"None of our players have played here before. Every venue is a new one" - Grant Bradburn laments 'foreign conditions' for Pakistan in 2023 World Cup

Pakistan coach Grant Bradburn believes that despite thorough preparation and analysis, the lack of familiarity with the venues has cost the team in the ongoing 2023 ODI World Cup. The Men in Green are currently placed sixth in the points table and only have a slim chance of making it to the knockout stages of the tournament.

Babar Azam and company started the tournament on a bright note with consecutive wins over the Netherlands and Sri Lanka. However, since then, they have taken a turn for the worse. Pakistan have lost four consecutive matches in the World Cup for the first time in their history, the most recent of which was a humbling defeat against subcontinent rivals Afghanistan.

Pakistan will now have to win all of their remaining three matches in the league stage by a considerable margin and hope that other fixture results also fall in their favor.

Ahead of the team's must-win clash against Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens, Bradburn said:

"We are in a position that we didn't want to be. We are determined at this stage of the tournament to be in control of our destiny but we're not. That hurts the group."

"This tournament is on foreign conditions for us. None of our players have played here before. Every venue is a new one, including this one. We've done our homework meticulously on our opposition, on our venues that we're playing at, and we're prepared very, very well for each and every encounter," he continued.

"But the reality is that each and every venue is a new one for us and we don't feel disadvantaged at all in terms of the knowledge, the quality, the skill, the backing that we have for this team of cricketers," Bradburn added.

The ongoing World Cup campaign is turning out to be a debacle for Pakistan, especially with the off-field controversies marking their presence.

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"Ideally, preparation for a tournament like this starts four years ahead" - Pakistan coach Grant Bradburn

Pakistan headed into the World Cup as one of the favorites, considering the conditions on offer. However, they did not come into the tournament on a good note, after they failed to qualify for the finals of the Asia Cup 2023.

Their campaign has also been derailed by an injury to Naseem Shah, and high-profile players like Babar Azam and Shadab Khan struggling for form.

Bradburn stated that Pakistan embraced a new brand of cricket only recently, and that has been attributed to their poor displays.

"Ideally, preparation for a tournament like this starts four years ahead. We started six months ago and changed direction in the way that we want to play the game of cricket, especially the one-day brand," he said.

"We've shown some positive signs of that over the last six months. We're proud of some of the performances that we've put on. It's taking a little bit longer than we hoped, but we want to play a dynamic brand that matches the challenge of the conditions we're playing in," Bradburn concluded.

Pakistan and Bangladesh recently faced off in the 2023 Asia Cup after a four-year interval when it comes to ODIs. Shakib Al Hasan and company are also struggling, having recently notched their fifth successive loss in the league stage.