The highly awaited match between India and Pakistan is set to be played on 23rd October,22 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Rohit Sharma led Indian team will aim to win their first title since the inaugural triumph under MS Dhoni back in 2007. While Babar Azam led Pakistan team would try to repeat the heroics of the 2009 ICC T20 World Cup.
The last time the two teams met at the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup, Pakistan defeated India by 10 wickets in their Super 12 match in Dubai to register their first-ever win against their arch-rival in World Cups.
Team Analysis
The presence of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohl, and Surya Kumar Yadav at the top and middle order, Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik at the lower order makes team India one of the strongest batting units in the T20 World Cup . Considering the recent form of Surya Kumar Yadav he might be the X-Factor for team in the big game.
With the Absence of Jasprit Bumrah, the death bowling is a big concern for the man in blue.
On the other hand, Pakistan have an excellent bowling attack, probably only next to Australia at the moment considering the Australian Conditions. They were sweating over the fitness of Shaheen Afridi, but he proved that he isn’t going anywhere with an outstanding spell against Afghanistan and England in the warmup games. Pakistan’s major concern is their batting unit and their openers need to be a bit aggressive for them to post a competitive total on the board. It will once again come down to how Pakistan bowlers restrict Indian batsmen.
Predicted Playing XI
India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel/Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh
Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan, Shan Masood/Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Asif Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Shah Afridi
Weather Report
With the Bureau of Meteorology predicting “High (80%) chance of showers, most likely in the evening. Winds southerly 15 to 25 km/h turning southeasterly during the evening.” The highly charged atmosphere of India vs Pakistan match may get spoiled by the rainy weather at Melbourne.
The data of weather report was collected from: http://www.bom.gov.au/