Dubai: There’s never been a more hyped and intense fixture specially in limited overs cricket, than when India and Pakistan lock horns. The Dubai International Cricket Stadium will host the two sub-continental giants locking horns in their first game of the ICC World T20 in Group 2 of the Super 12 round on Sunday.
Head to head: Its no surprise that favorite India will be going into this game with Men in Blue having perfect track record against their arch rivals in T20 World cups, winning every of the five fixtures being played so-far. Last time, these two met in the 2016 edition of this tournament, when India, the host side registered a 6 wicket victory over their noisy neighbors at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata. A collective bowling performance from India’s bowlers managed to restrict Pakistan 118/5 .
In reply, the Men in Blue, suffered a shaky start to their chase losing three quick wickets inside the powerplay overs. However, Virat Kohli held the anchor in difficult times helping India claw their way into the game with a sparkling unbeaten 37 ball 55 to seal the victory and keep the unbeaten run going. However, past records and stats are never matter of importance as two teams will bring a different and fresh mindset for this game.
The battle of the Talismanic skipper: Its no surprise that the captains of both the sides – Virat Kohli and Babar Azam will hold the key for the batting for the sides. Although India does have a overall better line up with the willow, but Kohli will be main man to go for having struck 777 runs in the T20 World Cup in 16 matches.
On the other hand, Babar will have greater responsibility to not-only bring the side together but also play the lead role for a batting line-up that historically has the trend to crumble under pressure in a game of this magnitude.
India’s all-round strengths: There’s no bigger boot for India than MS Dhoni, who lifted the trophy 14 years back will be the mentor for this side. Besides skipper Kohli, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul will be a vital cog for the side while a seam bowling all-rounder like Hardik Pandya can be an X-factor striking the right-balance for the team which their opposing side do actually have although it will be interesting to see whether Hardik will be ready to bowl after coming back from the injury.
The two youngsters Ishan Kishan and Rishabh Pant will also be on the spotlight having the abilty to tear apart any bowling unit and that too at such young age. Kishan struck a blistering 46 ball 70 in the warm up game against England while Pant finished off the game with an unbeaten breezy 14 ball 29.
It will be interesting to see who will be the opening partner of the Rohit and what kind of combination, skipper Kohli go for. He has lot option in the spin department in the form of Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Varun Chakravarthy and Rahul Chahar with the former two an obvious choice considering Jadeja all round abilities and Ashwin’s experience. In Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami and Jasprit Bumrah, India have found a formidable pace trident which has been deadly and consistent over the years and will have live up the expectations on the matchday.
Pakistan’s areas of importance: As for Pakistan, they will look to play through their strength, their seam bowling unit, boasted with the likes of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf Hasan Ali all of whom being capable to the damage. Afridi is currently the side’s most consistent bowler and will once again lead the pace attack picking up a couple of of wickets in their previous warm-up game against South Africa.
Besides skipper Babar, wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan will play role of importance in the squad and so too will Fakhar Zaman, the south-paw. A positive side for them is they do have the experience of Mohhammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik both who whom played this fixtures multiple times across all three formats. However, they have to caferful against India’s bowling unit which has picked up some serious reputation in last few years.
India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami
Pakistan squad: Babar Azam (c) , Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shoaib Malik.
