INDIA VS PAKISTAN,T20 WORLD CUP- 2021 GROUP- 2 MATCH

SCORE CARD

When: India vs Pakistan, Super 12 Group 2, October 24, 18:00 Local, 19:30 IST

Where: Dubai International Stadium

What to expect: Captain opting to chase after winning the toss. Dew is likely to be another major contributor to this decision. Despite the IPL final being won by the team batting first (CSK), victory in 9 of the 13 games in IPL 2021 was achieved by the chasing team. Virat Kohli indicated that barring Sharjah, the pitches at Dubai and Abu Dhabi would play better than they did at the IPL. Just for the record, the average first innings score at the IPL was 156 at this venue.

T20I Head to Head: India 7-1 Pakistan (includes India’s Bowl-Out win in 2007)

Team Watch:

India

Injury/Availability Concerns: KL Rahul seemed to have a minor back issue in the warm-up against Australia but it wasn’t serious to warrant concern. He also batted in the chase without any discomfort.

Tactics & Matchups: India will be aware that Fakhar Zaman has history and warm-up form on his side and is the key enforcer at No.3. Ashwin could therefore be a likely tactical counter for him. That’ll also keep Varun Chakravarthy’s mystery for later in the tournament. With Hardik Pandya still not bowling, Kohli is likely to field all three of his fast bowlers especially with dew likely to be a factor.

Probable XI: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin/Rahul Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar/Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah

 Pakistan


Injury/Availability Concerns: Pakistan have reported a clean bill of health but they pruned their squad down to 12 for this fixture. Sarfaraz Ahmed, Mohammad Wasim and Mohammad Nawaz will sit this fixture out for sure.

Tactics & Matchups: Not that there was any danger that he wouldn’t get it, but Virat Kohli will be in the spotlight. The highest run-getter of the last two T20 World Cups will be tested on his flagging middle-overs play (SR: 108.1 in overs 7-15 in IPL 2021) by Pakistan, who are likely to throw both Imad Wasim and Shadab Khan against the Indian captain.

Probable XI: Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik/Haider Ali, Asif Ali, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi

Did you know?

– Virat Kohli hasn’t been dismissed in a T20 World Cup match against Pakistan. His scores: 78*, 36* & 55*

– Md. Rizwan (1462 @ 133.4 SR) and Babar Azam (1363 @ 134.7 SR) are the two highest run-getters in T20s in 2021

– In T20Is since July 2019, Pakistan have the worst balls per six ratio (24.9) among the eight teams directly qualified for Super 12.

What they said:

“It is about staying relaxed, we are in constant touch with all the players. It is about playing well on the day. We have played a lot of cricket here, we know the conditions and we know how to go about it.” –Babar Azam on what it takes to play an India-Pakistan game.

“I believe the quality of pitches is definitely going to be far better in this T20 World Cup. Also it being an ICC tournament, we know that the standard of pitches has to be maintained to a certain degree, which is consistent across all venues and I understand that to protect the pitches for a tournament like the World Cup, there had to be some kind of compromise in terms of the playing conditions when we played the IPL” – Virat Kohli expects the Dubai pitch to play close to how it did in the IPL 2021 final.

Squads:

India Squad: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli(c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Rahul Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Ishan Kishan, Varun Chakaravarthy


Pakistan Squad: Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi, Haider Ali

Preview by Kaushik Rangarajan

The Overview:

Let’s talk about India vs Pakistan at a World Cup then, the eternal gift of the quirky ICC draw. It is the cricketing feud that statistics render anomalous. However, in the heart and soul for many, there is still nothing like it: the main event before the main event on November 14.

It’s a great booking. India are cricket’s apex predators, their big-name players at home in a big-match setting. Pakistan are the game’s ultimate survivors. Nothing unites them quite like the feeling of a perceived collective wrong against them. The future of international cricket back home is once again shrouded in uncertainty. Coaches have left this team, blessed with depth across departments, in the 11th hour. An event like this, therefore, is just the place where they channel all the caginess, the angst, and whatever other emotions they have gone through, if at all.

If history can be kept aside (can it with these two?) there are also the makings of a great T20 contest between these first two champions of this tournament. Sample just two contests for a small taster: Shaheen Afridi vs KL Rahul. Jasprit Bumrah vs Fakhar Zaman.

The setting is just right too. India are the designated hosts, they’ve been here for more than a month playing the IPL. But Dubai has been Pakistan’s lounge room for a decade. It is not a do-or-die but both teams know that victory in this first game could go a long way towards securing progression from this group. It’s just a question of which host is a better visitor on the day.

INDIA VS PAKISTAN,T20 WORLD CUP- 2021 GROUP- 2 MATCH
INDIA VS PAKISTAN,T20 WORLD CUP- 2021 GROUP- 2 MATCH



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