Diwali bonus: The cracker is here day before festival as India take on Pakistan in their 1st match
Melbourne, October 22
Exactly 363 days ago, India were blown away by Pakistan in last year’s T20 World Cup in Dubai. That 10-wicket humbling of India ended Pakistan’s all-loss record against their neighbours in the T20 World Cups and breathed new life into one of the greatest rivalries of the game.
Come Sunday, the two teams will be slugging it out once again at a sold-out 100,000-seater Melbourne Cricket Ground to begin their 2022 T20 World Cup Group 2 campaign.
Thousands of fans from both the countries have travelled across the globe to watch their teams in action, but rain is threatening to play spoilsport. However, the latest reports suggest the match is unlikely to be a complete washout.
A lot has changed in the past one year since Shaheen Shah Afridi’s intimidating opening spell rocked India. His figures of 3/31 not only broke Pakistan’s jinx against India, it also bruised the egos of the batting stalwarts of India. Moreover, the recent bitter exchanges between BCCI and PCB regarding next year’s Asia Cup have made the atmosphere more politically charged and vicious.
Afridi vs Yadav
How India’s top-three handle Afridi in the Powerplay would certainly dictate how the match will pan out.
Skipper Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli will have to give India an electric start. But one man who could perhaps take Afridi head-on is India’s current No. 1 batter Suryakumar Yadav, who never changes his game irrespective of the conditions or situations. If the conditions are wet tomorrow, as is expected, Sharma would be desperate to win the toss; if he wins the toss, he may decide to chase since his bowling line-up looks a bit scratchy and could crumble under the pressure of defending a total.
While India have three spinners in the line-up, only one of them is likely to figure in the playing XI, because persistent rain and a sharp dip in the temperature would make the conditions seamer-friendly. In that case, an out-of-form Harshal Patel, who has decent batting skills, might be back in the scheme of things.
But with three left-handers likely in the Pakistan XI — Shan Masood/Fakhar Zaman, Mohammed Nawaz and Khushdil Shah — India would fancy a bowler who can turn it away from the bat. For this reason, Ravichandran Ashwin can never be ruled out.
As has been the case in the recent past, Pakistan’s batting hinges on the opening pair of skipper Babar Azam and wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan.
Though past records matter little in T20 cricket, India do hold an impressive 7-3 advantage over Pakistan in this format. But they’ve played each other only three times in the last six-and-a-half years, and India lost twice. — Agencies
7-3 India own an 7-3 win-loss record against Pakistan in T20I cricket, including the bowl-out triumph in the 2007 T20 World Cup.
8.30 Among the bowlers to have bowled at least ten overs at the death in T20Is this year, Arshdeep Singh (8.30) and Haris Rauf (8.35) have the joint-second-best and fourth-best economy rates.
12 Dinesh Karthik is set to feature in a T20 World Cup match for the first time in more than 12 years.
The big tie today
- India will open their T20 World Cup campaign in a much-anticipated clash against archrivals Pakistan in Melbourne on Sunday at 1.30 pm (IST).
- “The more you keep things simpler, easier for you to go and get the job done. That is what our focus has been,” captain Rohit Sharma said.
If it’s a shorter game, we’d be ready: Rohit
MELBOURNE: Arch-rivals India and Pakistan are set to renew cricket’s most adrenalin-fuelled rivalry in Sunday’s T20 World Cup match here but the threat of rain looms over the blockbuster featuring the former champions.
With bilateral cricket remaining suspended between the neighbours, thanks to their soured political relations, emotions run high every time they clash in the multi-team events at a neutral venue.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is set to become a cauldron of emotions but the tournament’s most anticipated clash could prove a damp squib with rain forecast this weekend and India skipper Rohit Sharma said his team will be ready. “The toss does become a little important. But again, I’ve been hearing about the Melbourne weather for a while now and it keeps changing,” Sharma said. “You don’t really know what is going to happen tomorrow. The things that are in our control we’ll try and control… We need to come here thinking that it’s a 40-over game. We’ll be ready for that. If the situation demands that it’s a shorter game, we’ll be ready for that as well.” Players from both sides have downplayed the hype around the match even though the tickets sold out within five minutes of going on sale earlier this year. Reuters
