The off-field tug-of-war will finally give way to an on-field battle of epic proportions as India take on Pakistan in the most sought after match of the T20 World Cup in Colombo on Sunday.
The eve of the match brought relief for the Indian fans as Abhishek Sharma was seen batting at nets during practice. Forced to skip the match against Namibia with a stomach bug, the left-hander batted for a considerable time trying to regain his touch. “If you guys want, we will play Abhishek,” said India skipper Suryakumar Yadav.
Given Abhishek’s recent performances against Pakistan, India will hope the opener provides a fast start alongside Ishan Kishan, who is also in red-hot form. Both left-handers have the capacity to take the match away from any opposition with their power-hitting.
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The team management will also have the task of adjusting wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav in the playing XI, given the spin-friendly nature of the pitch at the R Premadasa International Stadium. Kuldeep, who was instrumental in India’s win against Pakistan during the 2023 Asia Cup at the same venue, is likely to replace pacer Arshdeep Singh. In such a scenario, the spin trio of Axar Patel, Kuldeep and Varun Chakravarthy will prove a handful for Pakistan’s batters.
In their matches so far, the Indian batting has seen a couple of stutters. India slid to 77/6 against the USA at Mumbai and lost five wickets for four runs against Namibia in the death overs. While Suryakumar, Kishan and Hardik Pandya have stood out for India, it’s time Tilak Varma and Shivam Dube also rise to the occasion.
On the other hand, Pakistan are likely to field four specialised bowlers, while seeking a match-winning performance from Usman Tariq. The controversial mystery spinner is most likely to get support from Abrar Ahmed alongside fast bowlers Shaheen Shah Afridi and Salman Mirza. The team management is also likely to make a call on dropping one all-rounder from among Shadab Khan, Muhammad Nawaz and Faheem Ashraf.
‘Out of syllabus’
While the cricketing world is still debating if Tariq’s unusual bowling action is valid or not, Suryakumar sounded confident that his batters would be able to nullify the threat.
“Sometimes, there’s a question in the exam which is out of syllabus. So, we can’t leave that question. To tackle that, you have to adopt your own way. Yes, he is a different character when it comes to bowling. But at the same time, we can’t just surrender. We practise with similar types of bowlers and similar actions. We will try to execute what we have been practising in the nets,” he said.
Suryakumar, though, also didn’t deny the fact that the batters have failed to play true to their potential so far. “We had a scratchy start. You can’t run away from the fact that it was not a proper T20 wicket. But I said earlier too that you can’t actually brush everything under the carpet. However, we came back strongly. So, that’s the beauty of T20 cricket. One or two batters I think taking that responsibility makes us cross the line,” he said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan skipper Salman Ali Agha defended the unorthodox action of Tariq and termed the spinner as their “trump card”. “He is one among our 15 players, we treat him like that. You (media) people have made him big. He has been bowling very well for the past few months. And he has also bowled very well in league cricket (Pakistan Super League). And yes, you can say that he is a trump card for us,” said Agha.
India lead the head-to-head record against Pakistan in T20 World Cups by 7-1. But Pakistan won a T20 series in Sri Lanka last month though all the matches were played in Dambulla. They have played both their World Cup matches so far in Colombo, though at the Sinhalese Sports Ground.
“We don’t have a good record against India in World Cups. But whenever you come to play a new match, it’s a new day. And you have to play good cricket to win. So you can’t change history. You can learn from it. We learned from it. And we’ll try to do a good performance tomorrow and win the match,” he said.
