There won`t be time to relax in Champions Trophy: Misbah

Birmingham: Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq on Tuesday said there won`t be time to relax for any team in the upcoming Champions Trophy and none of the side can be labelled as favourite.

Pakistan along with India, South Africa and the West Indies will feature in group B in the eight-team competition "This is a tournament the top eight teams are playing, so no team is an easy team here. You have to take every game as a tough game. Top eight teams, you never know who`s going to beat who. So you need to be 100 percent all the time. You can`t relax in this sort of tournament," Misbah said at the press conference. Misbah faced the inevitable question of the India-Pakistan clash on June 15 and the Pakistan skipper said it was important for them to do well in the two games before the high-voltage contest. "Every game is important. Coming into this tournament, I think the first two games are more so important for us because the last game, you may know if you are in or out of the tournament.” "Obviously playing against India is always important because of the interest of people back there in India and Pakistan, all over the world I think, huge fan club for these two teams, so it`s really important for us to play well in that game and just win," he said. "For both teams I think it`s very important, but I think every game is important here in this tournament," he added. Since Pakistan planned a few games in Scotland and Ireland before the tournament, Misbah said his side was mentally prepared for the tough conditions where the ball would move and seam heavily. "The ball was really moving in the air. So everybody has suggested that, and they`re ready to just face those sort of conditions. I think in England especially it will be better than Ireland, so I think mentally everybody is ready and now getting ready for this tournament," he said. Misbah hoped spinner Saeed Ajmal would come up with top performance on the big stage. "He`s always special for us. Everybody knows that he`s at the moment one of the best spinners in the world. He always has something special to offer to this world and to this team. I hope so. These kinds of bowlers, these kind of players always love these sort of occasions, big events, and I`m really hoping that he`s going to -- I hope that he`s going to perform well," he said. PTI