ICC U-19 World Cup 2018: Good for boys to get a feel of Indo-Pak match: Dravid

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Christchurch, January 29: India U19 coach Rahul Dravid knows all about the pressures of playing Pakistan on a cricket field. Ahead of his ward's ICC U19 World Cup semifinals against the familiar rivals, Dravid said the team would approach the match as any other.

"Our preparation and our planning doesn't change at all," said Dravid. "We don't approach this game any differently from any other game. But from an experience perspective, I'm excited about it, the fact that, irrespective of the results, we get our Under 19 boys to understand what it's like to play an India-Pakistan game," said Dravid.

Dravid said the U19 World Cup is as good a time as any for the players to get a taste of the rivalry.

"We talk about this level and Under 19 cricket being about learning and experiences and experiencing different things, whether it's conditions, whether it's playing in an ICC tournament," he said.

"It's great that we've been able to, in a way, set up to have an India-Pakistan game as well. There is a different buzz about it in the sense that the game is followed probably a little bit more closely than some of the other games. For the last couple of years, we haven't played Pakistan at this level, so it's really nice for our boys to have that experience of actually playing against Pakistan."

Dravid could not help but looking back at his own experiences playing against Pakistan.

"For people it meant a lot more. As players, it doesn't really change things, it doesn't change how you practice and prepare. From my perspective, I really enjoyed playing Pakistan, they had a really good team in my time and had some great cricketers. It was always a privilege to play against them. We got on quite well with a lot of the Pakistani boys."

Dravid expected Pakistan to give his boys a tough time in the middle, their bowlers in particular.

"They bowled very well in this tournament, there strength is their bowling and they've shown that," he said.

"We've batted well in this tournament so it's going to be a good contest and we're looking forward to it, looking forward to competing against a good bowling attack. I thought the Bangladeshi attack was really disciplined, Australia had a couple of decent quicks, so we've played some good bowlers in this tournament.

"But we do recognise that this Pakistani bowling attack is a good one, we respect that, and hopefully we'll be well prepared and we'll execute our skills well tomorrow."

India vs Pakistan

ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup

Live on Star Sports 1 and Hotstar

At 3 am (Tuesday, January 30)

Toss at 2.30 am

Points table