COLOMBO: Canada's veteran opening batsman John Davison admitted on Wednesday that his struggling team's biggest challenge will be to counter Pakistan's devastating reverse swing in Thursday's World Cup clash.
Canada have lost to Sri Lanka by 210 runs and were similarly mauled by 175 runs against Zimbabwe to leave them second from bottom of Group A with only Kenya below them.
The 40-year-old Davison, the oldest player in this World Cup, said his team have made plans for Pakistan's swing bowlers.
"We haven't played them before but know that they are a great team with a very varied attack and, besides reading their spinners, the big challenge in the sub-continent is to play reverse swing," Davison said.
"We saw in the Kenya game that pace is lethal for guys not used to it, so we have to have plans," said Davison of Sri Lankan paceman Lasith Malinga's 6-38 in his team's nine-wicket win over Kenya on Tuesday.
Davison is famous for the fastest World Cup century off just 67 balls against the West Indies in the 2003 World Cup -- a record broken by Australia's Matthew Hayden with a 66-ball hundred against South Africa in 2007.
But the current World Cup has not seen the best of Davison who has failed to score in both matches, leaving him to doubt whether he can still do well at his age.
"Personally for me, it's more of a mental game. I am 40 years old and probably have those self-doubts... do I have the ability to perform at this level?" said Davison.
"I've been hitting the ball pretty well in the nets. I got a good ball against Sri Lanka and then had a plan to hit Zimbabwe spinner Ray Price but probably could've given myself a few more balls to get in."
Davison admitted the two defeats after one-sided contests had disappointed the Canadian players.
"This World Cup is not so great compared to the others. In the last World Cups we have scored 250-plus against England and New Zealand but at the moment everybody is pretty down," said Davison.
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