SAFF Championship 2013: It would be great to play India in India – Pakistan’s Hassan Bashir

Pakistan have five foreign-born players in their SAFF Championship 2013 squad, with four starting each of the two games. The standout performer from those four is possibly Denmark-based striker Hassan Bashir, who was unlucky not to get on the score sheet against India but did find the back of the net against hosts Nepal.

In an exclusive chat with Sportskeeda, Bashir stated that his team should have beaten India and remains optimistic of reaching the semi-finals although Pakistan’s fate is out of their hands now after just one point from two matches.

“I think Nepal must be given credit for fighting back but the India game we should have really won because we created the better chances and even hit the bar. We still have an outside chance (of reaching the semis) if we beat Bangladesh so lets try our best,” said Bashir.

Born in Denmark, Bashir made his international debut against Singapore last year and currently plays for Danish third tier outfit Fremad Amager. Along with four other foreign-born players, the 26-year-old missed a large portion of Pakistan’s preparation for the tournament including the friendly against Afghanistan due to club commitments but he doesn’t believe that has affected the team’s performance.

“No, I don’t think that has been a problem because all the four foreign-based players who have featured so far have done very well. Yousef (Butt), Zesh (Rehman) and Adnan (Ahmed) have been brilliant for us and I have also done ok so I believe overall we have done a good job,” he said.

Pakistan certainly are a much weaker team without these foreign-based players but Bashir pointed out that to be successful at international level it is important for his country to have the right mix of foreign and homegrown talent.

“It’s good to have quality foreign-born players but there should be a balance of local and foreign talent. It’s a difficult and long process but I feel at present we are moving in the right direction,” Bashir added.

The former Nordsjaelland striker also expressed his disappointment about the cancellation of the India – Pakistan friendly in the UK, which was scheduled in June. Bashir was denied a similar chance two years ago when another India – Pakistan football series in UK was cancelled.

“I was included in the squad twice to face India in England. This time, my relatives had also booked their tickets so it was very disappointing when the game was cancelled. It would have been huge in the UK due to the number of British Asians living there,” he said.

Bashir hails from Gujrat in Pakistan but he is yet to play for the national team in home soil and also would love to face arch-rivals India away.

“Unfortunately, no, I have never got an opportunity to play an international match in Pakistan but I really want to. Playing India is always the biggest challenge so it would be great to face them in India too,” he concluded.