Scales tilted in India's favour to make it 8-0 | Mercurial Pakistan are no pushovers
October 13, 2023: Both the teams in question are coming from a remarkable performance. It is the Mother of all the cricketing battles at India’s largest venue - the Narendra Modi Stadium at Ahmedabad. India faces Pakistan in an epic clash that will make or break a long-standing record.
One crushed the opponent, and the other played the grind game.
The last time these two met, in the Asia Cup, India was the run-away winner, but they have a record to safeguard, this time around. In all the ICC World Cups in this format where India and Pakistan have met, Pakistan have never defeated India.
Pakistan will take a lot of solace in their batting department, with Rizwan coming to the party in the game against Sri Lanka. However, their talisman batsman Babar Azam has failed to fire – this is a cause of concern for them.
India on the other hand, has Virat in sublime form and Rohit in an aggressive mood, both ably supported by Ishan Kishan and KL Rahul. But, Shaheen Afridi has decoded the Indian top order and let us not forget the debacle he conjured upon us in the T20 world Cup.
Would Shubman Gill play tomorrow or not will be a million-dollar question for India. Abdullah Shafique, however has more or less cemented his place in the Pakistan batting lineup with a show of classy batting. The form guide would hint at Hasan Ali to be replaced, but would Pakistan like to fix something that's not broken, for such a huge clash is to be seen?
Shaheen Afridi is a result-dependent bowler, and if the Indian top order does not give him wickets, he tends to lose steam quickly. Given the conditions, he is the leader of the pack, but is hardly getting support from others in the bowling department. While on the other hand India might want to consider bringing in Mohammad Shami for this encounter in place of Shardul Thakur.
Both the teams have problems to solve, and India has good problems to solve, which is why we are tilted towards believing it is India’s game to win. The surface is new and is going to be a belter however, batting becomes much easier under the lights so bowling first is a very good option.
Pure Cricket Advise: Bowl first and restrict to under 250!
- Sairam, Team Pure Cricket
-------------------------------------
Pics: Internet
No comments:
Post a Comment