India vs Pak: Back-to-back bonanza for cricket lovers

After Babar Azam’s team destroyed Hong Kong on Friday, September 2, in their crucial Group A match that they needed to win, the cricket community is assured of a second India vs Pakistan match in the ongoing Asia Cup 2022.

The first Super Four encounter between the two bitter rivals will take place on Sunday, September 4, in Dubai.

After losing their first match against India on Sunday, Pakistan entered their encounter against Hong Kong needing to win. However, Pakistan overcame a sluggish start and posted an above-average total of 193 on the scoreboard because to Mohammad Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman’s 50s.

Rizwan persevered despite the heat and humidity as he top-scored with 78 not out. Prior to Khushdil Shah’s ferocious attack in the last overs, which saw Zaman score a half-century as well, Pakistan had reached 193 for two.

Later on, spinners Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz each took seven wickets to help Pakistan dismiss Hong Kong for 38, the lowest score ever in an Asia Cup T20I. Hong Kong had shown a bit of potential with the bat against India but they simply surrendered to the Pakistani attack.

Pakistan’s decisive 155-run victor in their second Group A match served as a booster before the yet another big encounter against arch-rivals India.

Since the 2012-2013 season, India and Pakistan have not played bilateral cricket, but their encounters in ICC and continental events have created a lot of interest over the years. When the Asia Cup 2022 was announced before the T20 World Cup in the UAE, the prospect of three potential India vs Pakistan matches came as an exciting prospect for cricket fans from either side of the border.

India and Pakistan finished first and second, respectively, in Group A at the conclusion of the group stages of the Asia Cup 2022 on Friday. Two more teams from Group B, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, made it into the Super Four.

Babar vs Virat debate

Pak skipper Babar Azam suffered his second failure in as many innings as he could only muster nine off eight deliveries. Having fell cheaply to Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s bouncer in the opening encounter against India, Babar this time attempted an aerial stroke over the bowlers’ heads but instead sent the ball straight back to the spinner Ehsan Khan, who dove to his right to collect a superb catch.

Bhuvneshwar took four wickets to stop Pakistan.

Before reaching Dubai for the Asia Cup, Pak skipper was in tremendous form throughout this year, scoring runs across all formats. In fact, Babar became the fastest batter to complete the 10000 international runs during the first Test against Sri Lanka in July. Babar took just 228 innings to bring up 10,000 international runs, 20 fewer innings than the second-placed Javed Miandad.

Former Pakistan opening batter Saeed Anwar had taken 255 innings while Mohammad Yousuf completed the feat in 261 innings. Former Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq had taken 281 innings to bring up 10,000 international runs.

In fact, it was Babar only who dethroned former India skipper Virat Kohli from the top seat of One-day International cricket. Between August 2017 and April 2021, Virat was undisputed No. 1 ODI player before Babar ended his 1,258-day dominance of the ODI batter rankings.

Virat arrived to the Asia Cup hoping to keep his spot in the team. Virat has been under extreme pressure to score big in order to make the T20 World Cup roster despite not having scored an international century in more than three years. He got off to a start against Pakistan last Sunday before being dismissed at age 35. He continued to be unbeaten on 59 from 43 balls against Hong Kong, which must have really boosted his confidence.

In reality, the Virat Kohli vs Babar Azam debate has gained a lot of attention ever since the Pakistan captain’s 2015 international debut. The reason was understandable given that Babar had copied many of the accomplishments Virat had made while still an Under-19 player. Babar appeared to be bound for greatness even though the U-19 world championship eluded the Pakistani batter, unlike Virat.

By the time Babar took the field for Pakistan, Virat had played in more than 150 ODIs and had hit 20 or more centuries. In 2022, Babar Azam has become the player to reach 2,000 ODI runs the fastest, having done it in just 47 games. On the contrary, it took Virat 56 matches to reach the milestone.

Revenge in the minds

The tables have now been turned for Pakistan in this back-to-back Sunday encounters.

In the previous match, the pressure was on India to overcome the nightmare of that 10-wicket loss of the T20 World Cup in 2021. That ultimately resulted in India failure to qualify for the semifinals of the World T20. But now with that nail-biting finish in the Asia Cup opener, Rohit Sharma and Co has managed to give it back to their arch-rivals.

Overall, India have won eight out of 10 times in T20 matches. India also got benefitted because of the unavailability of Pak main speedster, left-armer Shaheen Shah Afridi, because of the injury. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), in fact, sent announced that Shaheen to London to complete his rehabilitation.

This was done to make sure that Shaheen should return to full fitness before the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup late in Australia.

On the other hand, Team India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, will also miss this crucial encounter after his knee has flared up. He has quickly been replaced with another left-arm spinner Axar Patel. Knowing well that knee ailments are not easy one to overcome, the Indian think-tank are also worried that Jadeja may miss the bus for the upcoming T20 WC. Not to forget that it was the same injury that kept Jadeja out of action for four months from March to June this year.

India arrived for the Asia Cup without Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel and now with Jadeja also ruled out, the defending champion will have a tough task to repeat the result of last Sunday encounter. Jadeja is the kind of an all-rounder who provides the balance to the team.

But the star of last game’s win against Pak, another all-rounder Hardik Pandya looks in incredible form after returning to full fitness from a shoulder injury.

Meanwhile, Team India trained at the ICC Academy in Dubai. The biggest question which is being asked from skipper Rohit Sharma or chief coach Rahul Dravid is regarding the inclusion of hard-hitter Rishabh Pant. Having been dropped to accommodate Dinesh Karthik in the opening encounter against Pak, Indian think-tank included him for the next game against Hong Kong. Pant has been India’s biggest match winner in the recent times and dropping him for the key game like Pakistan was criticised by many.

Returning to the India vs Pakistan match, both teams faced off against each other twice during the 2018 Asia Cup, with India winning both games. India defeated Pakistan by five wickets in a nail-biting game at the Asia Cup this year. First, India bowled, dismissing Pakistan for 147 runs. After struggling to reduce the target, they were forced to rely on Hardik Pandya, who had to lead his team home after taking three wickets.

Last but not the least, Suryakumar Yadav has become the mainstream of Indian batting and he continues to be Pak bowlers’ main target on Sunday. In the most recent of these outings, against Hong Kong in a group match, he smashed an unbeaten 68 off 26 to lead India to a score that ultimately proved to be a comfortable match-winning total.

Even though he has only played in 25 T20Is, he already has a century and six fifties and an astounding strike rate of 177.52. He has had such an influence that most of the cricket pundits already rank him above every other batsman in the squad.

H is going to be the most vital element for in India’s batting if their aim is to win the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia. In fact, there has been calls to bring him up in the batting order even before Virat at No. 3.

This because, no one among his teammates has kept up with the evolving requirements of batting in this format better than Suryakumar. He has been so fluent in his approach, be it against pace or spin.

Probable Playing XIs

India:

Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant/Dinesh Karthik (wk), Deepak Hooda/Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Avesh Khan.

Pakistan:

Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani.

-INDIA NEWS STREAM