Misbah urges batsmen to buck up ahead of clash against India

Bangladesh: Gearing up for the marquee clash against India, Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq wants his batsmen to learn quickly from the mistakes they made against minnows Afghanistan in their Asia Cup preliminary clash in Fatullah.

Pakistan won the match by 72 runs but some of their batting frailties were laid bare by a resolute Afghan bowling attack which managed to restrict them to 248.

"We have a very important match against India coming up now, so we have to avoid making these kinds of mistakes. We have to take responsibility, especially as a batting unit," the skipper said ahead of the much-anticipated clash on Sunday.

"Everybody knows the importance of that game. Both the teams want to win that, all the supporters want their team to win. Everybody knows that, and I think there is nothing more important for a player than an India-Pakistan game," he added.

Ahead of the high-voltage clash, Pakistan will get two day's rest unlike India who will be playing against Sri Lanka on Friday.

On Thursday, tottering at 117/6, Pakistan looked like folding inside 150 but Umar Akmal rescued the team with an unbeaten century to lift the total to 248/8.

The skipper said he feared losing the match but for Akmal's timely knock.

"At one point, the match had almost gone out of our hands. If Umar Akmal hadn't played that innings, we would have had a lot of problems. As a batting unit, I think if we continue to repeat the same mistakes, it will be a big problem for us," he said.

Misbah, however, said they could not have looked for a better build up for the match against India.

"Especially after losing the first game, it was really, really important for us to win and take that bonus point," he said.