The much anticipated and high-octane clash between India and Pakistan will take place at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on Sunday. India vs Pakistan is regarded as one of the best rivalries in the game and both teams will look to make a perfect start to the tournament.
India, the reigning champions, have returned to their full-strength team for the big event after a lot of experimenting in the last few months. However, Men in Blue will still miss the services of their gun fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who has been ruled out with a back injury.
Similarly, Pakistan will be without the services of Shaheen Shah Afridi, who is ruled out of the tournament with a knee injury. Afridi had breathed down the neck of the Indian batters in their previous meeting in the 2021 T20 World Cup, which Pakistan had won convincingly by 10 wickets.
Ergo, India will be determined to take their revenge of the T20 showpiece. India’s top order is going to hold the key as Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli will look to be at their best. All the eyes will be on Kohli as he isn’t in the best of forms and he will be aiming to get back his Midas touch.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar will lead India’s pace attack and he is going to get support from Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan.
On the other hand, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan will hold the key for the Men in Green in the big game. Azam and Rizwan had added an unbeaten alliance of more than 150 against India in the T20 World Cup 2021 and they will look to replicate the same performance.
Match Prediction: India might enter the contest as slightly favorites against Pakistan given the balance of their team.
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan.
Standby: Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar.
Pakistan squad: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir, Mohammad Hasnain.
