India’s World Cup campaign gets off to a high octane start tomorrow as they take on bitter rivals Pakistan. Pakistan are not only India’s rivals in the sporting field, but virtual enemies in the political arena.
The two nations have fought four wars with one another, and have been engaged in a long running proxy war over Kashmir – it’s no surprise then that they two teams hardly ever play each other. It’s only on rare occasions such as the World Cup, which comes once in four years that we have a cricket match between India and Pakistan.
Tempers are frayed in both countries during these matches, and a loss here is much more than just a sporting defeat – it’s national humiliation. It requires a brave man to play in India-Pakistan matches, and it’s fair to say none of the players in either team looks forward to these matches.
When asked if his team would be under intense pressure, Indian captain M S Dhoni said, “What’s brilliant about this team is you don’t need to calm nerves. They’ve got a fair amount of experience, all of them.”
When asked if he thought beating Pakistan on 5 occasions in previous World Cups was an advantage, Dhoni gave one of his classy wry replies: “The only thing that matters is you have to answer a lot of questions regarding that. Apart from that, it doesn’t really matter.”
Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq also chose to deflect the pressure off his team. Misbah said, on asked about the intensity during the India-Pakistan matches: “You just don’t take anything into the ground when you are playing against India. You don’t have to worry about what’s happening outside, what’s going on in the countries. I think you need to focus on your game, go there, and play your best.”
Neither team has done much in the run-up to the World Cup. India fared terribly in the Tri series between that also included Australia and England, failing to win even one match. Their bowling has looked distinctly pedestrian and seems to be their weakest link.
But a loss against Pakistan would be devastating and it’s difficult to imagine the Indian team recovering after that. The blow to their psyche would be too much to bear. The same applies to Pakistan. That is how crucial this match is.
For India, Ravindra Jadeja is set to play instead of Axar Patel because he offers much more in the batting department and is far more experienced in these sort of matches. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan should open the batting with Virat Kohli coming in at No. 3. We hate to say this, but you can’t take this Indian team seriously considering the untalented Stuart Binny finds a place in it.
For Pakistan, Umar Akmal should keep wickets and we expect an extra batsman to be played with Haris Sohail bowling the fifth bowler’s quota of overs.
The Teams:
India: 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Ajinkya Rahane, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Stuart Binny/Mohit Sharma, 9 R Ashwin, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Umesh Yadav
Pakistan: 1 Ahmed Shehzad, 2 Nasir Jamshed, 3 Younis Khan, 4 Haris Sohail, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Sohaib Maqsood, 7 Umar Akmal (wk), 8 Shahid Afridi, 9 Wahab Riaz, 10 Ehsan Adil/Sohail Khan, 11 Mohammad Irfan
Match Conditions
We expect bright and sunny weather at Adelaide tomorrow, and the pitch is likely to be a batsman’s paradise. But fast bowlers are likely to extract something from it. The only problem – India has just one real fast bowler – Umesh Yadav.
Watch India take on Pakistan tomorrow, i.e. on Sunday, 8:50 AM live on Star Sports!
