bowlers were bowling better than they did in the home series against India and if their batsmen could hold ground, they could win tomorrow's game.

"India has been playing very well and their combination is very good but there is no side which we can't beat if we play well.

"We need to put up a good total against India. Since our bowling is faring better than it did in the home series against India, we stand a better chance," he said.

Inzamam pointed out that his side was under pressure on two counts, one that it was a game against India and two they needed to win to stay alive in the competition.

"It's a new pressure, not the usual India match pressure, but also of the tournament. We need to win to stay alive in the competition."

Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer said his team was in a sudden-death like situation.

"There were five dismissals which could have been avoided, including two strange ones (in the match against Sri Lanka). Mentally we were not focussed and one would be closest in saying that there was no plan.

"But we have the most fearsome attack, the fastest attack, which might not be accurate -- but we will work on that technically. We can change them but it would take time. There is no magic wand but we would try through hard work and labour of love, which is going to take time, hopefully not much time."

Woolmer said it would be "naive" to believe that Shoaib Akhtar will now bowl from a shortened run-up in one-day internationals.

"It is naive to think he would bowl from a shortened run-up from now on. He didn't do so against Sri Lanka! The point is I don't want him to waste his energy running in from 30 metres all the time. He can learn to bowl from shortened run-up at times. He must have options and it's not going to happen tomorrow."

Woolmer heaped lavish praise on the Indians and said it was not easy to pin-point weaknesses against a famous batting line up.

"We are playing against probably the second best team in the world, without a doubt and very close to the first best side. So we need to play really well and it's not going to be easy," he said.

"We have seen many times on television that you can't mess with them. It's difficult to spot weaknesses against them but we have a definite strategy (but) unfortunately we can't share it with media," said Woolmer.

"But if we can pick up early wickets, their middle order could get exposed while the white ball is still new."

Woolmer also defended Shoaib Malik's presence at number three in the Pakistan batting line-up.

"It is not to say he is a better batsman than Yousuf Youhana. You have to understand we are trying to use players tactically. We often put Klusener, Boje and Symcox at number three to push the scoring. The tactics of one-day cricket have changed."

Woolmer said he was impressed with the discipline of the Pakistan side in the short-time he has been with the team.

"One or two might have overslept for a swimming session in the morning but that's not serious. The discipline has been exemplary," said the Englishman who took over as the coach of Pakistan a month ago.