The Pakistan juggernaut takes aim at Afghanistan

It is funny how the word 'bagsy' fits in everyday Yorkshire parlance in very different contexts. You bagsy the front seat on the Leeds double-decker, your football team should have bagseyd a Premier League berth last season. Crudely put, to bagsy is to claim something. And as locals tell you, once you have bagseyd something, it can't be taken away.

Pakistan will resonate with this emotion. A little over a week ago, some of the players didn't want to leave their hotel rooms out of fear of a backlash that incessantly followed them after the India defeat. Two big wins on, few players from the same lot strutted into Birmingham New Street Station on Thursday, exchanged handshakes and fist bumps with fans before boarding the train with their respective families to Leeds.

Of course, their progress to the semifinal will still be dictated by games not involving them, but Pakistan can claim to have bagseyd their vibrant style of play once again heading into the easier (on paper) of their must-win contests. The left-arm quicks are menacing again, Shadab Khan can draw an error even from the unflappable Kane Williamson, Babar Azam finishes off tough chases and Haris Sohail is the middle-order power-unit he was supposed to have been four years ago.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan are doing the other Pakistan things: Changing captains, dropping an in-form player for a senior player - Najibullah Zadran for Asghar Afghan - and