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World Cup 2019: India vs Pakistan preview and prediction

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Roar Guru
13th February, 2019
12

Former Pakistan captain Moin Khan has backed his country to break its World Cup jinx by beating India.

Citing conditions in England during May and June, the three-week training camp in England before the tournament begins and, most importantly, Pakistan’s victory against its biggest rival in the Champions Trophy 2017, the former wicketkeeper believes under Sarfaraz Ahmed Pakistan are favourite to replicate the glory of its 1992 World Cup victory.

Shots have been fired, and if the rivalry is anything to go by, things will get heated up. But does Pakistan have a chance to beat India, especially after losing badly to the men in blue at the Asia Cup and given India’s unbeaten record of 6-0 in the World Cup?

Sadly, that unbeaten run doesn’t look like coming to an end, at least in the group stages. Man-to-man India is a better team. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan are a cut above any opening stand in the last four year of the limited-overs format.

Fakhar Zaman and Imam Ul Haq, though young and exciting, isn’t a match to experience India’s paring, and against the bowling of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and even the mysterious Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, the batsmen need skills and experience to get through and counterattack. Sadly it doesn’t look like they do, at least on paper.

Though Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Mallik calm things down in the middle, they’ve previously lost the plot even after getting a good start. Babar Azam, a superstar in the making, has a good record in ODIs but has a heavy burden of carrying the team on his shoulders. India has MS Dhoni, Ambati Rayadu and Kedar Jadhav – and when I say Dhoni, I mean the in-form MS Dhoni after a rather indifferent 2018 with the bat. MS Dhoni, after a dominant show in Australia and New Zealand, will be expected to carry the middle order, and the old horse is more than capable of it doing it successfully after having done so in over 300 ODIs.

But the stark difference in the batting between both team is in the form of the captain. While Sarfaraz has experienced somewhat patchy form with the bat since taking over the captaincy, Virat Kohli has taken his batting to another level top lead the pack of hungry wolves single-handedly in the middle overs.

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Whatever be said about the pace of Mohammad Amir, Shaheen Afridi and Hasan Ali, unless the pitch has a lot of seam movement, Pakistan’s bowling cannot get through India’s defence, even in conditions that favour bowlers. India have shown they can rise from 4-3, 18-4 to get to a respectable total. If the situation happens to favour bowlers, then Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumarah and Mohammad Shami will break the back of brittle Pakistani line-up.

India’s pace attack is arguably the best of the lot, and spin twins Kuldeep and Chahal means even if you get through the deadly bowlers, the spinning duo will deceive you with leg spin in the middle overs. It’ll be perhaps a significant addition and X factor after their Champions Trophy loss in 2017.

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But whatever is said and done, India vs Pakistan matches have always been a test of nerves more than talent or skills. The excellent bowling Pakistani line-up of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, which used to terrorise the world, sadly came out second-best against weaker a India in previous World Cups. Since the 2000s it has been one-way traffic, with India winning most of the matches

India has strong nerves when it comes to big games, be it against Pakistan or any other team. Pakistan is perhaps still in the era when a win against India means more than anything else, putting significant pressure on its side. That has to change.

For the match on 16 June India is coming out as a winner without an iota of doubt. But as cricket fans we can hope Pakistan at least puts up a good show. The India vs Pakistan contest always churns up numbers in terms of tickets and TV viewers. Let’s hope a cracker of a game awaits us.

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